In case you are wondering where I have been for the past two weeks, I have been active. I might not have been active on this website, but I have been active. Like many of you, I have been dedicating my time to my day job, exercise that is never frequent enough, napping, and honestly doing “nothing.”

When I say “nothing,” I really mean resting; times are tough, and we all need to practice self-care. If you follow this blog regularly, you know that I am no stranger to talking about this topic and recently covered the importance of it in Lunch with Lindsay: Supporting Black Lives Matter and Practicing Self-Care.

In addition to this website, I blog on my other website geared more toward my life as a career coach focused on working with people to nurture themselves, cultivate their talents, and fulfill their purpose. On this other website, I encourage people to Explore with Me.

In my most recent posts for that site, I have interviewed friends on their life’s work. These profiles have included the familiar face (that you see in my Lunch with Lindsay videos) of my friend and former coworker Becky, who is providing access to opportunity as a Spanish teacher; my former roommate Melody, who is planting seeds for empowerment as a social worker; and my colleague and mentor Inés, who is bridging worldviews as a diversity and inclusion professional. Today I asked readers How Will You Use Your Voice? during this critical juncture for our society. You know—all light stuff.

Although I have not written recently on this website, I have posted for Unfiltered Snapshot on my social media (check it out on Instagram and Twitter). If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen the video above that I posted 10 days ago. Becky and I discussed the state of schools during this pandemic and delved into what allyship looks like for us as the movement grows for Black Lives Matter.

As I view the video again, it makes me laugh that we are not any more sure about what the future holds for our lives as educators than we were 10 days ago. As our respective employers plan and strategize with next steps, we know that they are doing their best with the data that is available; like everyone else, they still will have to play everything by ear because virus is the boss in determining next steps.

In the latter half of this video, we revisited what it means for us to be allies in the era of Black Lives Matter. Since the first video Lunch with Lindsay: Processing Racial Injustice in the US During a Pandemic, we have been navigating honest dialogues about what it means to take meaningful action as an ally in this social movement.

For Becky, it means addressing anti-Blackness in the LGBTQ community. For me, it is recognizing that I as a woman of color do experience racism; however, even within the POC community, there exists anti-Blackness too.

I raised the point that it could be so tempting for people from marginalized, minoritized, oppressed, and persecuted communities of varying identities (religious, racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression) to draw parallels between their experiences and those of Black people—but now is really not the time to focus on that. We have to take into account how the communities we occupy have elements of anti-Blackness that we need to overcome.

What identities do you hold? What communities do you occupy? How can you make you address anti-Blackness in your communities?