I don’t often
find myself at a loss for words, but I have been lately. I wish I were an
artist, and could capture what I’m feeling in a moving, poignant rendering that
could be quickly viewed and digested by others. But words are all I have. So
here it goes.
I have never
enjoyed history. History class was always my least favorite—the class where
names and dates (which I could never remember or keep straight) blurred
hopelessly together, and where I’d fall asleep regularly, despite my most
valiant efforts not to (because I am also a rule follower and falling asleep in
class was against the rules, right?).
But history is
important. Understanding it brings power. And I’m only just beginning to learn
that.
I hate the idea
of performative allyship, where you publicly pledge solidarity to a cause but
don’t actually change anything. So recently when the #BlackLivesMatter movement
became personal for me due to my connections in the literary world (yes, in case you're wondering, I have left Red Sofa Literary), I realized
I needed to do more to educate myself. I have had the luxury of avoiding this
issue for far too long and I’m only just now seeing that THAT IS THE PROBLEM!
Until this point,
I thought: I’m a nice person. I’ve never hurt or mistreated anybody. So I can’t
be part of the problem, and can therefore ignore it, right?
Wrong. On both
counts.
So I started
educating myself by reading post after post, article after article, written by
my friends of color, friends of friends, and other people of color in America,
across multiple social media platforms. And let me tell you, my eyes are being
opened. And I am deeply sorry I stayed asleep for so long.
After reading so
many personal experiences of people who face racism, both overtly and subtly,
every day of their lives, I picked up the books ME AND WHITE SUPREMACY, and
STAMPED: RACISM, ANTIRACISM, AND YOU (and, okay, quite a lot of fiction books
by and about POC, since fiction is my first true love). And then I started
reading.
And there is one
thing I read so far that has stuck out to me more than the rest. It’s been
sitting in the forefront of my mind for days, causing me to see the history
I’ve been taught my whole life in a completely different way.
This is a passage
from the book STAMPED (which should be required reading for EVERYONE thirteen
and up, by the way) by Jason Reynolds (adapted from the original book by Ibram
Kendi). The passage quoted below is about the events surrounding Bacon’s
rebellion in Virginia in 1676 (a full hundred years BEFORE the Declaration of Independence).
Reynolds says, “Bacon
declared liberty for all servants and Blacks, because, as far as he was
concerned, though they were different races, they were the same class and
should be united against the true enemy—rich Whites. But the governor knew if
Blacks and Whites joined forces, he’d be done. Everything would be done. It
would’ve been an apocalypse. So, he had to devise a way to turn poor Whites and
poor Blacks against each other, so that they’d be forever separated and
unwilling to join hands and raise fists against the elite. And the way he did
this was by creating (wait for it… ) white privileges.” (pg 26)
My jaw
practically dropped to the floor when I read this. According to Reynolds, white
privilege was a thing created, on purpose, with the intent of dividing the
people. And it was done in order to protect the interests of wealthy
landowners. It also appears that before this time, the term White was not used
to describe people. Early colonists were simply described by the term “people
of European descent.”
The only
conclusion I can come to is that dividing the races by giving them the terms
White and Black, and establishing certain privileges for White people meant to
give them an overinflated sense of self-importance, was all very deliberate. And
that divide was then cooked into the system, so that by the time the United
States of America was even established, the idea of white privilege was so
ingrained as to be often unnoticeable as a force actively at work. (More on division
in a moment).
In stating all of
this, please forgive my simplistic view of history—I did some digging, and it
appears that Bacon’s rebellion was complex and involved a lot of parties with
varying agendas, and historians today still debate the causes of the rebellion.
So please forgive any nuances I am overlooking. As I said in the beginning, I
am not a history buff, by any means.
But the point I
am trying to make—what I feel I’ve learned—is that it seems clear to me that
when people say racism is systemic, this is what they mean: it was DELIBERATELY
baked into the system of our lives hundreds of years ago.
So in order to
dismantle it, we are also going to have to be DELIBERATE.
It’s going to
take every single white person working to change the way they see the world and
the way they see race going forward. It’s not enough to say this doesn’t affect
me and so I’m not part of the problem. Nothing will ever change that way. We
have to educate ourselves, and we have to do it on purpose.
Here is how I am working
to change myself:
Read, and HEAR
the experiences of others. Don’t look away when the truths get hard.
Recognize and
understand that I am part of the problem.
Be humble in
admitting my own need to change.
Open my heart so
I am teachable.
Donate to
organizations that are actively working to dismantle racism in our country
Talk about what I
am learning in my in-person circles, with family and friends whose experiences
are similar to mine
Amplify POC
voices by buying books for and about POC from bookstores owned by POC
Read these books,
then talk about them with people within my sphere of influence
Read books that
are hard to read, too, about truths I have been ignorant of almost my entire
life. Work through them with the goal of achieving real change in myself.
Follow POC voices
on social media, listen to their words and allow them to change me.
*
Another thought I
had shortly after reading the passage in STAMPED is this: When the governor of
Virginia created these white privileges in the late 1600s, he did so in order
to divide the lower classes so they wouldn’t band together and become too
powerful. It’s chilling to think that these divisive tactics are probably still
being used today—wealthy powerhouses trying to stay on top by doing whatever
they can to divide, and essentially disarm, the rest of America.
Division is a very
powerful weapon. And its use often goes unnoticed as a weapon. One thing is
clear right now—we are divided. And so we are weak. It’s time to stop fighting
and come together, however we can. We are stronger together.
If you made it
this far, thanks for reading. If you’re white, I hope you’ll join me in trying
to do better. If you’re not white, thank you from the bottom of my heart for
sharing your stories with me. I see you. I stand with you.
Together we are
strong.
