Like most white people, I’m not sure what to say (my responsibility, not yours), so I’ll just do the best I know how right now. I vehemently disagree with 99% of the system we all live in. It’s absolutely unacceptable what you and all people of color have to deal with historically and on a daily basis. I keep reading, listening and learning. I take action daily to attempt to level the playing field. I truly don’t see life as a zero-sum game, the myth we’ve been sold, if one person wins, another person loses. I believe we only succeed together. I attempt to the extent of my conscious awareness, to walk the talk, not just spout platitudes.
I worked in the social services field for over a decade, primarily working with African-American children and their families. I was not there to save anyone, but instead to learn from Black leaders within that community and empower people to make their own choices. I had to remind my white staff of that frequently and reminded a white colleague of the same just two days ago.
To reiterate what you’re stating, while I was a staff in the nonprofit world, I rarely, if ever heard anything about how systemic racism, classism and sexism impacted people. Our stated goal at that time was to empower individuals, without recognizing the environment that was shaping their choices and opportunities (or lack of). It was the standard American message of, if you simply make different choices, everything will work out. It did for some of the girls I worked with, but certainly not for all.
As much as I’d like to, as a single white woman, I cannot singlehandedly change our taxation system, our prison system, our economic system, or our education system. I have no power there, no authority, no leverage, no network, not even an understanding of where to begin to unravel centuries of dysfunction.
What I do have the power to do is this: I can use my platform of 4000 followers to bring awareness every week of the inequities people of color are facing and how my audience can take action. I can vote in not only federal but local elections plus hold those officials responsible for following through on their promises. I can offer scholarships to my mentoring program for BIPOC and LGBTQ, to uplift diverse representation in leadership. I can call out racism in any form, every time I see it. I can donate, I can protest - I’ve done all of these things and will continue to do so.
But as much of a participant as you are in a late stage capitalist system, could I realistically quit my job in the hopes that a company I work for will hire a person of color in my place? (They probably won’t). If I’m homeless, starving and destitute, what power do I then have to affect change?
The assumption that every white person deliberately makes daily choices to keep black people down is not true for everyone. Some do, some are unconscious about how what they do impacts everyone and some try the best they know how to move the needle in their local sphere of influence.
I have many privileges because of the color of skin I was born with.
But regardless of perception, simply being born white does not mean that people at the top levels of our government and societal systems will listen to me or change anything.
It doesn’t mean I won’t keep trying until my last breath, but unfortunately, my skin is not an automatic passport to equity.
