Over the last few weeks, while the citizens of this country and other countries fight against racial injustice and inequality, I have seen an immense increase in the amount of racial quotes and resources shared. One quote that’s been circulating over and over again, is by Angela Davis: “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
White people have come to the stark and painful realization that many of their friends, coworkers, family members, and neighbors have a different lived-experience because of the color of their skin. Many people that I follow have been expressing that they have unconsciously turned a blind eye, or genuinely weren’t aware of these racial inequalities, and are finally waking to the idea of where the work really lies: anti-racism. And while I fully commend, support, and agree that we must be ANTI-racist in the pursuit of eliminating white supremacy—there’s a lack of accountability that feels problematic.
How can you assume you aren’t racist? Is it fair to skip over the giant step of self-assessment, which entails reviewing one’s history, thoughts and internal bias, to immediately join the fight against racism? I’m not implying that we shouldn’t be fighting against systemic racism now, but while we do that, we also need to look inward, because that is where the *real* very vulnerable, shameful, and painful work lies.
In an effort to navigate this work, we need to learn (and then unlearn) conscious and unconscious internal racism, and so I’m opening it up to our community: In what ways have you been complicit in upholding a white supremacist society? Because while it might be easy to blame society or our government, we are our society and we voted for our current government. For real change, we must look inwards and ask ourselves how we’ve been complicit. We must excavate our ugly in order to create the beauty we wish to see in the world.
How have you been complicit?
Comment down below.
The post We Ask, You Answer: How Have You Been Complicit? appeared first on On Our Moon.
