When you need to learn a skill, what do you do? Let’s say you need to build a raised garden bed, or bake a loaf of bread. You might consult a book, or watch a YouTube video, or you might ask a friend who already has this skill.
It’s unlikely that as an unskilled carpenter or baker you’ll just pull out some 2x4s or flour and start guessing. You won’t rely on your opinions or beliefs or hunches about building and baking. You’ll collect resources first. You’ll ask an expert.
In this time of upheaval, the reasonable habit of asking the experts is a good one to remember. Who are the experts? In the science of viruses and pandemics, the experts are the people who have spent their lives studying virology, public health, and the spread of communicable disease.
In the area of antiracism, the experts are the people who have spent their lives on the receiving end of racist policies and systems.
Even, or especially, when the answers are hard to find, it’s important that we remember that there are people who know more about this than we do. It’s vital to do the work of educating ourselves, and acknowledging the gaps in our own knowledge rather than filling those gaps with guesses.
