Who is responsible for educating white people about racism???

 A white friend of mine who is also an academician and phd professor decided a couple months ago, following the murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, that she wanted to hold a weekend zoom conference for white people who want to work to end racism.

Not my chosen format and not my group of peers, but when she put out the info requesting presenters for the conference, she got so much flack back from her peer group of mostly white folks that she caved into the bullying pressure and decided to can the project and put her energies elsewhere.

Their main objections were as follows:

    1) White people shouldn't be organizing, educating, informing white peopleI about racism but should look to Black and brown people for that education, etc.

    2) Much harm has come to Black people through the work of "anti-racist" white people

    3) White people cannot speak for Black people, therefore cannot present any workshops, etc.

These are not new 'objections' or stumbling blocks thrown into the path of white people - including myself - when attempting to usher white people to the anti-racism table. 

Here is my response in this particular case:

Dearest (especially) white people of this list:

I apologize, especially to Rebecca but also everyone, for not responding sooner to your criticisms and expressed opposition to our proposed weekend conference on racism awareness and anti-racism actions for white people.

I will address your concerns raised but the advantage to waiting so long to respond must mean that you have already done the work to identify and eliminate the barriers of racism present in your list that end up with this list and community being highly segregated.

So the first major concern I remember white people of this group had was that Black womyn should be the ones to teach white people about racism.

My racism-awareness flag flew off the pole at that statement.

I want to assure you that I - maybe like some of you - did not become an anti-racist yesterday or even a few years ago. I committed my life to anti-racism work five decades ago and I have listened carefully to what Black and brown womyn said 52 years ago and what most Black and brown womyn are saying today: “Do your own fuckin work around racism, take responsibility for educating yourselves and other white people. We are damned tired of saying the same thing over and over again.”

It is under this imperative I have been following the lead of Black and brown womyn by assisting white people in figuring out what the hell racism is and how we are going to dismantle it. Since then, I’ve been holding seminars, classes, workshops, one-on-one dialogues, actions, organizing, confronting, and smashing whatever racism I am able to smash.

Yes, white people have to read, watch, listen, experience the words and works of Black and brown womyn. EVERYTHING I know not only about racism but also about power and love and empowerment, change and justice, I have learned from Black and brown womyn. And some men.

And back 50 years ago, not many Black or brown especially womyn were being published by the mainstream, as opposed to today, there is a huge beautiful painful wealth of information and sources for white people to self-educate.

It is also a racist assumption to think that white people challenging racism is white people speaking for or about Black people. It is not. White people have to focus on what racism is, how it sits on our backs and weaponizes our actions, words, thoughts. We are talking about the need to know what racism does to white people, how white people benefit from racism, what is ‘white privilege’, what is ‘white supremacy’ – THIS is what a conference on racism focuses on and picks apart. The multitude of ways in which we not only are racist but continue to perpetuate racism.

Also, the fact that someone raised the point that white people who have claimed to be anti-racist were racist and have ended up hurting the Black community is an example of how little that person understands about racism.

First of all, ALL white people are racist. Our choice is only two-fold: to be an aware and active anti-racist or just a plain racist. Because a white person is striving to be anti-racist doesn’t mean we always succeed nor does it mean we’re not racist. We’re just striving, perfectly or imperfectly, successful or failing, to smash racism personally, institutionally, culturally, wherever it raises its egregious violence.

Second of all, are you really putting down white people who are overtly attempting to destroy racism? White people are sooooo inexperienced challenging racism and making a life-long commitment to ending racism, of course we are going to make mistakes. Of course we are going to get silenced and shamed and disparaged for to challenge racism is to speak truth to power and we all know how tenacious white hold and dependency on racism is.

One of the tenants of racism – as well as sexism, misogyny, all the isms in this country – is the superiority/inferiority mode that underlies almost everything we feel in this country. I felt that gleeful superiority expressed through some of the comments on this page. I think as white people who want to be responsible for ending racism, we have to get a grip on these moments of feeling superior and others inferior, and vice versa.

So if you’re feeling momentarily superior because you successfully blocked the attempt of a few white womyn to gather those of us deeply concerned about racism together to figure out what white womyn are going to do to end racism, please check yourself. And honestly look at your lives since the original announcement recruiting for this conference: how much of your life, your time, your energy, your actions have you committed to anti-racism work? Maybe tons, maybe little, maybe none. Only you know.

The bottom line, people, is that every single path white people can take to smash racism is important and worthy of our support if not participation. We need ALL of our ideas and actions – not one of us is or has been successful in finding the exact formula that will convince white people it is in our interest to smash racism.

I am offering zoom gatherings every Wednesday noon and Saturday 6pm east coast time for womyn concerned about racism called “What Will White Womyn Do To End Racism?” You’re invited to join! You can find more info at www.facebook.com/ButWhatCanIDo2018

 

In solidarity and action, Xan