Current Listen: I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver
Hey all. I want to preface this by saying that I am BY NO MEANS an expert in anti-racism. I am just someone who is trying every day to learn more and become actively anti-racist. That being said, I feel passionately that white people should educate themselves and each other about racism and systemic oppression rather than relying on people of color to coddle them through learning about shit they deal with every day of their lives.
Some personal context.
I, like many white people, am almost completely unaffected by race. I am extremely privileged, what with my whiteness and middle class-ness and my straight-ness and my degree from a liberal arts college. I consider myself extremely progressive in my politics. But until very recently, I was EXTREMELY ignorant about the history of racism, particularly in the United States. I had no idea the extent to which that history had been hidden from me.
My journey toward anti-racism began after the election of 2016, when I read The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. Reading about racism in the U.S. still felt like an intellectual exercise to me, though. Again -- privilege. Mass incarceration doesn't directly impact me.
I continued to dip my toe in the water through fiction and non-fiction, reading things like Between the World and Me, The Hate U Give, and The Fire Next Time. The moment it clicked, though, was White Fragility. I cannot stress enough how much the book White Fragility changed my life. The term "white fragility" describes the visceral reaction of defensiveness, guilt, and/or anger that happens in white people (ALL white people--I will fight you on that) when they are called out about their own personal racism or about their involvement in systemic racism.That book DOES NOT PULL PUNCHES. It calls you out, ESPECIALLY if you are a white liberal.
That book lit a fire under my ass. I began seeking out more opportunities not only to learn more, but also to apply it to my everyday life. My mother will attest to me hijacking her book group to talk about White Fragility, and my fellow teachers have heard me discuss it in full staff meetings. I ended up joining a school committee on Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, a teaching philosophy that applies social justice to interactions in the classroom. I obviously have SO MUCH MORE work to do. But I've come a long way. Because of that, and because of conversations I've had with other white people who don't know what to do, here are my suggestions.
1. STOP ASKING BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) WHAT TO DO.
PEOPLE OF COLOR HAVE TOO MUCH MORE IMPORTANT SHIT TO WORRY ABOUT. I cannot even imagine the amount of rage, anxiety, and fear being experienced by people of color in this country in this moment (but really for their entire lives). Every time I hear about a white person asking a black person for a comprehensive list of what to do and what to read, I am COMPLETELY enraged. White people literally created the problem. White people should bear the responsibility of figuring out what the problem is and then fixing it.
2. LEARN
Since you should NOT ask BIPOC, fucking Google it. There are literally hundreds of books, documentaries, YouTube videos, blog posts...don't be lazy. Do the work. Some places to start:
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates - Part diary entry, part letter to his son, about race in America and police brutality. Just...read some Ta-Nehisi Coates. He's such a great fucking writer.
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander - The definitive work on mass incarceration, its history, and how it's a not-that-distant cousin of slavery. Also watch 13th, a Netflix documentary directed by the INCREDIBLE Ava DuVernay.
So You Want To Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo - A straightforward, well-written primer on race-related topics, from intersectionality through affirmative action.
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo - Honestly why haven't you started reading this book yet?
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein - An incredible, well-researched look at the various mechanisms of housing discrimination in the US. I thought I was really cool because I knew about redlining. There is SO MUCH more to it than that.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Discusses the Great Migration, which I personally learned literally nothing about in any of my history classes, high school or college.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum - An incredible look at racial identity development. I found this extremely helpful as a teacher, but it is helpful for everyone.
Those are just the more academic texts. I'll do future posts on memoirs, fiction, and children's books on race.
3. DO SOMETHING
Once you've done your learning, it's not enough to sit there. This was my issue until my White Fragility epiphany. It's not an exercise in making yourself feel better. If you feel any empathy for your fellow humans at all, doing this research will make you feel a LOT of feelings. You can either just sit there and feel sad and mad (don't personally recommend this, but I've been there), or you can figure out what to do. Some suggestions:
-Donate to BLM or the Bail Project or groups that help black LGBTQ youth or so many other community organizations
-Contact your legislators encouraging them to support anti-racist legislation
-Attend protests/sit-ins/lectures/allyship seminars in your community
And, most importantly
-FUCKING CALL OUT YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND ACQUAINTANCES AND STRANGERS WHO ARE RACIST.
Like...seriously. The research will normally even give you strategies for doing this. It's uncomfortable. It sucks. People might get mad at you. But honestly, if someone is more mad about you calling out racism than they are about George Floyd, or Philando Castille, or Breonna Taylor...that's their problem.
4. BE READY TO FUCK UP
This is the one that gets me sometimes. I am the ultimate people-pleaser. My therapist loves to point out all the times I have over-analyzed my future behavior to prevent making any of my loved ones or friends or co-workers or acquaintances mad at me for any reason. But when you are doing anti-racist work, you will make mistakes. You, especially if you are white, were raised in a racist society. You have been consuming racist messaging and ideas since you were born. But if you, like me, do not want to continue doing those things, you need to make yourself available to be called out. This might involve telling people directly that you WANT to be told when you are being racist. Do you know how many micro-aggressions your BIPOC loved ones have ignored or pushed aside to make their white friends and family feel more comfortable? Let yourself be called out, learn from it, and do better next time.
It is really, really, REALLY hard to be anti-racist. But if you are not being anti-racist, you are being part of the problem. I've not heard anyone put it better than Beverly Daniel Tatum did:
"I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt…Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same destination as those who are actively walking. Some of the bystanders may feel the motion of the conveyor belt, see the active racists ahead of them, and choose to turn around…But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt – unless they are actively antiracist – they will find themselves carried along with the others."
Black lives matter. And for now, that's all she read.
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo - Honestly why haven't you started reading this book yet?
The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein - An incredible, well-researched look at the various mechanisms of housing discrimination in the US. I thought I was really cool because I knew about redlining. There is SO MUCH more to it than that.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson - Discusses the Great Migration, which I personally learned literally nothing about in any of my history classes, high school or college.
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? by Beverly Daniel Tatum - An incredible look at racial identity development. I found this extremely helpful as a teacher, but it is helpful for everyone.
Those are just the more academic texts. I'll do future posts on memoirs, fiction, and children's books on race.
3. DO SOMETHING
Once you've done your learning, it's not enough to sit there. This was my issue until my White Fragility epiphany. It's not an exercise in making yourself feel better. If you feel any empathy for your fellow humans at all, doing this research will make you feel a LOT of feelings. You can either just sit there and feel sad and mad (don't personally recommend this, but I've been there), or you can figure out what to do. Some suggestions:
-Donate to BLM or the Bail Project or groups that help black LGBTQ youth or so many other community organizations
-Contact your legislators encouraging them to support anti-racist legislation
-Attend protests/sit-ins/lectures/allyship seminars in your community
And, most importantly
-FUCKING CALL OUT YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND ACQUAINTANCES AND STRANGERS WHO ARE RACIST.
Like...seriously. The research will normally even give you strategies for doing this. It's uncomfortable. It sucks. People might get mad at you. But honestly, if someone is more mad about you calling out racism than they are about George Floyd, or Philando Castille, or Breonna Taylor...that's their problem.
4. BE READY TO FUCK UP
This is the one that gets me sometimes. I am the ultimate people-pleaser. My therapist loves to point out all the times I have over-analyzed my future behavior to prevent making any of my loved ones or friends or co-workers or acquaintances mad at me for any reason. But when you are doing anti-racist work, you will make mistakes. You, especially if you are white, were raised in a racist society. You have been consuming racist messaging and ideas since you were born. But if you, like me, do not want to continue doing those things, you need to make yourself available to be called out. This might involve telling people directly that you WANT to be told when you are being racist. Do you know how many micro-aggressions your BIPOC loved ones have ignored or pushed aside to make their white friends and family feel more comfortable? Let yourself be called out, learn from it, and do better next time.
It is really, really, REALLY hard to be anti-racist. But if you are not being anti-racist, you are being part of the problem. I've not heard anyone put it better than Beverly Daniel Tatum did:
"I sometimes visualize the ongoing cycle of racism as a moving walkway at the airport. Active racist behavior is equivalent to walking fast on the conveyor belt…Passive racist behavior is equivalent to standing still on the walkway. No overt effort is being made, but the conveyor belt moves the bystanders along to the same destination as those who are actively walking. Some of the bystanders may feel the motion of the conveyor belt, see the active racists ahead of them, and choose to turn around…But unless they are walking actively in the opposite direction at a speed faster than the conveyor belt – unless they are actively antiracist – they will find themselves carried along with the others."
Black lives matter. And for now, that's all she read.
