As someone who navigates the world with the privilege of whiteness, I continue to puzzle over what exactly it is, that functions as a barrier to openness and learning around issues of race as they impact people systemically, and individually. I feel like one of the biggest stumbling blocks for white folks to address racism and work on our allyship with indigenous peoples and folks of colour, is held within the ego. The act of (active) denial, specifically, of racism, seems to be a reinforcing mechanism in whiteness that continually erases and shuts down learning and sensitivity to experiences and realities that do not conform to one's own experiences of access and advantage.
One can only suppose that the function of denial, in such moments, is to protect the fragile ego from the knowledge of complicity (allowing and enabling) racism, either directly or indirectly. In other words, the shame at discovering one has a responsibility they have been neglecting in addressing racism in daily life, coupled with the knowledge of the impact on those who face those very experiences, becomes overwhelming. One then actively takes steps to deny the reality of others so as not to feel a responsibility towards that suffering and grief - even those who may be friends, family, or even partners.
There are many excuses that folks who benefit from systems privileging whiteness come up with when faced with the task of being sensitive to the experiences of race and cultural genocide as told by indigenous peoples and folks of colour. We all read and see and hear these excuses all the time. They usually take the form of something like this....
a) Racism does not exist
b) systemic Racism does not exist
c) I do not enact Racism on an individual level either consciously or otherwise
d) I (as an individual) am not responsible for systems of Racism
e) I (as a "white" person) do not receive special benefits because I also experience oppression
f) My feelings are hurt for being Racist.
I want to take a moment to build on the conversations that are happening around accountability and challenging systemic power systems that continually produce traumas and inequities and create a racialized other. I know this knowledge is held in the experiences of people of colour and indigenous folks and that what I am about to write already exists in those knowledges. I am simply hopeful that it can provide another digestible format for understanding and beginning to dismantle these systems.
I think many white folks are afraid or discouraged to engage with anti-racism for fear of doing it wrong, or being wrong, and the subsequent shame around this. But, the fact of the matter is, dismantling systems of power over others which one may inadvertently be a part of and unconsciously help prop up does not take much effort at all. It takes humility. And, a desire to be a responsible human being who is invested in their own and others' personal growth and healing.
A lot of the work that folks with privilege and access can do could possibly be summed up in the following script:
1) Listen up!
2) Be Supportive!
3) Check Yourself!
4) Stand up!
Does this sound difficult? Let's break it down a bit.
1) Listen Up!
This means pay attention! Pay attention to all the information that is conveyed by those with lived experiences of being racialized and the impacts of this. This means seeking out information as much as possible on your own and not asking people with those experiences to teach you. You can become informed simply by paying attention, being sensitive, and actively listening to people's experiences when they choose to speak about them. You can also do your own internet research; seek out blogs by folks writing about these issues; go to bookstores or libraries that carry books on the subjects of white privilege, racism, racialization, colonization etc. Acting with entitlement that folks of colour and indigenous people teach you, is a way that you increase the emotional toll on folks already dealing with oppression in daily life. A simple way you can act responsibly is to do your own learning, continually, and PAUSE, STEP BACK, LISTEN and PROVIDE SPACE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENT when folks do choose to speak to you about it.
2) Be Supportive!
Essentially, being supportive means validating experiences of racism and racialization. It means that when you are so lucky as to be part of a conversation in which someone shares their own or another's experience of racism, whether it be on a systemic or individual level, you do not argue whether or not that person experienced what they - in fact, experienced. In arguing, you are seeking to diminish and deny said experience. When someone experiences trauma or violence, the listener's duty is to ensure that the person sharing feels safe enough to continue to share. Being supportive means affirming the weight of experiences of racism and the contexts which provoke them. It means honouring the individual or people for sharing this information with you. It also means vowing to disrupt those actions which feed into experiences of race based trauma and inequity in whichever ways one can, particularly, challenging other white folks to stop speaking and listen.
Which leads to the next point...and perhaps, the most psychologically loaded.
3) Check yourself!
Check your defensiveness. If you are feeling uncomfortable at the possibility of others' experiences of racism - YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK. Listen to that discomfort. Sit with it. Breathe it into your gut, and reflect on the knowledge that this experience is not your own, not about your pain at discovery - and is amplified beyond measure for those actually experiencing racial oppression. Defensiveness may come with the panic of knowing that one has been ignorant to the struggles of others, and feeling helpless in one's power at making changes to alleviate those struggles.
When you acknowledge your discomfort at hearing or learning about racism, you invite the possibility of empowering yourself and others to change these systems. Take a moment to be silent and reflect and resist the urge to speak and insert your experiences or feelings.
4) Stand up!
One of the biggest traps of having white privilege is feeling like you can't do anything about it. When we feel like we cannot do things to alleviate unequal power systems based in racial hierarchies (in this instance), we give up opportunities to change those very systems. We allow these systems to continue, unaddressed. We delay and derail the very work that is possible in changing ill systems - enlightening ourselves, and challenging others to do so as well. Change is preceded by acknowledgement. By taking a stand that supports and provides space for the experiences of others and actively challenges denial and silencing of those experiences - we create the opportunity for mass movement. A simple way to stand up is to start affirming the experiences of indigenous folks and people of colour, and start challenging your white friends around their own denial of these experiences.
Checking one's self involves self reflection. It means humbling ones self in accepting the knowledge that one can take action to do the personal work necessary to disrupt systems of inequity that silence and erase others. This means working through the guilt experienced in acknowledging unequal advantages received for whiteness.... and ensuring that guilt does not act to deny and invalidate experiences of racism. A deliberate lifelong commitment to checking one's defensiveness, being sensitive to and affirming other's experiences can begin to challenge the unearned advantages one receives for being white in oppressive systems.
Checking yourself opens you to the possibility of moving away from helplessness, and into action.
