A word to any white people who are reading this (myself included):
For many white people, the word “racist” is a shameful identity. So shameful, in fact, that we cannot conceive of ourselves to be racists. We assuredly proclaim to ourselves and anyone who hears us, “I’m not a racist!” Get this: we actually believe that claim.
The thinking goes: we don’t commit blatant outward acts of racism, and we DEFINITELY don’t want to be considered racist, so we’re not. How convenient.
The work to remove systemic oppression from our society isn’t only in external action. Proudly labeling ourselves “not racist” and moving on is a cop out (*ahem).
Anti-racism is an inside job.
We were raised in a society built on systemic oppression. We have been infiltrated with narratives of white supremacy from the minute we came into this world. We want to be inclusivity-minded egalitarians, yet we are active parts of a f*cked-up system that benefits us because of our skin color every single day.
We’ve got to hold ourselves accountable. That means identifying and dropping every last narrative of white supremacy we’ve ever learned. We must all look within to see where we live with racist programming and where we’re out of integrity with our “non-racist” identity.
Here’s what I’ve learned in a brief but powerful stint in taking inventory of my subconscious beliefs: it doesn’t matter how many people of color we love/work with/met once/smiled at. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never committed a single act of racial profiling. It doesn’t matter how much we resent the idea of a “racist” or how embarrassing it would be if someone called us that.
What matters is that the programming of systemic oppression lives within us. And we’ve got to approach the deconditioning with the same zealous force with which we wave our “non-racist” flag.
I’m in the beginning phases of unlearning, of finding where racism lives in my subconscious and removing it. And yeah, it’s uncomfortable as hell. And 100% mandatory. I believe a world devoid of racism, one where no one fears for his/her/their life due to skin color.
A different world is possible if we take responsibility for creating it. All of us. And that starts by consciously eliminating any traces of racism from our thinking. This process requires being honest enough to admit that white supremacy was a storyline that school and society taught us AND that we have benefited from. We also must admit that we have work to do.
Our previous approach of staying quiet and leaving social change to victims of racism is out. Unlearning, deconditioning and reprogramming these harmful narratives is in. Time is pressing.
P.S.- It’s critically important to note that the info here is what black activists and educators have been screaming about for decades.
