 |
Responses
If you've been to a production of White Lies we invite
you to share your responses with us. You can email us at contact@whitelies.ws
Hello Annie
You don't know me. I was an Organizational
Leadership Student over the past 4 years and finally graduated
last weekend. I saw your play one Saturday following class because
a wonderful teacher, Eileen Conlon, suggested that it might be pertinent
to our course work.
It was more than pertinent. Seeing White Lies was the
singular pivotal experience of my leadership education. It helped
me to integrate the many new ideas and insights gained in school
with my own values.
The open sharing of your struggle with white supremacy, or self-supremacy,
or people-who-have-never-wanted-for-anything supremacy, is a generous
and courageous thing. It certainly has influenced and healed in
ways you may never know. Your circle of influence has grown to include
my community, my family, and my inner-self. As a result of my experiencing
your performance and the personal growth that followed, the coalition where I work has
enhanced its leadership and grown to recognize the immeasurable value of leadership from
all sectors of our small homogenous community. Our coalition is
no longer a group of well-intentioned do-gooders reinforcing the
powerlessness of those we serve. Leadership potential from a much
more diverse cross-section of our community is being sought and nurtured.
In our community, trust is beginning to surface. This has been prompted
or at least accelerated as a result of exposure to your performance.
It will never cease to amaze me how blind we all are to our own
foibles. Then, with one accurate idea, shared
at the right moment, a person's whole self perception can topple.
White Lies provided me with that well-timed idea. Prior to White
Lies I would have said that white supremacy was an evil thing, far
removed from my own reality. I was certainly not capable of embodying
such an ugly thing. I am not a supremacist, a bigot. I am a nurse,
a leader, a helper. I have spent my life trying to help the ill,
injured, unfortunate, uneducated, followers I have encountered.
As you performed the play it became apparant that my entire
belief system and self image were built on the idea that I am more
special than others. I have been defining reality by the differences
between others (wrong, imperfect, unable) and me (right, nearly
perfect, capable). It was an excruciating revelation. I wept, not
only during the performance, but for weeks after, full of remorse
for having self-righteously "helped" people to feel more
helpless and less connected to the community.
Experiencing White
Lies has caused me to rethink my approach to everything from
friendship, parenthood, religious convictions, to the relationship
with my community, and approach to nursing. I am now beginning to
see the people I serve as potential leaders rather than weak individuals
in need of being led. Now, six months after, I am only beginning
to recognize and accept my limitations. Thank you for the rare glimpse
of truth and the opportunity to grow.
|
|
