Yes. Your inaction is also racism, white people.
White People: We have to do better — and that takes ACTION.
by: E.B. Johnson
(Note: This is a piece written from the perspective and privilege of a white person — for other white people. If I have misspoke or mistaken on any point, I would be grateful for any BIPOC that could correct me and give me the right language or insight to share with my white community.)
The last week has been chaos and rightly so. After 400+ years of subjugation and abuse, the black community is rising up in a display of power not seen since the civil rights demonstrations of the 60s. It’s a beautiful time to be alive, but it can be a scary time too. We, as a white community, are being confronted with our privilege and our corruption in new and powerful ways. And while this is a good place to start, it’s not enough. Why? Because knowledge without action is worthless, and our inaction right now is racism.
To sit in complacency now is to take the side of the oppressor. If you’ve stopped talking, stopped donating, stopping signing the petition — you’ve already handed the keys to the kingdom back over to our mutual oppressors. It’s time for white people to take vocal, pro-active and conscious action. It’s no longer enough to hold progressive ideals in your heart. The white community both created and inherited a rotten system and now it’s time for us to clean up the mess. That requires facing up to our biases, however, and making a conscious effort to change this world with and for the black people we have subjugated and brutalized with our inaction.
We’ve put ourselves at the top of a rotten inheritance.
When you listen to the white community talk about race and state of inequality in America, there are some very subtle and insidious ideas that many hold. Among these is the idea that the black community has somehow “inherited” this problem, or brought it on themselves. But what of white inheritance and the role we and our families played in the violence and the hurt and the outrage we’re experiencing now.
You need to understand that — like it or not — we (as white people) inherited a racist world from our forefathers and our foremothers (yes, feminists. Us too). Though we ourselves might never dream of incarcerating someone or denying them because of the color of their skin, our ancestors did. And they built up systems to ensure these ideas would be upheld for centuries to come.
We’ve found ourselves on top of a rotten inheritance, and there’s no magician who is going to come and clean up the mess. It is up to us to clear out the muck, and the mud, and the waste. It is up to us to pick up the broom and clear the porch and clean up the mess that was left to us. Through no direct fault of our own, we have inherited the fault of our ancestors. Now we have to deal with it, pay our dues and figure out how we’re going to listen to the black community in order to build a better future (on their lead).
Why your inaction is also racism.
Your inaction is also racism. I know. It stings. Let it sit with you for a minute and let it sink in. See how it settles with you, and then I’ll explain.
We stand at the precipice of a very big cliff. It’s 2020 and behind us we have a clear view of all the crap and the misery that’s bearing down and ready to spring. In front of us, we also have a clear view. Of wide open space and the knowledge of a certain end. Jumping means you won’t get ripped apart, but it does mean another very final end as well.
Your inaction is racism because you know — right now, in the year 2020 — that our countries have long and sordid histories of racism. You know that horrendous things are done in the name of “law and order” and you know (in your heart of hearts, no matter how lost you are) that change is an inevitable part of what must come next.
Yet so many white people, even if moved to post a black square or an aesthetic #BLM post, still seemed move to take no action.
This is why your inaction is also racism.
You know that things are bad. You know that things must change. Yet you make the conscious choice to take no action. Confront none of your darkness; face up to the past and the present that your racist-voting great-grandfathers left you. You don’t want to do it, and you aren’t going to do it. That’s uncomfortable and…for “them”? Seems like too much to deal with.
To know that action is needed, and to make the conscious decision to do nothing for your black brothers and sisters is to say, “No. They are not important enough for this. They are less than me and therefore less important. I have bigger concerns in this world than the loss of their lives, their rights.”
Is there no racism in this? Is there no discrimination in this idea that “they” aren’t that important? Are you not doing what your forbearers did? Are you not relegating that age-old racist concept of the “black problem” to another time, another place? It’s dismissal, and it’s dismissal based on the idea of worth and difference or “apartness”.
I hate to break it to you, Karen, but they’ll come for you when there is no black community left to divide, brutalize and terrorize.
How you can confront the subtle racist tendencies within yourself.
Subtle racism (such as turning your back when your privilege is needed to speak up and demand action) is just as insidious and malicious as the White Power Nazi parading the streets…if not more so. That’s because it makes you a secret enemy; faceless and innumerable. Impossible to withstand because you’re impossible to see and address (thanks, cowardice).
You don’t have to be this person forever. You can change the way you see the world and the way you think — and you can literally start doing it right now.
It’s our responsibility — as white people — to take that leap of faith and correct these systems through action and self-reflection, both inwardly and outwardly. When you address the subtle racism within yourself, you can overcome the major cognitive biases that are crippling your ability to see and partake in reality. Get better and do it now with these very basic starting points.
Educate yourself on race reality
The first step you must that is that of education. You need to open up and dig deep. Bolster yourself and dive into the deep end. Read everything you can read about race in America and beyond. Ingest the slavery, the lynchings, the terror and the pain. Watch documentaries, listen to black community leaders. Read black poetry and seek out black creators. Listen to them and absorb their perspectives, put yourself in their shoes. Reach out and grab onto everything and anything you can and educate yourself on the reality of race and injustice throughout history.
Acknowledge the importance of language
Because we have lived so long in absolute privilege, many of us white folks have forgotten the importance of language and the power that it holds over the lives and wellbeing of those we have subjugated through our systems of government and “justice”. You have to start acknowledging the power of the language that you use, and the way in which you use your words (even unwittingly) to belittle, demean or otherwise
Open up your heart and home
Words and learning will only take you so far. You have to get involved in community outreach. Stop relying on that “one black friend” that you have at work to qualify you as an enlightened human being. Walk the walk, don’t just talk the talk. Find ways to get involved with elements of the black community (that will have you; don’t demand space) and welcome them into your own. Break bread with them, share experiences. Become as comfortable in word and deed with your black brothers and sisters as you are among your white friends and family. Open up your heart and your home.
Get to know your biases
Stop running away from those ugly parts of yourself that you know are there. It’s time to step back from your ego and spend some time alone with your biases. Whether you like it or not, you have to confront them brutally and for what they are. Understand that — only when you face up to the subtle microaggressions that line your warped perspective — can you truly start to peel back the layers, confront and resolve those nastier aspects of yourself. There’s nothing wrong with saying, “I was racist.” What is wrong is allowing your ego and your pride to leave you in a place of, “I am racist.”
Putting it all together…
It is our responsibility as white people, right now in this very moment, to take that leap of faith.
Yes, going over the cliff means a certain end to the world and the things we have always known. But it also means not being ripped apart by the legacy that haunts us all. We must take action, because to do anything else is to feed into the racist systems that continue to execute, persecute and enslave people of color around the world.
Our fathers, mothers, grandfathers and forebears left us in this world.
We perpetuated it with our silence and our inaction because we were too comfortable to break the shackles that were a remaining piece of our inheritance.
We say and act and pretend that the black community must continue to pay a price for some egregious sin of their ancestors (hint: there are none) — yet we don’t apply that same logic to the sins of our own history that we openly acknowledge. Now is the time for action and now is the time to embrace the shame that we should all rightly feel.
Resolving the sins of the father does not leave the stain on the offspring. When you refuse, however, to take action and to make right the mistakes of the past, you are the one who leaves stains. You are the one who actively takes part by sitting by and allowing the oppressor to roll by. You become the oppressor. You become the fervent youth screaming on the roadside of a Hitler photo (really, you’re worse, because they didn’t have Google). You become the enemy and the monster under the bed with your continued inaction.
So, white people, it’s time for us to stand up and clean up our mess.
Stop asking your black friends to educate you, or absolve you. Don’t ask them to fill you in on what’s been documented for more than 450 years now. We have come to the point where our inaction is also racism. We know the evils. We know the truth. If we do not stand up now in the face of equality, then we are no better than the evil we say we hate on Instagram and Facebook.
Rise above. Say the truth out loud and embrace it:
“I am a racist, but I am going to correct it. Right here and right now.”
Don’t like how that sits? Live a life above reproach and start rebuilding the way you see the world we live in from the ground up. Prove you aren’t a racist by taking action and standing with the black community in this moment.
