White Privilege - Feeding the Soil

This piece (written by Tenaja Jordan and shared by my colleague Britt Hawthorne) is lingering in my mind.

But all of you, truly all of you, are ignorant when it comes to
understanding the depth and multifaceted nature of our pain as black
people. We are not African, having been removed from the continent for
generations. Our status as Americans was never truly conferred. And so
the middle place, the chasm between African and American, is where
blackness exists. I can’t be your friend right now because I’m fresh out
of the magnanimity that such a friendship requires. I really don’t want
to know how difficult it is for you to talk to racist family members
while people like me are systematically being killed or otherwise
erased. I don’t want to help you brainstorm ways to “use your privilege
for good.” I’m not here to “wokify” you.

Every weekend I come to this blog and spend a little bit of time escaping from the atrocities of our world and country. On a daily basis I am thinking about inequity, disparities, systemic racism, oppression, domination, hatred, white supremacy, bias, and privilege and actively trying to do something to make the world better for all people through my work.

When I come here, I want to take a break by talking about frivolous things like meals I’m making, crafts I’m doing, and changes we are making to our house.

I am constantly aware of how this space embodies my privilege. I have immense privilege to “take a break” from thinking about all the atrocities because I am white, live in economic comfort, am cis-gender and heterosexual, am able-bodied, live in a conventional marriage, etc. I am not in imminent danger like so many others are. And it feels icky. It feels icky to “take a break” here. And yet we all do need to take a break to restore our energy and ourselves so that we can go back out there.

I’m sitting with it.

6 Comments

Ceka

April 9, 2018 at 3:15 pm Reply

If it feels icky, it might not be much of a break! We all have a need to live with integrity, to have our words and actions match our values. When there's a split between what we value and what we do, we don't feel right!

You might actually feel better, about this space and in general, if you bring in the things that matter the most to you. And there are a lot of ways to do that without giving up on practices that are restorative to you.

Ideas: making the connection between self/family care and sustaining engagement for the long haul. Cultivating a diverse home and classroom library. Talking about drawing the connection between tending a garden and learning about nature. A book review of Raising White Children, which is a great resource for raising white kids in a racially unjust society and having (great! frequent! Conversations about race and racism with kids of all ages). Talking about how the way we spend our time, money, and attention can uphold our values. Talking about how building and maintaining relationships builds the ties that allow for genuinely effective organizing and mobilizing.

There might just be something inside you that wants to bring your blog into alignment with the rest of your life. It's something to explore.

Nora

April 10, 2018 at 2:20 pm Reply

Reading her longer piece, I take her point to be that white people might be better allies if they consider more deeply what they share on social media and the privilege that comes with disengagement. Thank you for sharing, worth taking time to think about for all of us.