POOP IN THE ROOM
During an intensive leadership program that I completed several years ago, I learned about the idea of Poop in the Room.
Poop in the Room is the idea that before we can create positive change from hard situations, we need to surface all of the ugliness that exists beneath, within, and out of view. We need to put it all in the middle of the room. We need to be with it. We need to look at it. We need to sit there in the mess and the stench and the disgust of it all in order to get a sense of what we’re really dealing with.
It’s gross, uncomfortable, and difficult. It’s messy. It forces us to not only look at the heap in the middle of the room, but also, to look deep within ourselves. It can be scary.
Sometimes, when dealing with the Poop in the Room, we say the wrong thing. We get in arguments with others. We place blame about who created this mess in the first place. We feel helpless, hopeless, and unsure of what to do, how to clean it up, or if it will ever go away.
Finally, at some point - which might be hours or days or weeks or even years, after acknowledging that there’s poop in the room and forcing ourselves to be with it, look at it, and work with it, we can begin to think about a path forward. We can start to create from it.
We are, collectively, in the Poop in the Room phase in our country.
Over the past several years, we’ve watched a tremendous amount of poop be surfaced in our country.
We’ve seen underlying hatred and violence brought to the surface in unapologetic and bold new ways.
We’ve grappled with the intersection of guns and mental health and mass shootings.
We’re navigating a global pandemic, which has surfaced all sorts of poop related to how we, as humans, engage with the planet and the resulting impacts; simultaneously it’s surfaced an ugly truth that in our country, even a global pandemic becomes political and divisive.
And, over the course of the past two weeks, we have had an opportunity to be with another massive heap of poop in the room related to how we think about race, systems, structures, and what it means to thrive in our country, and the spectrum of feelings and perspectives about these topics, which we are stumbling our way through, one messy, difficult day at a time.
We are, as a nation, in the Poop in the Room phase.
This phase will not last forever - even if, at this moment, it feels like it might. But it will last until we have surfaced enough of the poop that we can look at it for what it is - and until we are willing to be with, look at, engage with, and get curious about the multiple levels and layers and dimensions poop that have been brought to the surface.
Now, it’s up to us to be willing to be with it, decide to work with it, engage with it, and decide to create a new path forward.
Here are some resources that I’m using, leaning into, reading, and finding helpful as I do my own work, as well as some ways that you can support positive change moving forward.
Being AntiRacist by Angela Y. Davis (article, published via Smithsonian)
Whiteness at Work - free webinar on June 11th - I signed up if anyone would like to join… (thank you Jenny B for the rec)
Real Talk Racial Justice Summit, starting at 9 am today via Facebook Live, hosted by Madison 365 (thank you Alnisa A for sharing)
Antiracism Resources by Crooked Media - fantastic list
Antiracism Resources for White People - another fantastic list
For those of you in Madison who would like to support the small businesses that were damaged (or destroyed) over the course of the last week:
Downtown Madison, WI Small Business Relief Fund - supporting small businesses in Madison that were damaged over the course of the last week. 50% of these businesses are minority owned, 70% are local entrepreneurs, and 75 businesses received some sort of damage.
Fontana Sports: Madison, WI Recovery Fund - Fontana was destroyed by looting and vandalism after being closed for 60 days due to COVID-19. Please see the photos and videos on their GoFundMe page for a glimpse of what occurred.
As always - thank you for reading, and sending much love and light to you as we all navigate this time together.
Sarah
