social change – Dr. Craig Elliott

Fear and Courage

Photo by dry head under Creative Commons license

Fear is a powerful thing.

My eight-year-old son told me the other day that “taking a chance was scary.”

Fear prevents you from showing up, from being vulnerable, from taking a risk, and being who you are. Fear can protect you in times of crisis, but often times we conflate emotional discomfort into danger, and this is where we get ourselves into trouble.

Fear holds me back from making this post, from truly answering myself when I ask what I really need, and from sitting in the silence. I want to be perfect and infallible. This is the message of a capitalist, patriarchal society.

Photo by Alexsi Aaltonen

My work in the social justice movement is with organizations who want to change, want to be more inclusive, who want to create learning environments where people can thrive and feel respected. But that really means, I work with a lot of people. While I am not alone in this work (there are many brilliant and gifted colleagues), my place in these efforts is with people who are just like me: white people of all genders, orientations, and socio-economic classes who want to uproot the system of -isms and oppression (racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, ableism, etc.) in their daily lives and in their organizations, but don’t know how to do it. I help them find their possibilities of change.

Dr. Craig Elliott

Justice is a verb

Tag Archives: social change