CHICAGO (WLS) -- The founder of a Chicago organization says she understands what white people need to do to put words into action in helping the Black community.
Robbin Carroll is founder and president of I Grow Chicago, an organization that has helped Chicago's South Side Englewood neighborhood thrive, not just survive.
She joined ABC 7 Chicago Saturday to talk about her program, Systemic Racism & How the White Community Can Take Action.
Carroll believes that until the white community takes a look within, at how they've suppressed and oppressed, nothing can change.
She's come up with five steps to get started:
1. The first step is it starts with you. Instead of judging, become curious and turn within to your reactions, emotions and held beliefs.
2. Sit in the discomfort and feel it.
3. Educate yourself. Ask questions. Decolonize your history. Sign up for an anti-racism training. Do not ask people of color to hold space for you unpaid. There are plenty of resources already.
4. Make a personal commitment to anti-racism in all areas of your life, where you shop, how you vote, how you donate, what you say and the company you keep.
5. Get in proximity with the problem. Get involved with grassroots work.
BONUS STEP 6: Reconnect every day to this commitment because it is a lifelong journey.
Visit igrowchicago.org for more information.