because nothing is cut and dry.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Racism is white people's issue too

I feel compelled to keep speaking and writing and acting, as a white person -- reminding myself and my white community that the truth is that racism is our issue, the killing of black and brown people of all genders is a community issue for white people too. Simple, fundamental, and yet - so often and easily forgotten. 

 I am trying to combat the urge to use perfectionism to be silent - to endlessly edit and re-edit anything I write; to use time passing or “being too busy” to stall on saying something, no matter how incomplete or imperfect.

 I can’t figure out a nice way to say this, because its not a nice thing: white people must not forget or minimize that it was our people - specifically wealthy white people - who created and maintained these systems of brutalization in order to gain and maintain power. 
Those of us living today, this history is not our personal faults. It bears repeating: this history is not our personal faults. I truly believe that we ourselves would not create this. I don’t believe that as white babies we were born racist, or imperialist, or money-hoarding capitalists. 

As Chris Crass put it, “This is a time for white people to recognize that our irrational fears of Blackness are the result of the logics of white supremacy, which are intended to concentrate power into the hands of the few by creating and maintaining structural violence and inequality.” 

 So its not our fault. And - not “but,” and - it IS the reality. And it IS our responsibility. Now, in the horrific repression in the wake of Mike Brown’s murder, and for the long haul. It is our responsibility. In the wake of 500 years of horrific repression of (particularly poor) black and brown folks in the United States and around the world - ending racism, racist systems, racist ideologies, racist murders (and murders of all kinds)...our people created this shit. My people created this shit. Now I get to be part of changing it. 

We need to proactively connect the dots between Mike Brown’s murder, with the murder of dozens of trans people of color every year, with the bombing currently in Palestine, with the fact that the US government has armed and trained Israel in most of what they know and do, with the fact that the US and other (white-led) imperial governments have armed and trained (one example of 1973 Chilean coup here) most Terrible Violent Things that humans are doing to other humans in the past few centuries. 

 It is not the responsibility of communities that are directly affected by oppression to connect the dots for us or be our educators. We need to be part of diligently and actively understanding and organizing around the interconnections. 

 I bet I have close to 1,000 white Facebook friends. What if we each made sure our 5 closest white people deeply understood and took up the mantle of building an anti-racist world? That would be 5,000 more white people committed to ending racism and violence. And seriously, seriously, we need all of us. Our lives will be better, and the lives of communities of color will be better, when we speak out and act, consistently and boldly, to end racism and violence toward the majority of humanity (which is people of color). What a great world that is going to be.

 More links and analysis about Mike Brown’s murder, and what white people can do in solidarity:

- Ferguson Solidarity: Ways to Support the Fight - Ten Things White People Can Do About Ferguson Besides Tweet - Holocaust Survivor Hedy Epstein, Arrested in Ferguson Protest, Says Racism Is Alive in America - 5 Ways to Teach About Michael Brown and Ferguson in the New School Year - Black Women Are Killed by Police, Too - For Michael Brown and Ferguson: Facing White Fears of Blackness and Taking Action to End White Supremacy - Urban Ecology: A Request From Organizers in Ferguson - Why Jews Should Care About Ferguson - Young People with Wealth Call on Philanthropic Community to Stand with Ferguson, Mo. - Jewish Voice for Peace Stands in Solidarity with the Community of Ferguson, Missouri Black Kids Don’t Have to be College-Bound for Their Deaths to Be Tragic

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