Several weeks ago, I posted to my instagram story several posts from Black people about how making Juneteenth a national holiday felt much more like performative actions than actual anti-racist efforts. One of the posts included was from Twitter user @YesAurielle, whose tweet read: “Gaslighting is making Juneteenth a federal holiday while banning critical race theory in schools, destabilizing COVID mutual aid efforts, refusing to defund and abolish police, and blocking reparations legislation. Go play in someone else’s face, America.”
While there were plenty of other good posts in the mix from others on the performative, rather than genuine, nature of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday, this one in particular had someone (a police officer) DMing me and asking if I’m in favor of defunding/abolishing the police.
At the moment I wasn’t in a good headspace, freaked out a bit and never actually responded. I can see now that it was a trauma/anxiety response, but here’s what I’ve been thinking about as an answer to that question; this is what I wish I would’ve said, after giving myself some time and space to calm down and breathe and prepare for an important conversation with another white person.
There are different solutions people see to the problem of police brutality. Some believe in reforming the police, others believe in abolishing/defunding the police; even among BIPOC there are differences of opinion on what should be done. But something needs to be done. Because historically – and still now – the way that some marginalized people, such as Black people, are treated by the police is not only harmful and dehumanizing, but for many people, it’s deadly.
I’m a white person. I don’t fully feel safe around cops, but I know that my white privilege means it is very unlikely I would be seriously harmed or killed by police (and if I were, it would be for something other than my skin color). I and a Black person could be having the same interaction with a cop, and I would have a much greater chance of being safe and unharmed afterward.
I could talk about my thoughts on reforming vs defunding/abolishing the police, but the thing is, me sharing my thoughts/feelings on that won’t save Black lives. It won’t end police brutality. It may encourage, or at the very least not do anything to stop, racism & white supremacy even if my intention is to fight back against those evils.
I believe that this conversation should be led by Black people.
And yes, it’s true that Black people aren’t a monolith. Every single Black person will not hold all the same opinions or views on this subject (or any subject, for that matter). I’m not ignoring this or pretending it’s not true.
But they are the ones most victimized, most harmed, most at risk in encounters with police officers. They’re far more likely to be killed, regardless of whether they are innocent or guilty, because non-black people may perceive them as threats rather than as human beings, who have just as much dignity and worth as every other human being.
I recommend looking through the names and stories listed on this site https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html to get an idea of just how quickly the murder of Black people is justified, whether the person is innocent or guilty. Even if they are guilty, they should still be alive. Murdering someone is not justice for crimes, nor does it make wrongs right.
If I were to say I’d prefer policing to remain as is, or to have police reform but not defunding or abolishing the police, that would be placing my opinion above the lives of Black people.
Fellow white people, please understand that though our feelings are valid, seeing them as the most important part of this conversation is dehumanizing and wrong. It is sinful to assume that we think we know how to best address oppression that isn’t happening to us (and that, intentionally or unintentionally, we may very well be playing a part in upholding).
Black Lives Matter.
We have got to start seeing Black people for who they are – people who are inherently worthy and loved, people who have the Imago Dei, people who deserve so much better than how this country and this world often treat them. We have to understand this isn’t about us. If we insist on saying what our opinions are, what our thoughts & feelings are, then we are placing our perspectives above others’ lives. We are playing into the ideology that white people are superior, even if we don’t want to or mean to go along with that idea. We have to look inside us and around us to see what problems are happening, and how we can fight back against racism and white supremacy – because whether evil is subtle or obvious, small or large, vague or straightforward – evil is evil. And our fellow human beings, especially those who lack some privilege(s), deserve the dismantling of systems and powers that have oppressed (and still do oppress) them.
I am certainly not an expert on anti-racism. It breaks my heart how long it took for me to realize anti-racism is a necessity. I grieve for the years that I (even unknowingly, unintentionally) upheld racism and white supremacy, because I believed that just being “not racist” was enough. BIPOC have been telling us that we are either racist or anti-racist. Just being “not racist” is more passive; and truthfully, as someone who has been there before, I believe that being “not racist” is actually closer to racism than anti-racism. Maybe you never use racial slurs, you oppose slavery, you recognize the existence of white privilege, etc. but if you aren’t committed to learning and growing and doing better, and to starting or continuing on the journey of anti-racism, you’re most likely “not racist” rather than anti-racist. We can do better, and we need to do better.
Additionally: for those of you who say you are pro-life, this is a pro-life issue. I’ve written about this before on the blog, on social media posts, and said it in conversations with people, but it bears repeating: if you’re only pro-life when it comes to babies in wombs, you are pro-birth, not pro-life.
Being genuinely pro-life means advocating for all who are marginalized or oppressed – BIPOC, LGBTQ+ people, disabled/chronically ill people, religious minorities, immigrants & refugees, people living in poverty, etc. Simply opposing abortion doesn’t give you the moral high ground or make you truly pro-life.
I fully believe my anti-racism journey should have started much earlier than it did, but wallowing in regret cannot change the past, and it cannot make any of my previous mistakes or wrongdoings right. It just can’t. And so I commit to learning, listening, understanding, growing, and doing what I can to make this world a better place. I’m learning ASL currently because as a disabled & chronically ill person, accessibility matters a lot to me. Learning ASL is a way I can push back against ableism and stand with/for those who are d/Deaf and hard of hearing. Similarly to anti-racism, I’m still pretty new to ASL, and it will take awhile before I could truly be an ally or advocate (which, by the way, is not up to me to determine. In the ways that I’m privileged, it is up to marginalized people to determine if I’m an ally/advocate for them or not. That’s certainly my hope and my goal as I learn more about different means of oppression and marginalization, but I do not get to just declare that about myself.) But learning, growing, trying, failing, succeeding, etc. are all part of the journey to be anti-racist and anti-ableist* (and anti- any other form of injustice).
*I want to make a note that while I myself am neurodivergent, disabled, and chronically ill, and often face ableism in my day-to-day life – this doesn’t mean I never have been or never can be ableist. My experience doesn’t capture the experiences of every single person or diagnosis or symptom. So while on some level I know more personally about how to be anti-ableist, there are plenty of things I’m still learning about anti-ableism. It is entirely possible for minorities to uphold systems and powers that are corrupt and oppressive. There were times when I as a girl/woman, who grew up in conservative white evangelical Christianity, upheld things like patriarchy and purity culture. Girls and women are often marginalized and silenced in contexts like that, but there are those who continue to uphold those things, intentionally or unintentionally. Similarly, some BIPOC may side with oppressors rather than other BIPOC. The same can be said of religious minorities, LGBTQ+ people, immigrants, etc. But just because some people of a minority group let certain things slide doesn’t mean they’re right or that they’re the ones we need to be listening to or idolizing. No, we have to look at these groups as a whole and see what the majority of those groups say is best for their safety and well-being.
White privilege is real. And those of us who have white privilege ought to be committed to doing the right thing for BIPOC. We must be willing to face racism head-on, both on individual and systemic levels, and do the work of tearing it down and building racial justice and equality.
Through Her Eyes 