White People: Listen Up

TW: racism, police brutality, anti-Black violence

Over the past 10 days, as I’m sure you’re all aware, mass protests have erupted across the USA and globally against police brutality, racism and white supremacy. These three things are inherent to the way our current world operates. People of colour, especially Black people, are more likely to be killed by police. Medical apartheid means Black and other people of colour are statistically more at risk of COVID-19, heart disease, and many other chronic health conditions. Black people, Indigenous people and other racialised people (e.g. those of Asian, Middle-Eastern, Polynesian ancestries) are unendingly abused, raped, seen as ‘less than’, relegated to the hardest and lowest paid jobs in our societies, fetishised, alienated, stolen from, bullied. The list of the effects of racism and white supremacy is infinite. 

Black people and other people of colour need to be listened to. We need to listen up and follow what they want to be done for their community. Here are some tips I hope will hope fellow white people reflect on: 

• Listen. But also speak up. Not to Black people, they don’t need to hear your voice right now, they are in mourning, rage and healing. Speak to other white people and non-Black people of colour who hold prejudice and racist views. Explain the history of racism and white supremacy our worlds are built on. There are two options which may help in different situations. 1. Stay Calm. Empathise with why they arrived at their standpoint. Immediately veer away from this standpoint and explain, inclusively, why that line of thinking is wrong and needs to be changed - as it’s violent. E.g. ‘I see why you would think ‘not all cops are racist’, because so-and-so is a cop and you like them/you’ve read some good stories about some police officers… but it’s impossible for there to be truly good cops within a policing system that is institutionally racist and harms Black and brown people daily. It’s like if there were a ‘few bad apples’ as people say there are about cops - if there were actually a ‘few bad apples’ that were KILLING people in food circulation, then ALL the apples would be recalled.’ // 2. Be angry. You are protected by your white privilege when you are angry and outraged. Use this anger, as fellow white people are much more likely to listen to you express it than listen to Black people with lived experience. It doesn’t make sense and it is deeply wrong that this is the case, but use your anger and your privilege to change people’s minds. 

  Talk to your parents, your grandparents, your teachers, your flat mates, your friends you haven’t spoken to in a while. Invite people into the conversation. 

• It is okay to make mistakes. Stay accountable and listen to the people most affected - Black people. Self criticism is key at this time. You do not have to be perfect all the time, just listen to people and act accordingly. Know that we are white people who have been socialised to experience your privileged position in society. Understandably we make mistakes when working towards anti-racism. Keep listening, learning and doing the work, even after the hashtags have gone quiet. 

• Share resources, donate to fundraisers for bail funds, for Black Lives Matter movements, to independent fundraisers for those affected by police brutality, for Trans women of colour who disproportionately experience transphobic and racist violence. 

Where to learn?

Read books:

Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People about Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis 

Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad - for her book selections see: https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2020/jun/03/do-the-work-an-anti-racist-reading-list-layla-f-saad

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 

Me, Not You by Alison Phipps 

So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo 

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Listen to podcasts: 

About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge

1619 by NYT

‘Race Traitor’ mini series on The Heart podcast 

How to Survive the End of the World by The Brown Sisters

This is Spoke podcast 

Sooo Many White Guys from WNYC 

Stance podcast 

Tell It, various mini series, Radio 1x

Trauma Queen 

Vulnerable Podcast 

Wanna Be

Follow social media accounts: 

Instagram: 

@laylafsaad

@gal-dem 

@stormzy 

@munroebergdorf

@maiyamichelle 

@claraamfo

@rachel.cargle 

@afuahirsch

@ukblackpride

I HIGHLY recommend getting on Twitter if you’re not already. So much information and activism is nurtured through that platform. Follow people like:

@ukblm

@ukblackpride

@travisalabanza

@tanyacompas

@livwynter

@mich_frazer

@noname

@alexander_erleon

@raquelwillis_

@Imani_Barbarin 

@IndyaMoore

Anti-racism is a never-ending project. We must always strive to be anti-racist in our life and work. Stand up for Black and Brown people in your life and all around you. 

Black people have been fighting for freedom for hundreds of years, from when they were first kidnapped from Africa by the British and enslaved in the new USA. None of our histories are innocent. Try to change that, be on the right side of history. 

BLACK LIVES MATTER. THEY HAVE ALWAYS MATTERED AND ALWAYS WILL.