Dear white friends and family,
I invite you to begin the process of looking at your white privilege and white supremacy. If that sentence made you mad, defensive or uncomfortable, you are a perfect candidate for this work.
As I read more stories and articles from BBIPOC, telling us about their experiences just existing within society as a POC (which they have been doing forever) something EbonyJanice of The Free People Project said the other day in a talk she did with Layla F. Saad, hosted by Sinikiwe Stephani Dhliwayo, called A Digital Salon on the Power Dynamics of White Women and Women of Color, really sinks in. She asked “Aren’t you tired? Aren’t you tired of your privilege yet? And the performance you have to put on for that privilege? Can’t you just RELAX?”
Seriously though. HOW ARE WE (white people) STILL ACCEPTING THIS AS THE NORM? And more importantly why? The simple answer is it upholds our privileges.
BBIPOC don’t need us (white people) to save them. They need us to start treating them IN EVERY SITUATION like they are human beings, with respect and courtesy. With decency through equality and equity. They need us to own up to the system we have created that enforces and upholds our white supremacy. Our system is not broken. It’s doing exactly what it’s meant to do.
They need us to listen and see and FINALLY acknowledge what we’ve done to keep BBIPOC suppressed.
But mostly, they need us to stop being racist!
We are so afraid of losing our privileges that we accept, allow and contribute to the brutal treatment of BBIPOC.
It’s time to except that this is truth. It’s the first step in being an anti-racist. Admitting that you are in fact, a racist. We have been conditioned to believe we are superior to BBIPOC. This is fact.
Look around you. How have you contributed? I know I have. And I feel like shit about that. But saying I’m sorry and feeling guilty means nothing, does nothing if I don’t start looking at my life and the ways I’ve helped uphold this system, even if that’s simply been by being silent or thinking not me, I’m a “good one”.
It’s time now to do the work. Anti-racism is the only way forward but serious, consistent action has to be taken. Every day. To quote EbonyJanice again “Everyday do something for Freedom.”
Everyday. Let’s be silent no more and do this work towards anti-racism and true freedom. Because right now, only those of us that hold privilege, are truly free.
P.S. I am in no way shape or form an expert. I am not claiming to be. I am just a white woman on a journey to dismantle my own racism. Posting this makes me very uncomfortable. But what makes me more uncomfortable is black people being shot because they are black and that being our norm and accepting it, crying a few white tears and moving on with our day.
Samantha
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