Dear white friends who condemn Charlottesville,
I’m glad y’all are calling out the blatant racism, evil, and terrorism that is white supremacy. I’m glad y’all are angry because if you weren’t, I’d re-evaluate our friendship.
But where was your anger and frustration when Tamir Rice was shot for playing with a toy gun on a playground? Or Trayvon Martin for walking down the street? Or Michael Brown? Or Sandra Bland? Or Terence Crutcher? Or Philando Castile? Or Rekia Boyd? Or Walter Scott, etc. The fact that I can extend that list with an “etc” in and of itself proves my point – y’all have been silent way too long. These cases are all examples of blatant racism that most of you failed to call out.
You say that racism is wrong, yet you voted for a president who claims there was violence on both sides of the Charlottesville march. You say white supremacy is evil but then you chant “All Lives Matter” and “Back the Blue.” You claim to not be racist, but then you refuse to acknowledge the systemic racism in this country. How do you not see the contradiction?
You think white supremacy is this unheard of, far-fetched ideology that a few bad apples have, saying things like, “How could these people think these things?” But just because racists now feel comfortable expressing their opinions, this doesn’t mean white supremacy is something new. It is at the very roots of this nation. Every single white person has been indoctrinated in white supremacy. Although I, as a white man, don’t agree with the tiki-torch-wielding, swastika-bearing white nationalists, I have been told I was better since my first waking moment. I challenge you to understand this. A white supremacist is not like an ogre in the mountains that comes down with his pitchfork, calling for segregation, probably using the n-word, and then going back into the mountains, leaving the good, “colorblind” people alone. In reality, the racial inequality and white supremacy is planned and intentional. Systemic. Most white people think racism is simply a “conscious dislike based on skin color” [1]. But really “racism is a system of legal authority and institutional power that has been embedded across a vast history” [2].
So don’t act like these racist ideas are unbelievable. Don’t be shocked. And show me some action. #WhiteSilenceisViolence
Sincerely,
An anonymous Facebook friend
Word Count: 431
Pledged: William McLain
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[1] Robin DiAngelo, who coined the term “white fragiligy,” is a guest on this podcast:
https://soundcloud.com/user-313380625/the-what-does-it-mean-to-be-white-edition-052317-part-1
[2] Ibid.
First, I love your conclusion with the definition of racism. Secondly, I think this post sums up what we've learned in this class extremely well. White people will condemn the "obvious" demonstrations of white supremacy like a Nazi or Klan rally, but with examples like police brutality, these same people who condemn the Klan won't say anything after the shooting of an unarmed black person, because white people do not see this as a threat to themselves, and view these incidents as 'coincidence' or some sort of freak occurrence. However, there are so so many more incidences of police brutality that never make it to the news, and never make it to any statistical databank. Many people do not understand how entrenched racism really is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything that you pointed out. Racism is a concept that has never left this country ever since the introduction of black people. Racism now is less blatant and more in the shadows of how the system of government works to accommodate white people first. The small things are tacked with racism to create bigger invisible force, that white people can still feel comfortable ignoring. The fact that people become so appalled when terrorist attacks like this allows them to feel good about themselves that they do not follow the regime of systematic oppression. Because these events happen, It perpetuates the ignorance that anything bad happens when people are not being brutally murdered in the street...oh wait that's actually happening
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the way you condemn white supremacy in every form in this blog post. Racism and white supremacy are woven into the very fabric of the United States, and our President's emboldening of white supremacists only further prove the prevalence of it in our society.
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