As we celebrate Black History Month together, we are presented with an amazing opportunity to look forward to the future.
We can rally around the mission of seeking unity, equity, and racial reconciliation. This is the mission of Latasha Morrison, founder of the Be the Bridge (BtB) organization and author of a book with the same name. She is passionate about educating, equipping, and empowering people to enter into brave spaces through relationship, conversation, and empathy. Her work is the stuff of legacy making.
I first met Latasha at a large conference in Dallas. She spoke with such conviction about our responsibility to become aware of our culture and to decide to be part of the solution to racism. Over the years, I have followed her journey as a leader in this arena and have found myself in awe of the immense ripple effect her teaching has had—especially in our military community.
In a recent interview with Latasha, I was able to hear her heart for serving others, building community, and equipping others to do the hard and restorative work of reconciliation. Here’s what she had to say.
Q. Tell me about who you are and how you started BtB.
A. “I am the founder and president of an organization called Be the Bridge. I speak, write, and serve as a consultant for organizations. I also had the joy of writing a book that hit the New York Best Sellers list, called “Be the Bridge.” Really, this work started from my own life experiences. In 2014, I began having conversations with a diverse group of people and we found that we did not understand each other. We were approaching the issue of racism from two different angles. We lacked a shared language, or common memory. We ended up sharing our history, our stories. We built community in order to know one another better and reach understanding. Out of this, our discussion guide was born.”
Q. Tell me about some of the BtB resources.
A. “Our mission is to lead and empower people toward racial healing. We do that through equipping and educating people, helping them to understand glossary terms, key terminology, and history. We create an on-ramp to a very complex discussion. The first resource is our Be the Bridge 101 program, which can be found on our website. This online training gives an introduction to the conversation around racial reconciliation through curated content—articles, videos, and training. It helps participants to understand who we are and how we can approach the task offering healing together. Another resource we have is the BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) Community online. We come together to share our stories and histories. We sometimes find ourselves playing the “Oppression Olympics,” and this group allows us to learn about one another, walking toward greater understanding together. We also have several other resources online for youth ages, training intensives, our BtB podcast, and our Be the Bridge Groups.”
Q. Walk me through a typical Be the Bridge Group. What is it and how does it work?
A. “The Be the Bridge groups are really one of the starting points in the conversation around racial healing. We do recommend walking through the BtB 101 course and visiting our Facebook group before joining a BtB group, but these groups are made up of people who have become aware of the issue of racism and want to be an intentional part of the solution. These people gather together to build relationships, share stories, and create community. They walk through a guided discussion around superiority, marginalization, and disenfranchisement. We have over 2,000 groups that gather across the country, and even several global groups.”
Q. What is the big vision? What do you hope the impact of Be the Bridge will be?
A. “We want people to share in proximity. Not proximity to each other. It isn’t about just being in a room together with someone who is different and it isn’t simply about diversity. It is about proximity to story, to history, proximity to vulnerability, to empathy. We want people at Be the Bridge to experience empowerment. It is empowering for people to share their stories and it is just as empowering for others to hear them. People of color are not a monolith, and we need to understand each other in order to move forward together. We cannot love one another when we do not know one another.”
When I think about the impact Latasha’s work will continue to have, inside and out of the military community, I am moved. She is fearlessly leading the way in having brave conversations, opening vulnerable spaces, and offering healing around racial unity and reconciliation. Certainly, we should all strive to make ourselves aware, take responsibility for our own education surrounding this very important cultural issue, and do the work to make it right.
“Racial reconciliation is a work for all people. If they have breath in their body, they can be part of a larger solution—a work that is for and impacts all people.”
– Latasha Morrison, Be the Bridge Founder
