Activity 2.1 | Anti-racism is not optional: Bodies are political

That is Political

In this first activity of module two, we will begin by turning to the work of Sonya Renee Taylor. 

Sonya's website describes her as:

New York Times best-selling author, world-renowned activist and thought leader on racial justice, body liberation and transformational change, international award winning artist, and founder of The Body Is Not an Apology (TBINAA), a global digital media and education company exploring the intersections of identity, healing, and social justice through the framework of radical self-love. (Taylor, 2020)

As child care managers and leaders, we take up her work to further disrupt the idea that child care centres can be apolitical spaces. We acknowledge the invisibility of white-body supremacy, and we consciously resist perpetuating its narrative. To connect to the ECEBC Code of Ethics (2021), “We take action in the face of racism, oppression, inequity, and discrimination in all its forms”. How we walk, how we think, how we talk, and how we interact are behaviours shaped by culture, and that is political.

Sonya Renee Taylor’s book, The Body is Not an Apology (2021) begins by grounding the theoretical politics of anti-oppressive frameworks by reminding us that we do this work for humans, all of us. Here is an excerpt:

Humans are a varied and divergent bunch, with all manner of beliefs, moral, values, and ideas. We have struggled to find agreement on much of anything over the centuries (just think about how long we argued about gravity and whether the world is shaped like a pizza), but here is a completely noncontroversial statement I think we have consensus around: You, my dear, have a body. And should you desire to remain on this spinning rock, hurling through space, you will need a body to do it. Everything else we know is up for debate. Are we spiritual beings? Depends on whom you ask. Do humans have souls? Been fighting about that since Aristotle likened the souls of fetuses to those of vegetables. But bodies—yup, we got those. And given this widely-agreed upon reality, it seems to me if ever there were a place where the practice of radical love could be a transformative force, the body ought to be that location.

When we speak of the ills of the world—violence, poverty, injustice—we are not speaking conceptually; we are talking about things that happen to bodies. When we say millions around the world are impacted by the global epidemic of famine, what we are saying is that millions of humans are experiencing the physical deterioration of muscle and other tissue due to the lack of nutrients in their bodies. Injustice is an opaque word until we are willing to discuss its material reality…Racism, sexism, ableism, homo- and transphobia, ageism, fatphobia are algorithms created by humans’ struggle to make peace with the body. A radical self-love world is a world free from the systems of oppression that make it difficult and sometimes deadly to live in our bodies.

A radical self-love world is a world that works for every body. Creating such a world is an inside-out job. How we value and honor our own bodies impacts how we value and honor the bodies of others. Our own radical self-love reconnection is the blueprint for what author Charles Eisenstein calls The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible. It is through our own transformed relationship with our bodies that we become champions for other bodies on our planet. As we awaken to our indoctrinated body shame, we feel inspired to awaken others and to interrupt the systems that perpetuate body shame and oppression against all bodies. This is a whisper we keep hearing; it is saying we must build in us what we want to see built in the world”. (pp. 4-5)

Watch Sonya's TEDx Talk (2015), and reflect on how radical self-love challenges dominant narratives in your leadership practice. 

In your journal, consider how your relationship with your own body and your awareness of how bodies are treated differently in society might shape the way you lead, make decisions, and create inclusive spaces in early learning settings. 

What is one small yet meaningful shift you could make in your daily practice to centre dignity, belonging, and justice for every body? 

References

Taylor, S. R. (2015, October). BODIES AS RESISTANCE: Claiming the political act of being oneself [Video]. TEDx Talks. 

Taylor, S. R. (2021). The body is not an apology: The power of radical self-love (2nd ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Radical Self-Love as Leadership

Radical self-love as leadership? Yes.

We have to recognize how systems of oppression are detrimental to us all. Social justice is not saviourism, it is not a pathway for “saving” anyone. Rather, it is a commitment to dismantling structures built on scarcity, built on domination, and built on the disconnection from the heart and the mind. It is a commitment to unearthing our humanity. As Murri artist, activist, and academic Lilla Watson writes, “If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together” (United Nations, 2024, p. 112).

Child care managers and leaders committed to this work will recognize that, like radical self-love, leadership is an inside-out job. Scholars and activists writing about social justice in the 21st century direct us back to ourselves, toward our ways of knowing and being beyond our social conditioning. This is anti-colonial and seeks to course-correct our ideas of “progress”.

Listen to Sonya Renee Taylor's Podcast on Radical Self Love and record your thoughts in your journal. 

Reference

Pillow, H. (2020, October 7). Episode 33: Sonya Renee Taylor on Radical Self Love (Episode 33). In Become a Good Ancestor: With Layla F. Saad. http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast/ep033-sonya-taylor

A Toolbox of Literature

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) created an American resource about a teacher practicing anti-racism in a kindergarten classroom. 

While the demographic is unique from the scope of early childhood educators, child care managers, and leaders in British Columbia, it presents honest reflections that confront both the educator's and families' fears.

Within the article, the teacher shares her experiences, conversations with families, and the tools she used to respond.

Spend time reading the article and visiting the links in the “Stocking Your Library with Equitable and Inclusive Children’s Titles” section.    

Audre Lorde, intersectional feminist, professor, and advocate famously wrote, “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House” (Catalyst Project, 2013). To create new futures, we need new tools, and new ways of building. We have explored radical self-love as leadership, as a way of insisting that we begin the work of healing within ourselves. 

As Sonya Renee Taylor offers in Layla Saad’s (Pillow, 2020) podcast:

"Radical self-love, as far as I’m concerned, first and foremost is a political framework. And so, I invite people, when they think about this idea of radical self-love, to see their relationship with themselves as a personal relationship and as a deeply political relationship and so our transformation is a political necessity." (8:43)

To move some of this knowledge from theory to practice, in this section of the course, you will develop a toolbox of children’s literature, aimed at supporting children to see themselves, to see and have the opportunity to talk about differences, and to support educators to “strive toward an anti-racist, anti-oppressive framework from which to base all practice” (Early Childhood Educators of British Columbia, 2021). 

As a child care manager and leader, begin with a clear statement of intention for early childhood educators and families. Explain why you are creating this list.

Include the title of each children’s book, and a brief summary about what the book is about. Think critically about why you are selecting particular books: 

• What messages do you want to convey? 
• What conversations do you hope to spark?

References

Cole, K. & Verwayne, D. (2018, May). Becoming Upended: Teaching and Learning about Race and Racism with Young Children and Their Families. National Association for the Education of Young Children. https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/may2018/teaching-learning-race-and-racism

Pillow, H. (2020, October 7). Episode 33: Sonya Renee Taylor on Radical Self Love (Episode 33). In Become a Good Ancestor: With Layla F. Saad. http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast/ep033-sonya-taylor