Running Head: 21 Day Challenge Journal 1

Paige Barrow

21 Day Challenge Journal

Chesapeake College

December 7th, 2021

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When I first began the 21-day challenge by Debbie Irving I was uncertain what the

purpose was. I was unaware of my surroundings, my subconscious bias, and the privileges I

have because of the white color of my skin. After completing this journey, I find myself noticing

everything. This challenge has truly opened my eyes to the way I treat people, it opened my

eyes to perspective and it opened my eyes to the way I can make a difference. If one is to

ignore their white privilege and refuse to reflect and change, they are simply a part of the

problem. The United States needs change to be more equitable for everyone and disregarding

the need for that change is unacceptable.

One of the first things I discovered when I started this journey was my lack of

recognition for my whiteness. I found myself thinking, well yeah my skin is white, but what does

that mean? I found myself unable to recognize the privileges that I possess that may not seem

like a big deal but are not as easy for other people in society. After reading McIntosh’s, White

Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack, I slowly took in all of the things I took for granted.

Such as the ability to go somewhere knowing it will be predominantly white people. Another

example stated by McIntosh, “Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin

color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability” (McIntosh, Page 2). It is

obvious to me that even without thinking of yourself as a racist, these are the types of things

we find ourselves subconsciously doing, judging people based on the color of their skin.

Bringing awareness to privilege is understanding how individuals experience privilege

differently.
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Understanding your privilege is the initial step to becoming more racially equitable.

However, there are a lot more things we need to pay more attention to. For starters, how

systemic racism is still present. Just a few examples of where racism is still present are within

housing developments, within police departments, and within educational systems. Back in the

Civil War era, communities were segregated by blacks and whites. While people may believe

that this is no longer an issue, it still very much is. One cannot simply drive past a

predominantly black segregated neighborhood and not notice how poor they are. Next, we

have the police who were originally started to capture African American slaves. Regardless of

whether we have police or not, they do not stop violence, they respond to it. It is all over the

media today how police typically respond to violence with more violence. Also, racism is

present in our education systems, which is incredibly disheartening to witness that it is present

in disciplinary forms. Teachers are more likely to send African American students out of the

classroom with referrals or contact school police to take them away. African Americans are

simply trying to survive in a system that was never intended for them to be successful.

One of the first issues I noticed is that money is the root cause of issues in systemically

segregated neighborhoods and police departments. I never quite understood why somebody

would want to defund the police until now. Billions of dollars are spent on the police

department that could be spent putting back into the communities to make them flourish.

There is a lot of opportunity present for our funds going to help people have better housing,

access to health care, access to a better educational system, and access to food. There is no

reason that people should be deprived of the necessities of life. Maybe, by placing more

money into our communities and our people, this will help to address some crimes.
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Next, we have issues in our educational systems. One of the most important things I

think we can do here is to make educators more aware, but also parents. Change needs to

happen in our schools by the way we discipline and teach. I feel there is a lot of power in giving

students a voice. Rather than arguing back with students, immediately making referral slips, or

phoning the school police, we need to understand our students and allow them the opportunity

to speak up. Policing in our school systems is intimidating, we use fear and entitlement to

capitalize in our classrooms. Staying humble and enabling students to discuss and collaborate

will create a better racially equal classroom atmosphere. During my 21 days, I came across a

few articles where teachers were introducing race theory into classrooms and were shamed by

parents who wanted them fired. These parents argued against racism, with racism, slandering

teachers and schools with racial slurs. The purpose of teaching things such as the BLM

movement is to bring to light how divided our nation is, to expose people to the racism they

don’t feel exists, to show them that we need to rise and do better. We all need to be more

honest with ourselves and confront our biases. What people need to do is understand what

they are so fearful of and think about if their children are truly in harm’s way by learning and

understanding things like systemic racism.

Perhaps one of the most important things that we have to fight racism and become

more equitable is our voices. Oftentimes, people ignore any voice that makes them feel

uncomfortable, invalidating a person’s thoughts that don’t agree with our own. Shutting down

another person’s voice is a way of asserting power and dominance. If people are more

comfortable speaking up there is a great deal of truth that will come out. Speaking up is where

people’s voices are heard, movements happen, and change can happen.
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Furthermore, what I have discovered is that I still have a lot to learn. One of the best

ways for me to become self-aware is by reflecting on my previous behavior and ways I can

improve. I have already been noticing and recognizing my bias behaviors and working to better

my habits every day. I catch myself not only more consciously aware of my bias actions but also

of others. I feel the need to educate people, help them understand their actions, and

encourage them to take the 21-day challenge themselves. I realize now that if I ignore the white

color of my skin, I do not bring awareness to the privileges I have because of it. Understanding

this helps me to understand other people and overall become a better human being in society. I

encourage myself and others to interact more with people that are different than themselves.

How we interact with one another shows how we value people and enables us to take action

and to help bring awareness to bias and what we can learn from it. Part of the change is going

to be making more people aware. To have a truly equitable society, there needs to be equal

opportunity for advancement and fair treatment for all, but to do this we need to eliminate the

barriers that prevent people from understanding the causes of inequalities within our society

.
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Resources

Irving, D. (n.d.). 21-day racial equity habit building challenge©. 21-Day Racial Equity Habit
Building Challenge. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from
https://www.debbyirving.com/21-day-challenge-archive2021/.

McIntosh, P. (n.d.). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack' and 'some notes for
facilitators'. National SEED Project. Retrieved November 26, 2021, from
https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-
knapsack.