white people hate being called racists

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

white people hate being called racists

we want to believe that somehow, magically, racism ended before we were born. that somehow, all that racism happened before we were ever responsible for anything.

and lost on us is that it is the greatest of white privilege to assert that what we say - goes, that racism ends when we say it ends, that there is no racism because we don’t see it.

if the willful ignorance of race were an olympic event, it would be in the winter (white) olympics and the medal stand would be snow white.

racism can’t exist if no one talks about it - that’s the white way. call a white person racist and be ready for the onslaught of white lady tears or white male rage. these upsets hide our fear and prevent us from ending racism. the outrage serves to keep racism intact and operating without challenge.

to every white person claiming that they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, I’ll have you look just where those bootstraps came from. they were carved out of the hide of a black, brown, red or yellow body. the bodies we stole this land from. the bodies we slaughtered for mineral rights. the bodies who died making the presents we offered to other white people at holidays.

every denial is an act of racism and denial is the most vicious act of all. it obliterates and erases and denies the voices of the human beings who feel the blade of racism. it is racism wrapped in piety and fueled by a cowardly blood lust.

there is no god to absolve this, there is no good reason. there is only the choice to be clear about who and what we are in order to access the means to interrupt it; or we keep our privilege and just pretend that it is not there.

white people hate being called racists - because we are, and the truth hurts. when the pain of racism outweighs the benefits of racism, we will grudgingly and belatedly end this human stain.