Dear Fellow White People...
I have a favor to ask of all of you.
The next time someone, on social media or IRL, accuses you or points out aspects of your speech or your behavior that betray or may be interpreted as systemic racism, take it.
Not let it bounce off you. Not absorb it until it dissolves to nothing in your minds. TAKE IT. Take the criticism of others who know more about things than you do with everything you have. Take it like a pill that’s hard to swallow. Assimilate it into your bones and your lungs. As your throat grows accustomed to swallowing it, let it breathe with you. Don’t throw it away. Don’t spit it out, no matter how bitter it may seem at first.
These pills are there to make you better. They heal the wounds and destroy the poisons that live inside each and every one of us. It’s not just about how we were brought up, but how we chose to perpetuate that upbringing through our choices and our actions.
To be clear, I am not claiming that all white people are racist, nor is it my intention to sound like I’m ranting about this. But our own fragility in times of great distress and social change like these have hindered our ability to truly take a stand with the people who need our support for too long.
Take it. Don’t just bury it in the ground, plant it like a seed. Nourish it, and watch it flower within you. Because, deep down, you know that you have the strength to become better. The patience to listen and to let others speak who have been silenced for too long.
Speaking from personal experience, letting other people’s comments turn your beautiful heart against itself, make you lash out only to get bitten again, is not the way to grow into a more socially mature person. This goes for people of all races, but I believe that white people in particular have to hear this now more than ever. Change is overdue. The time to change came centuries ago, lodged underneath our skin, and has never left. It will never leave unless we take positive, healing action.
I ask all of you to take this favor and foster it. Let it grow in your minds and clear away the pain in your hearts. The pain we face will always be far lesser than that of the black and brown people in our communities. Take it. Don’t just react the next time someone criticizes you or calls you racist. Act. Even if they are wrong, if they don’t know you, use your wisdom proactively, examine what you said that might have been interpreted that way by someone. This isn’t walking on eggshells. It’s forging a new path ahead that is wide enough for everyone to travel, regardless of their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, creed, or physical/mental abilities.
Take your pride and smash it against the wall. Use the broken pieces to build something stronger than before. Take the pain. Walk the same.
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