Friday Thoughts On Racism — White People Are Not Our Enemy
I was recently in a LinkedIn exchange with a person from the US, who was obviously frustrated and upset by her treatment at the hands of white people. I was saddened to read such bitterness. Was this Black person racist against white people, yes I believe she was, because the comments expressed a desire for retribution in the form of dominance over white people. This is nothing short of black supremacy.
My response to her, “White people are not our enemy.”
Black people and people of colour have suffered and continue to suffer under various forms of racist oppression and injustice: colonialism, slavery, apartheid, separatist legislation and others. These are largely (but not wholly) perpetrated by white majority nations. Most recently a report was released which revealed that people of colour were not equally recognised for their ultimate sacrifice, in wars fought by their colonial rulers. So there is much to be done to seek redress for the injustices against us and our ancestors. There is also much soul searching and repentance required by nations that perpetrated and continue to support systems and laws that unfairly discriminate against Black people and people of colour.
But we must do this together, all of us!
I remember a recent conversation with a white friend where we used the example of a competition between runners; a race. I know that analogies fail at some point but please indulge me.
My white friend and I come from working class backgrounds in the UK, so both of us have an uphill start to our the race. Whereas our more privileged upper and middle class white peers are already racing on the flat at the top of the hill. As I approach the brow of the hill I can see my friend way ahead of me, and the others way ahead of him.
Now that we are all on the flat so the race is equal; actually not so. Even if we ignore the head start given to the others, why was I so far behind my friend when we had an equal disadvantage from the start? What you don’t realise, and what my white friend can’t or chooses not to see, is that I am carrying a 40 kg backpack of racism. This was passed down from generation to generation to me, and has been getting slowly lighter with each generation, but this is still such a heavy burden that I stand no chance of catching up with my friend or the others that are way ahead of us.
When I consider the race that my daughters have to run, I recognise that I have already handed some but not all of the burden to my daughters, due to the hard fought and won privileges I have earned. But they still carry the burden of racism and in the race with their white friends they are still being left far behind.
So my white friend asks me, “Why don’t you just take your backpack off?”
This sounds so much like, “You’re always playing the race card!”, or “If you just pull yourself up by your bootstraps like I have.” or “ You’re always after handouts” or the worst “You only got this position because you’re black/person of colour”. The fact is that this backpack was shackled to me when my ancestors were being enslaved and shackled more than 450 years ago. The shackles of racism have never been removed.
The person I spoke of at the beginning, complained that a prominent white anti-racism activist does not stand as an advocate for reparations, to those people groups who suffered under slavery, colonialism and occupation. I understand this complaint, especially when I read that the UK government only finished paying the debt incurred by reparations to slave owners in 2015. While reparations would be a significant step forward, I’m not sure this is sustainable in the long term. If I had the choice between justice and reparations I would choose justice every time. Justice is the bigger picture, reparations without justice is pointless. I believe what Black people and people of colour need is an equitable start in life without being shackled to the burden of racism.
For those of us Black people and people of colour that are alive now, we will never catch or overtake those who have the head start of privilege. This is a class system issue and that is a topic that I choose not to address. What we need to address for the generations coming after us, is to work together to ensure they are not shackled to the burden we now carry. This requires us Black people and people of colour to recognise that we are shackled and that want to have them removed. Yes, some of us are happy with the privileges we have earned and are even willing to deny the existence racism for fear of losing this privileged position. We also need our white friends to help us to remove the burden of racism now to enable the next generation to have an equal chance with their white peers.
