An Essay In Solidarity

Let’s talk about white supremacy. If that sentence alone made you uncomfortable, I hope you continue to read anyway. Because that means these words are specifically for you.

We have to talk about white supremacy because it is utterly impossible to understand the context of the events in our world today without naming what brought us here. When reflecting on the past two weeks of protests stemming from the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, it is clear that this is about their lives. But what is also abundantly clear is that this too is about every person of color who has lost their life gasping for breath under the knee of systemic racism. We know of those who were filmed but we cannot even begin to fathom how many were not.

White supremacy is the root cause of why it is necessary for Black people to say that their lives matter. Most white people who have committed themselves to misunderstanding the Black Lives Matter movement are only able to do so by refusing to acknowledge this simple fact. It is because of us. Every white person in this society was born into an unspoken club we never think to question. And why would we question a club that tells us we hold so much value? The club indoctrinates us into believing our specific kind of value makes us more important than others, and people who look like us are the only ones who belong here. But what gets blocked out of our minds beneath this white cloud of privilege is that the value we so desperately come to identify ourselves with is made up. The club as we know it is fake. And by automatically believing the club motto of our white experience to be the most important, the most desirable, the most valuable human experience, we are all complicit in systemic racism. Complicit in creating and maintaining the social systems that are oppressing and killing Black people. Complicit in silencing them and leaving them behind. And then we are actually bold enough to tell them we cannot believe they have not caught up yet.

Out of white supremacy came slavery. And instead of reckoning with and righting that original wrong, we hide behind systems we built to intentionally perpetuate it. Of course we did not personally participate in slavery. But we as white people personally benefit from the present day systems that slavery evolved into. Jim Crow, segregation, the war on drugs, mass incarceration. Instead of ever leveling the playing field, like we claim in the history books to have done, we just kept remodeling and renaming the same old game. The slave patrols of the past became the police patrols of today. But police brutality is just the tip of the racism iceberg. It is not only physical racism through over-policing and over-incarceration as well as food deserts and lack of access to healthcare. It is also educational racism through segregated and continuously underfunded schools. It is economic racism through redlining, predatory loans, the wage gap and monopolistic capitalism. And it is psychological racial warfare as we then attempt to gaslight them, and ourselves, into believing that none of this is even real. That they are making it all up.

Until we begin the difficult work of admitting to and identifying our white privilege, there will be protests and marches against our willful ignorance. And grief filled rage cannot always remain righteously controlled, so there is vandalism and looting, too. And the white people who will do anything at all to avoid acknowledging the problem for what it is will latch onto these lesser parts of the issue, because then they have something to condemn. A safe and familiar way to once again assert themselves and their morals as superior. After having said nothing of murder, nothing of the state sanctioned violence targeting Black bodies, they suddenly find the words and the fanciful moral outrage to criticize the expressions of a pain they were complicit in causing. It is these vacuous arguments that very purposefully miss the point of the movement at large and are meant to deflect dealing with the overall personal problem of white supremacy.

Personally I have had to find a way to reconcile with the fact that being a white woman assigned to work with youth members of the Black community in a predominantly Black neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, is a form of systemic racial violence. That does not mean I am incapable of doing my job. It does not mean I cannot provide support and love and be of assistance. What it does mean is that the harsh racial realities these kids endure constant oppression from are thrown in their faces every time they see mine. It means no matter how much I care, I am not the best person to do this job. But I have shown up to do it for the last six years. And what I’ve learned is that showing up is just the start. It’s not enough to mean well. It’s not enough to be nice. If I am not throwing myself into constantly learning how to be actively anti-racist, I am failing every single family I work with. Because dismantling the white supremacy that exists within myself is the first step to dismantling the white supremacy that exists everywhere else in the world. And that is the most important work I can do in the fight for their lives.

I hope there are some of you who can learn from me as I continue to learn how to disengage from a life of brainwashed white privilege. I’m lucky enough to have many Black friends and co-workers who have and will continue to call me out when I unconsciously say some racist ass shit. My job in that moment is not to defend my racism by claiming, “I’m not racist!” My job is to acknowledge and reflect on how internalized racism has shown itself through me and how I can then commit to doing better. This is the only way to learn. People of color are the experts on racism. Although that is not to say they are obligated to teach white people. It is just to say that white feelings on the subject come nowhere near the knowledge they have accumulated from their lived experiences.

It’s time we all took up a true education. The white washed, glossed over version we received in school has been exposed for the coverup it really is. If you’re ready to start your anti-racism work, do it right now. Challenge yourself. Don’t ask a Black person to tell you where to go and don’t seek out resources that keep you comfortable. Find the voices that confront your long held, unexamined beliefs. Research and become familiar with the plethora of Black leaders who have been doing the work in racial justice for decades. There is so much to say in this discussion. If you’re new to recognizing these systems and how they operate, understand it cannot all be learned in a day. And it’s okay to make mistakes. Because we are dealing with a system designed to trick us, designed to be open and invisible at the same time. The rabbit hole runs deep. White supremacy this pervasive took hundreds of years to build and dismantling it will take long term, concerted efforts by people of all colors, ages and genders. So I strive not just to be an ally in the fight, because the work takes more than allyship now. My goal is to act in solidarity. To grieve in solidarity, march in solidarity, celebrate in solidarity. To listen in solidarity, speak in solidarity, stand in solidarity. To live my life in solidarity.

Juneteenth is coming up next week. If you are a white person who does not know what that day is, this is a good place to start your education and commit to an act of solidarity. Donate to a Black social justice organization. Attend an event. Buy from a Black owned business. Make calls to politicians, sign petitions, continue to listen and start the hard conversations and bring awareness. Because this isn’t over. This work is not a trend or a phase. The learning is endless. The movement is moving. This is just the beginning.