Feelings are no reliable guide to action. Good feelings are to be enjoyed - but what to do with our "bad" feelings?

For us whites, the most likely feelings to be interfering with the effectiveness of our anti-racism work are precisely those feelings which all whites feel - because we're white. One such "whiteness feeling" - an emotional residue from the past - is isolation. The dominant white society has enshrined isolation in all of our social institutions and structures. We have made isolation the norm.

This is reflected in our education system where we encourage young ones to compete, in our health and mental health systems, in our judicial and parliamentary systems, but most of all in our economic system.

Old "bad" feelings can be gotten rid of.

We have natural repair kit. We can completely recover from old distress feelings.

If we have a listener who is thoughtful, attentive, generous and open-hearted to us, we can gain fresh perspective on our old "blocks" by means of:

• talking as we notice that they're listening to us
• laughing our way through any embarrassment and nervousness
• crying if it's old griefs or feelings of sadness or loss that's blocking us from thinking or acting as we wish
• shaking or sweating if it's old fears and
• yawning if it's old exhaustions.

Our listener needs to not impede the processes of our natural repair kit. Due to the universal and systematic rigid conditioning against it, this will probably be the hardest part of your efforts to get this to work for yourself.

Our listener needs to not be scared of letting us use our natural repair kit. Laughing, crying, sweating, shaking - if they happen - are simply part of the "kit". They're natural. Any unease which may be felt about them arises from our having been stopped from allowing them to operate fully when we were very small (usually by well-meaning parents) - and from then on by a society-wide structure of interweaving oppressions reflecting and reinforcing that early interference. ("There, there, be a good girl", "Look at the pretty birdie", "Your sister's a good girl, see she isn't crying" and, even earlier, getting fed unnecessarily or given things to suck.)

Our listener needs to not be scared to let us have our feelings.

Racism is big part of the society-wide structure of interweaving oppressions. Class oppressions and gender oppressions (women's and men's oppression) are some others; "mental health" oppression, ageism and adultism also.

As we talk with someone who is able to pay loving, respectful attention to us without interrupting us, if we cry or laugh or yawn or shake or sweat, we can think better about the things we want to do to end racism. As we cry and laugh and yawn, we can plan the elimination of the scourge of racism from our planet. We can reflect on how racism has impacted our own lives and the lives of others. As we do, if we're allowing ourselves to be fully human, we may find ourselves trembling or shaking inwardly with nervousness or feeling fearful. We may find ourselves crying or laughing - or both together. This is natural. We aren't "crazy". There's nothing "wrong" with us. This is just a part of the way we get rid of these old, useless hurts and residual feelings. Afterwards our thinking is sharper and clearer.