Dear White People — It’s Time
It’s time we protect the POC community with our privileged bodies and and the resources they afford us.
As the face of another murdered person of color is spread around the internet, I can’t help but be appalled at the shock the white people are expressing.
I don’t know why I am appalled. White people have been acting like they are color bind and that race doesn’t exist for hundreds of years. They’ve all been quiet and complacent, they’ve ignored deaths and explained away attacks. Even still, in the wake of another blatant murder, I thought some of them would wise up.
And while some of them have, it’s a small victory because the same people willing to change their minds are not the people we need to be concerned about. The people willing to kill someone over the color of their skin are still out there. The people standing behind the brutal men in blue — those people are still out there.
And their prejudice against POCs is still raging.
Even though we are making a little progress, we still have more work to do. A ton of work to do.
Because - this trauma, this tragedy… it’s ours to shoulder. It’s ours to handle. It’s ours to take care of.
As white people, we’ve historically placed the burden of literally everything on the shoulders of POCs.
And it’s time we take the burden off of them. It’s time that white people shoulder the work needed to get these white supremacists off our streets. And I mean all of them — white hoods and blue uniforms.
As white people who are able to walk around freely, even with guns in our hands, we must begin to take up for POCs; stop to be a bystander or witness when a person in blue is antagonizing them. We have to take an active role in policing the police because we are the only people who can talk back to them without being murdered.
We have the ability to take a stand against authority, our skin affords us that privilege — just as it affords us many others.
Trust and believe, I’ve heard all of the tired arguments from white people. I’ve heard all of the racist meaning-making that I care to hear. The only thing I want to hear from white people now is about how they are contributing to paying off the debt our ancestors left us.
I don’t mean actual money. I mean actual action. Action for POCs that have no benefit for them.
Action for POCs that take place without sharing it so people know it was done. They need an ally, not a savior, because the POC community has always been and will continue to be it’s own savior.
It’s past time to stop acting like this isn’t our fight. It’s past time to stop acting like we are better off staying out of it and not reading the news. It’s past time to stop acting like this isn’t impacting us and our neighborhoods. It’s past time to stop acting like it’s the system that is broken when it’s actually working exactly how it was designed to work — to uphold supremacy.
Now is the time to fight that supremacy — not alongside of but on behalf of POCs. Of course, fighting alongside them is good but — I ask you, haven’t they done enough to try to get heard, to get seen, to get basic human rights? Can’t we simply listen and help them fight for what they need while giving them some time to rest? They and their ancestors have been fighting for rights we have been freely given and now we can use those rights we have to fight for theirs, to fight for justice, equality and police accountability.
That starts with action. And the first action that every white person must take is to seek out a reliable POC voice to hear while using our ears and heart to listen. The second action must be to restrain ourselves from rebutting, whitesplaining or whitewashing the experience of POCs. The third action we can all take is to listen more.
Once we’ve listened enough, we can then take what we have heard and learned to officials that listen to us more than POCs because we are white. We can closely hover if we see a beater in blue anywhere near a POC. We can protect their bodies with our bodies. We can call our representatives. We can show up to court cases. We can help bail out POCs. We can choose to support POC organizations, creators, activists, artists and families. We can stand with them and stand toe to toe with those who are against them.
As white people it is our duty to stop racism, in any form because we created it. We have to make anyone saying something racist so uncomfortable they have to rethink their life’s choices. And we have to accept that some people are so white and so racist that they won’t take the time to question or think — but that doesn’t mean we will stop and give up on them.
It means we have to make sure our anti-racist rhetoric is so loud that they can’t help but hear it. We have to keep talking about it so much that they begin to see anti-racism as the new normal, as opposed to their learned beliefs shrouded in prejudice.
And again, only us white people can do it, because a POC talking about racism will never get through to the whitest of the white people about their hidden racism.
The full burden of racism and police brutality is on us and I hope you join me in making the choice to be part of the resolution.
