A Recovering Racist

In Glennon Doyle's "Untamed," she suggests that if you're white in America, you are one of three kinds of racists, an outward, disgusting one, a blind racist, blissfully unaware of the poison that lives in the very air that you breathe, or a recovering racist, mindful of the contagion and actively detoxing. 

I am a recovering racist and if you’re a white American in travel, you are too. It’s not just here, discrimination and racism is a global pandemic. But only when acknowledging this will you truly begin to see the long hard road of mending and making amends that lies before us… 

Byron Katie once said, “If you think the cause of your problem is “out there,” you’ll try to solve it from the outside. Take the shortcut: Solve it from WITHIN!”

I believe in transformation. That it is possible and that it happens from the inside out – and that it is hard! I also believe transformational travel is worth it, for few other forces have such potential for personal growth, transcending divisions within and among ourselves. We believe personal intention and transformation is critical and an under-appreciated link in overcoming racial, and ethnic inequality.

A more conscious tourism can accelerate the forces of change and I am calling on my colleagues around the world to rise up by transforming ourselves, transforming your businesses, so we can transform tourism, and create impactful societal change.

Real progress requires an individual and collective process of transformation, one that involves intention-setting, deep reflection, meaning-making, and taking inspired action. I often wonder who is brave enough to turn inward, look in the mirror, turn your insides-out, and actively seek opportunities to stretch, learn, and grow. Are you ready to climb the mountains within.

As this wave of change rolls on, it will inevitably lose momentum, the demonstrations will wane, the media will move on to another Trump debacle, and social media will slowly drift back into egotistical nonsense and creepy stalking, (I'm guilty of both). And sadly, many of us will have failed to seize this unique moment in time to cultivate values, virtues, and universal truths of love, compassion, gratitude, and acceptance. In this space of liminality, we find ourselves in now, lies the opportunity to adopt new mindsets, behaviors, and practices that foster deep healing, renewal, and transformation for you and your business. The fire that burns hot today, may not burn so hot tomorrow, so remember what this feels like, what it is like to feel alive in moments of an uprising and call on this primal emotion to spur on the inner work that must be done to shed our conditioned racism and emerge anew. 

Maybe my own ‘recovery’ story will resonate with you, challenge you? Anyone who knows me knows that I am filled with love, this is true, and that I don't harbor any hate, prejudice, biases, or racism, regretfully, this is not true. Since childhood, my hippie, fun-loving parents have guided me spiritually,  encouraged me to look within, challenged me to ask the big questions, always pushing me to dig deeper, ask myself "how I was really feeling.” It worked, I have dedicated my life to helping others travel meaningfully, between two worlds, the inner and outer world, on a quest for connection, meaning, and growth.  But sadly, it has only been the last couple of years that I started to uncover my own internalized racism, it was hidden within, behind a common story that many of us tell ourselves, that I am not a racist, not me. In our work at the Transformational Travel Council, we know that you can’t really know self without examining your perception, biases, and attitudes toward others. That deep dive led me to own up to my white-washed male privilege and perspectives, and realizing that my brain had been conditioned to be racist. Since then, I’ve been in the process of unlearning my racism and it has been a formidable road to recovery. I've been shocked by my mind's nasty habit, the unregulated firing of well-worn neural pathways when encountering or thinking about people of color. It’s crazy, before I have even a half a second to gather my thoughts and move from my head to my heart-center, I judge, I assume, I fear, I get anxious, I am uncomfortable … Sound familiar? That is racism, and it comes from living in a profoundly fear-based, separated society. I actually think, for a split second, that I am better, smarter, somehow more equipped than people of color. What a  frightening and deeply disappointing recognition to have to unpack! How did I get here, I wonder, and how did we get caught up in this web of fear, ignorance, and separation?  Deep down, I know that is not me, it’s not who I was when I was born, it’s not my soul, same goes for you, but does that matter? I can thank a barrage of blatant and subliminal prompting that came with living in my privileged white-American culture, consuming white-American media. I am embarrassed, disappointed, and I apologize for allowing my psyche to be hijacked.

I am the blonde-haired, blue-eyed, white-skinned, privileged product of Americana that needs to do the most work and I am challenging my white friends in tourism to own up as well, be introspective, unlearn, speak up, take action, stand with people of color, activate your friends, learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, have conversations that matter, challenge your friends, families, and clients to look within, help them expose the racist that hides behind the curtain. And if you're not going to acknowledge it, if you're not unlearning, if you’re not calling on the power of travel to end xenophobia, prejudice, biases, inequities, and racism, and dedicating your work to healing, bridging, and unifying, then you’re being complicit. 

As lightworkers, bridge-builders, personally and professionally, those of us in tourism should be entering the race conversations with our friends, family, and our clients and our guests, not because it is easy, but because it is hard, and as ambassadors of travel, conduits to consciousness, it is our duty. We’re the ones responsible for inspiring and facilitating cross-cultural connections. The sooner we can uncover the sooner we begin to recover. It is time for us, as changemakers, to be the change, not just guide tourism forward, but use tourism as a way to bring humanity forward. This time of dramatic social progress creates challenge and peril as well as the windows and energy for an equally dramatic response. Humanity has been stuck in an old story in a mass separation that has us all yearning for more, seeking change.  Yet the power dynamics we’re ensnared in has left us in desperate need of holistic and systemic change. Transformational travel inherently shakes the foundation of deep systems and beliefs revealing new perspectives and possibilities.

Action is needed now, but this a marathon, not a sprint and I am calling on white travel leaders to take-inspired, meaningful, and sustained action that sticks. 

Such as ...

Now if you've read this far, I want to say thank you. My voice doesn't matter more than anyone else, my audience is smaller than some, bigger than others, the important thing is that I am speaking my truth, I am being real, and I am taking-action. Our industry can and will lead this {r}evolution because that is who we are, our work has always been based on breaking through divisions within us and between us. Transformational travel provides space and grace for a deep analysis of self, one that initiates a process of healing, renewal, and unification. As a powerful agent of change, as an excavator of understanding, a ray of hope, a light in the dark, travel can become more conscious and regenerative by guiding travelers in their quest for connection, meaning, and belonging. 

If travel doesn’t evolve, we lose the understanding that we’re all in this together, and right now, we’re not. Start coaching travelers on the art of inner and outer exploration, that is where the emotions and the power of travel are alive, that is where love, empathy, and acceptance lives. We’re on the verge of awakening and we need to rise to the day and use travel to create a more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. 

- Jake Haupert 

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