Sarah Guerrero
Sarah Guerrero is a freelance writer and contributor to Slow North. She has a degree in international business from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, and writes about sustainable business practices and ethical living.
Journal Prompts to Help You Engage Self-Reflection & Check Your White Privilege
Note from Slow North: As a company, we’ve been reflecting on what we can do right now to better represent, serve, and support our Black community.
Black lives matter.
We pledge to be a part of the solution by continually doing the work of building an anti-racist business and community where everyone feels safe and valued. To aid in working towards that goal, we’re offering these journal prompts to help you engage in self-reflection on a deeper level. We hope you find them helpful!
These journal prompts are small, simple ways to go deeper with what you’re learning about racism and how it’s not enough to simply not be a racist. These questions will encourage you to face difficult questions with hope and perseverance--but they are not the end of your work. You must couple these questions and self-reflection with education! To help, we’ve included additional resources at the bottom of this page.
- White supremacy doesn’t just superiorize the dominant (white) culture--it normalizes it. Can you think of ways that you’ve participated in normalizing white culture, at the expense of other cultures?
- How has your desire for ease or comfort kept you from taking action? Write also about instances when you didn’t let those things keep you from acting—how did you feel then? Was it as bad as you thought?
- It’s not enough to simply not be a racist; we must also be committed to antiracism, which (in part) means rooting out places of white supremacy in our thinking. Can you think of times when you didn’t speak up, when you should have? Who was hurt or impacted by your actions?
- Can you think of ways you’ve unwittingly made someone feel “out” or “other”? Write about how you might have done that differently, or how you’d like to do it differently next time.
- How do you deal with constructive criticism or feedback? Does it affirm your fears, or do you take the feedback and use it to grow? How can you begin to grow in this area?
- How can you make regular space for self reflection on antiracism? Make a plan and a schedule; hold yourself accountable to somebody else also working towards antiracism.
- Think of some of the most influential people in your life—how did their views (or lack of spoken views) impact your life? Think of the people you will influence—how do you want them to be impacted because of the antiracism work you’re doing now?
- Think about how you will keep going when it gets hard. What can you do now to help you run this marathon and stay the cause? How can you cultivate a culture of hope in your life?
- Who are the people you look to and learn from right now? Who do you follow on Instagram? Are they white? Or are they people of color, from all kinds of backgrounds? How can you fix this, if it needs to be fixed?
- We are often trying to be seen as competent or as authorities, but in the work of antiracism, you will need to learn for years. How can you cultivate a spirit of teachability and humility? How can you walk in love instead of judgement, so that you can learn and not become defensive?
Additional Resources:
Anti-racism resources (great for parents)
Your Kids Aren’t Too Young to Learn About Race: Resource Roundup
The Next Question Video Series on Race and Justice
An Antiracist Reading List from The New York Times and Ibram X. Kendi
