I wish white people would be less nice and well-meaning about racism and a hell of a lot madder about it.
And I don't mean cutesy theatrical "Ugh racism makes me so mad!! >:(" stuff when it's hip and they can do it without offending their other white friends, I mean the kind of belly-deep, boiling, bursting rage when you really *get* how fucked up and wrong all this is, how much has already been ripped away and will be ripped away by the systemic dehumanization of Black and Indigenous peoples. The kind of anger that drives you to tell your friends to go fuck themselves. No more pledges to "do better," no more teachable moments where you treat the pain of BIPOC as opportunities to better yourselves. No more belief in "progress," no more comfortable distance that gives you the benefit of being beatifically benevolent.
If white people can't feel anti-racism to be THEIR OWN fight that they have skin and blood and guts in then they will, at best, be placating bystanders and whiny "allies" who demand to be carried and catered to at every step.
“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is tied up with mine, then let us work together.”
- #LillaWatson, an #Aboriginal activist from unceded #Gangulu land in central Queensland of so-called #Australia, alongside the other activists who developed these words with her
In short, white people: Be race traitors not because you feel sorry for poor helpless POC and want to "save" us because eurgh no, but because your humanity, your freedom, your and your children's futures, and life itself on this planet depend on dismantling whiteness. It is a fight for your survival, too.
@ljwrites I have always loved this quote, and have spent a lot of time thinking about it esp. over the last few days...
@hafnia yeah I don't even remember where I saw it first (possibly even on the Fedi), but it stayed with me so deeply I remembered enough that I could find attribution. Such a perfect phrasing of the meaning of solidarity.
@ljwrites yeah. strictly to the point and so well-put.
The above quote post has been corrected thanks to feedback from @s0 , in a thread that was regrettably stranded when I deleted the original: https://cathode.church/@s0/105512397058100672 Thanks so much for the help!