Insanity: doing the same thing and expecting different results

by Ashleigh Gordon 

This has been a challenging week, few months, year, or 400+ years depending on your vantage point. As scores of organizations release solidarity statements, I can’t help but wonder:  

If as a sector we can fundamentally shift our thinking and approach to creating, sharing, collaborating, managing, and engaging with art during a few months of a young health pandemic, why is it so difficult to do the same during a centuries-long racial one? 

There was certainly no blueprint, no “How to Do Arts During a Pandemic” textbook. Yet the sector is rising to the challenge and doing so creatively and quickly. Dollars, maintaining relevance, and fighting for one’s survival undoubtedly have something to do with this phenomenon. On the ironic side, there have been, and continue to be centers, institutions, resources, facilitation guides, and countless case studies not only highlighting the inequities under our noses, but providing how-to solutions (read: doing the hard thinking for you) with little tangible results. Devaluing the need to invest dollars in equity work, upholding a narrow definition of what culture is relevant and for whom, and choosing to not fight for the survival of cultures, stories, histories, and voices that continue to be marginalized to the point of near erasure has something to do with this phenomenon.

In response to the outpouring of solidarity statements and uptick in Black Lives Matter hashtags, I’m reminded of a statement by Nikki Giovanni, whose Poem for Nina is the inspiration behind our organizational name and whose birthday is also today: 

“Mistakes are a fact of life: It is the response to the error that counts.”

If you’re one of the countless organizations that have acknowledged your mistakes, great. There are and will be more mistakes, so keep looking. If you have not acknowledged your mistakes, dig deeper because they’re there. But beyond a well-penned “We see you Black community” statement, we need to actually do better and do differently. Otherwise, by definition, we are insane to think anything new will actually result.

Some thoughts on how to do better and do differently, now and always:

1. Remove colonial language in all aspects of your institution because language matters. 

• No more Board of “Overseers,” a term dating back to the Antebellum South. 
• No more promotion of a singular, dominate language (i.e. English), and instead embrace the use of Haitian Creole, Ebonics, Patois, Arabic, Swahili, Yoruba, etc, etc, etc, in marketing and communication, librettos, and other artistic creations. 
• No more “doing outreach,” a term synonymous with a missionary mindset of bringing one’s ideas and values to a community not your own. Embrace “community collaborations” or some other language evocative of a two-way cultural exchange with mutually beneficial engagement and deep listening/learning. 
• And while on the subject of language, add concrete language to your mission, vision, and organizational core values that centers racial equity into your daily, short-term, and most importantly long-term goals.

 
2. Remove a dominant white culture value system because perspective matters.

• In lieu of a monolithic, consolidated approach to power, governance, and decision-making, create diverse community-informed/led teams, review panels, think tanks, accountability task forces, etc ... Compensate them fairly for their time, talent and wisdom. 
• Curiosity is key. Learn the ideologies of Afrocentric and Latinx-centric practices. What can you learn and even adopt from a different vantage point?
• Keep the conscious and unconscious effects of cultural representation at the forefront of every marketing, communication, programming, staffing, and general operating decision.
• And if you are entertaining the thought to mine a culture experiencing pain for their lived experiences, valuing the gem of a story, a topical selling point, or a glossy headline over the persons living out this reality, think again. Value the people. Center them in every aspect of all decision-making from ideation to artistic fruition. Pay up and pay out to support their lives. Place value on the very people for whose lived experiences, realities, and histories you would have no libretto, new world premiere creation, or hashtagable marketing campaign.

As we are all well aware of and feeling, this is undoubtedly a challenging situation. The mistakes are known, the errors documented with solutions named and yet to be realized. All that is missing? 

​Your motivation and action. 

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​​~ Ashleigh Gordon
Artistic and Executive Director
Castle of our Skins

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