PERSPECTIVE These daily practices are suggestions. Do what feels right to you. Go as far as you are capable. Remember, sometimes rest is the best practice. Oh… and you might want a journal or notebook for these practices. MONDAY
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To broaden our perspective requires a willingness to learn more about the world, leave our comfort zones, and have new experiences. Believe it or not, the parents who protested school integration, busing and multiracial textbooks in the 60s and 70s, weren’t all evil, but they did all have a fixed mindset on how they perceived the world. Their opinions were informed by a very myopic lens that only allowed resources and stories that affirmed their experiences. Their fear reinterpreted what was “new” and “different” into “dangerous” and “threatening”. They couldn’t see past their own political and cultural orientation.
Sometimes, we take on the mantle of someone else’s experience withoutchanging our own perspective. When we do this we can end up having less empathy than we previously had. For example, a white friend might be truly empathetic to the death of a Black friend’s child at the hands of police officers, but completely unable to process the incident as racial. Why? Empathy doesn’t change our perspective. Empathy is how we feel things, but perspective is how we see things. The more willing we are to change our perspective, the better our perception becomes. So if the white friend had a greater perspective—a larger lens for viewing her Black friend’s cultural experience—she would also be able to see and understand the depth of her friend’s grief. Without a broad perspective, empathy loses its salt, fades and forgets. A growing perspective helps us to acknowledge, remember, and go the distance. Below is a list of suggestions for increasing our understanding of the world. Please pick two to try each week. You can even jot them down on the calendar above. 1. Read an op-ed column written by someone with a different political point-of-view. 2. Listen to a song from a different genre than you usually listen to. Search for the lyrics 3. Watch a foreign language film with subtitles. 4. Check out a documentary or docu-series. Here are some suggestions… HISTORY I Am Not Your Negro How to Survive a Plague
Soul of Summer ReMastered Track 2: Tricky Dick and The Man In Black MLK/FBI The Last Days SOCIAL JUSTICE 13th Athlete A Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution Disclosure The Confession Tapes Harlan County USA ART& CULTURE Cutie and the Boxer 20 Feet From Stardom Jiro Dreams of Sushi The First Monday in May Life, Animated The Booksellers ICONS & CELEBRITY Won’t You Be My Neighbor? Roger Ebert – Life Itself? What Happened, Miss Simone? Tina American Experience: Billy Graham Sinatra: All or Nothing at All
NATURE Blackfish My Octopus Teacher Free Solo Big Little Farm Samsara Jane SOCIAL COMMENTARY Uncertain The Up Series Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie Dark Girls Home Minding the Gap 5. Join a new community, either in real time or on social media. 6. Try a new restaurant specializing in a cuisine you’ve never had before. 7. Listen to a podcast with a different ethnic or cultural perspective that challenges your point-of-view or raises your awareness. As you listen, find at least two commonalities between your experience and theirs. 8. Instead of jumping to conclusions, ask inquiring and clarifying questions. 9. Try these journal prompts: what are your first thoughts when you meet another person? What about them do you first notice? What impression do you feel you make when you meet someone? What identities do you rarely meet or have never met?
10. Find a silver-lining to a negative situation. 11. Consider the source of any new information or ideas. Is it reliable? What is the source’s intention? Do a variety of different identities use this source for information, or only a certain identity? 12. Sign up for a class that you normally wouldn't have considered. 13. Plan an excursion to someplace completely new to you. This could be to a coffee shop in another part of town or an entirely different country. 14. Read origin stories of a different culture, religion or denomination. 15. Get a full night of sleep. Things often look different when we’re well-rested. 16. Try meditation or prayer for openness. 17. Change one thing about your daily routine. 18. Go grocery shopping in a different neighborhood. 19. Find something beautiful in something considered conventionally unattractive. Note* something not someone. We’re all beautiful. 20. Look for common ground in places of division and discord. Having a common ground shifts our perspective of our “enemies”. For example, whether parents picketed for school segregation or pushed for school integration, both shared the common ground of being concerned for their children’s education and well-being.