Dear Fellow White People,
Can we be honest for a sec? We all know we have done some pretty shitty things to people of color in the past. And the present.
We don’t exactly have a lot to be proud of in this department.
Lucky for us, today is a new day and a new chance to be better. So I think it’s important that we talk about how to do that.
First, since we’ve never been judged and discriminated against (for hundreds of years) based only on the color of our skin, we don’t get to have an opinion when they express fear about being judged and discriminated against.
Actually, while we are on that topic, if we have never been told who we can and can’t love or marry, or been called a terrorist because of our religion, or been harassed with threats of a “wall” simply because of our ethnicity and regardless of our citizenship status then we have no business having an opinion about these peoples’ fear.
And finally, if you have never had another human brag about “grabbing you by the p#*%~” or reduce your worth to your weight or physical appearance, then you have no business having an opinion about the fear of those who have.
We already look pretty stupid based on our track record of how we treat others, and more loud opinions about things WE CANT POSSIBLY UNDERSTAND only make us look more ignorant.
I get that sometimes people make bad choices when they are afraid, and protesting and violence is not the right answer. But if you can’t see the difference between people protesting in fear of racism and people committing hate crimes then you are not looking closely enough.
It’s okay to say “violence is not okay”. It is not okay to judge others for being violent when we have a long history of hatefulness. It’s not okay to call them hypocrites (because irony). And it’s not okay to call them crybabies. Because if you think this is about “losing” an election then, again, you are not looking closely enough.
I know it’s rough out there. But let’s all take a deep breath and try harder to be better from here on out.
Oh, and if you’re irritated that I keep posting about this shit, I’m sorry that I’m not sorry. For as long as there are people writing “make America white again” on walls and children chanting racists slurs against each other in school and women being physically harassed because of their religious attire, I WILL KEEP TALKING ABOUT THIS.
Sure you might prefer that I take my white privilege and stop looking at the Internet and concentrate on my own little safe world. But unfortunately, there are people who can’t turn off the computer and escape this. They live it.
It’s up to us to do better, for our children and for each other. The first step is to stop pretending it’s not a problem. The second is to stop being afraid to talk about it just because it is ugly and embarrassing.
So if you’re still here, thanks you for not looking away just because this made you sad, made you angry, or offended you. I appreciate you listening. Together we can do hard things.