The Fight for Racial Justice: Plenty of Platitudes; Not Enough Action

Corporate America capitalized on the largest civil rights movement in a half-century while policymakers have gone silent.

We see it everywhere. The ‘’end racism” tagline in NFL endzones. Slogans on the backs of NBA player’s jerseys. Corporations using Black Lives Matter as an advertising catchphrase. All send positive messages but do nothing except create more wealth for stockholders. None produce tangible solutions to the white supremacy and colonialist classism that those very same corporations uphold. One thing is certain, it’s been good for them and no one else.

Similarly, White America jumped at the opportunity to pretend they’re standing up for racial justice using terms such as “racial reckoning” and “allyship” to show unity in what turned out to be “for a limited time only”. Looking back it’s clear that most White people were clout chasing for followers on their social media platforms. They appropriated not just the movements, but the work of Black and Brown people who have been at the forefront of the fight for decades.

All of our work, particularly that of Black women, was essentially stolen (as it often is) not just to create wealth, but to take up space and suck the air out of the room. Instead of listening to the people most affected by systemic racism and classism, we were forced to endure watching White America use our words to prove their “wokeness” while never giving credit to those they stole from — as white supremacy has historically done to Black folks and people of color.

As a result, we are right back to where we were before the state-sponsored murder of George Floyd at the hands of those who are tasked with serving and protecting. Police continue to murder Black Americans with impunity and White America can’t be bothered by it any more than they have been throughout history. Allyship is about so much more than posting on social media and hashtagging movements for validation and profit.

It takes real tangible action.

How many supposed allies have gone to city council meetings? A handful? Even then, they made their points, posted videos of themselves online, and disappeared. Their speeches may have been from the heart and may have spoken to the institutional racism and classism America has been built on, but elected officials laughed it off and did nothing because they knew the unity that was shown wouldn’t last. It never does. If it did, we wouldn’t still need to be having these conversations. Yet here we are. Victims. Again.

It’s clear that White America is just as aware of institutional racism and classism as police know how to deescalate situations when suspects are White. Like the police, White America gets to choose when, where, and how far they are willing to go. Historically speaking, they’ve never been willing to take it to the finish line.

There is no better example of this than what we lived through in 2020.

White people came and went

So-called allies have the privilege of going back to their lives while continuing to ignore the systemic issues that crush the aspirations of minorities. Black and Indigenous people suffer the most in the caste system America is built on with Latinos not far behind. Other marginalized groups along with poor White people lag behind too. While White people benefit from privileges not afforded to other groups, poor White people suffer at the hands of classism.

They just refuse to admit it while holding on to beliefs of superiority over the rest of us.

Meanwhile, as allies go back to their lives in the midst of a pandemic, Black people, Indigenous people, and Latinos are bearing the brunt of COVID-19. This too is a product of the caste system in American society and again, White America can’t be bothered. As the rush to obtain the vaccine for Coronavirus gains momentum, elites and those who benefit from the privileges granted to White America are stepping on marginalized people to protect themselves and their families.

America is watching tenants in a luxury high-rise in Houston receive the Coronavirus vaccine before anyone else. As people struggle to gain access to the COVID-19 vaccination, the general manager of the high-rise claims they were authorized by the State of Texas to receive it despite the only sites currently approved to receive it are healthcare clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, and local health departments. Just one of many more likely scenarios across the country.

When we talk about racial justice in America, the over-policing of Black and Brown communities and the murder of Black men and women by police is only the beginning. Police brutality tells just one portion of the racial injustice story. White America may have already lost interest in the police brutality narrative, but they never even addressed the continued assault on Black and Brown communities through the myriad other inequities in a system built by and for White people.

While White America continues to build on the backs of Black and Brown people, minorities are dying at an alarming rate. Whether it’s healthcare inequality, over-policing, a lack of access to quality housing, employment, or being grossly underpaid, true allyship means addressing these systems alongside us while not dominating the conversation. No one can better speak to inequality and injustice than those that are most affected by it.

Once again, we’re on our own.

We know that the likelihood of allyship going the distance is limited at best. And for a minute, it seemed like White America was finally starting to get it. The reality is White people get it. They are all aware of the systemic issues that plague Black and Brown Americans. The problem lies in White comfort. They are too comfortable and too privileged to truly understand the extent of just how ingrained the systemic issues they uphold affect non-White people in the U.S.

This is why I say they can’t be bothered.

We need more help

Breaking down the systems of white supremacy and classism involves more than just talking about it. While discussing it across all aspects of society may help in changing the psyche of American culture, nothing will change it without tangible action. We need more than platitudes from corporate America who market their supposed “wokeness” to boost sales. We sure as hell can’t depend on capitalists to help break down the systems of classism they profit from.

Corporate America uses movements to sloganeer their way into our homes. Distracting us from the very real concept that they are behind America’s systemic issues. Capitalists don’t just uphold the systems of oppression, they build them and expand upon them to make them more complex. While exposing them at the rate we do since the advent of the Internet has helped more than at any other time in history, they are adapting by silencing those of us who speak out by regulating our speech online.

Capitalists are also behind much of the division and hate in America. They invest in and profit from funding the hate many Americans breed. We’ve exposed them funding hate groups and media outlets promoting propaganda that foments hate. There isn’t a single capitalist in the world that would benefit financially from making a substantial effort to expose and break the cycle of hate. Capitalism was built on hate and can only function as long as there is division among the people. This is how they are able to exploit the workers from whom they profit.

Using language like “welfare queens” and framing narratives that paint Black and Brown people as “thugs” allows them to extoll white supremacy. Meanwhile, White people terrorize Americans at every turn. If not by blowing up entire city blocks or mass murdering minorities from various groups, they terrorize us in the workplace, at the grocery store, walking down the street, or simply hanging out at the park. White terror plagues us every single day and in many forms.

Capitalism promotes hate not just in America, but around the world. America, however, is where nearly all of it comes from. The United States is the home base for nearly all of the hate we see in the world. The idea that it continues to affect Black and Brown Americans is as absurd as murdering half-million Muslims. Especially considering more than 300,000 Americans have died in just the last year due to a white supremacist president who purposely failed to act specifically because a pandemic is disproportionately killing Black people, Indigenous people, and Latinos.

Corporate America supports that same president and the political party he represents because they reward capitalists with tax breaks that burden the poor and marginalized. Similarly, those same elitists back eliminating programs that benefit those society steps on. They’ve convinced middle-class and poor Americans that people of color are who burdens society through these programs. We’ve all heard the language that has been normalized since the passage of the Civil Rights act despite White Americans being the biggest beneficiaries of said programs.

Meanwhile, the few reap all the rewards for the suffering of the many.

Moving forward

In order for us to achieve racial justice, racial equity, and social equality we need more help and persistence from White America. We have many White people who are staunch allies. But even more choose to remain silent in their White comfort. They may not be racist on the surface and they may even have Black friends but they aren’t doing anything to help stem the tide of hate in America. It’s those White people that must stand up and speak out.

Similarly, many Latinos don’t do enough to help break the cycle of hate. Some work tirelessly to fight against it by exposing it and speaking out constantly. But like White people, too many sit idly by and do nothing. As a Latino, I know whiteness will never welcome us just as they never welcomed Indigenous people (which many Latinos are). It’s on us to join the fight with our Black and Indigenous counterparts to destroy the systems of oppression that exploit us all.

In addition, poor White people need to wake up to the reality that they are being used as tools to protect the capitalist-centric hate that America was built on. They are merely pawns in this game that protects the elitist White people who control America’s economy, its money, and continue to grow their absurd wealth by promoting hate. This is central to what America has become. As long as White people believe that non-white people are the reason for their misery, capitalists will continue to advance the oppression of poor and marginalized people for profit.

If you’re an American, as most people reading this likely are, you are not a capitalist. A capitalist is defined as “a wealthy person who uses the money to invest in trade and industry for profit.” Most Americans are not capitalists. When the top 10% own 81% of stock wealth and the next 10% own 11% of that wealth, that leaves the bottom 80% owning only 8% of stock. With the majority of corporate equities and mutual funds being held by White people, it’s no wonder why so many invest in hate.

In order to create real tangible change in our inherently oppressive society, it’s going to take real work from all of us. It’s time to get off your ass and do the damn work. That doesn’t mean that it’s okay to steal from those of us who have been doing it, but I welcome you to learn from, promote, cite, and uplift all of those marginalized voices that inspire you. That’s what being a true ally means. It means joining the fight without centering your Whiteness.

Now, let’s go do some damn work. Together.