We can, and we must, end white supremacy. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏻
Two things to say here. If you’re black: Please let me know if you have anything I can signal boost for you in my IG stories, or if you just need a friendly ear.
If you’re white: Some of you may already be out there fighting the fight, and good on you. But I imagine many of you are like me, and you’ve had feelings of shame, guilt and embarrassment emerge this week which have left you at times (or always) feeling paralyzed and unsure of what to do. This has led to your silence, which you may know to be complicity, but you feel afraid to speak out for fear of saying the wrong thing in the wrong spaces. Part of how the white supremacist system maintains itself is to not teach white people how to speak about race, so it’s no surprise that these conversations make you uncomfortable.
Let me give you one action item, because while there is of COURSE so much to do, so many places to donate, so many petitions to sign, that’s all surface work that won’t stick without meaningful self-transformation.
READ THE BOOK “WHITE FRAGILITY” (https://g.co/kgs/2XWbRR)
I’m in the middle of it myself, and it has been hugely helpful in giving me tools for how I can talk about race and work with my guilt to be a better ally. One thing that I think is really important is to let all your ugly feelings (shame, resentment, anger) come up and to get them out so you can sort through where they came from and why you feel that way.
Please feel free to message me if you’ve been feeling paralyzed by conflicting thoughts. I won’t judge you, and we can work through it together, as we should: do NOT dump this stuff on the black people in your life - it is not their responsibility to do emotional labor for us. Racism is a problem of whiteness, and again, if you read “White Fragility” as a place to start, you will understand why. Your shame may be resisting the notion, thinking it will make you feel worse, but I promise you: it will only help you to have better tools of understanding on this subject.
Again, you can DM me if you have questions or need a friendly ear to help you become un-stuck: the only real allies are those who know how to take action!
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