WHITE
PEOPLE DO
SOMETHING
I want to
address this
month’s
newsletter to my
white friends
and colleagues.
We can stay
friends and
disagree on many
things. We can
stay friends and
have wildly
different
opinions about
politics,
religion, or
almost anything
else. We
cannot, however,
stay friends and
disagree about
our
responsibilities
as white people
when people of
color are
suffering and
endangered. I
have been
extremely
disappointed in
many people I
considered
friends and I am
saddened to cut
them out of my
life, but I have
no choice when
it becomes
apparent that
they are
actively
contributing to
ignorance and
hatred. I will
not have that in
my life.
I don’t know
when it became
impossible for
some people to
imagine that
others have
different
experiences or
to care about
that. Some of my
(former) friends
have said things
that are clear
illustrations of
the inability or
unwillingness to
see the world
through anyone’s
lens but their
own. Maybe you
were always that
way and I just
never saw it.
Or maybe you
have become
hardened through
the years. In
either case, I
wish you well
and hope you
find peace of
mind, but am
saying goodbye
to any of my
white friends
who refuse to
understand why
some of the
things you say
are hurtful and
harmful.
I won’t address
all of them, but
let’s focus on
just one - All
lives matter.
- ALL
lives
are not
endangered in
the same way.
- Saying
this is
disregarding
disparities
and dismissing
concerns about
them. It is a
way of
diverting the
focus from
where it is
needed.
- ALL
men
are not being
killed by
police. BLACK
men are.
- ALL
women are not
disproportionately
dying in
childbirth. BLACK
women are.
- ALL
children are
not drinking
water with
lead in it. BLACK
children are.
- Black
Lives Matter
does not mean
ONLY Black
Lives Matter.
Ask yourself
why that is
what you are
hearing.
- All
lives matter
is the same as
you saying
your feet hurt
and my
responding
that my
shoes are
comfortable.
- All
lives matter
is the same as
you saying you
miss your dead
child and my
responding
that all
children
matter.
- All
lives matter
is divisive.
It is a
conscious
refusal to
acknowledge
and care about
the pain
others
experience.
It is an
attempt to
silence and
invalidate
Black voices.
LGBT people and
people of color,
religious
minorities and
immigrants
experience and
are harmed by
structural and
systemic bias
even if you are
not. Why is
that impossible
for you to
acknowledge?
Some of our
populations
experience this
democracy, this
health care
system, this
educational
system, this
criminal justice
system, this
economy, and
American
citizenship
differently than
you do. Why is
that impossible
for you to
recognize? Or to
speak out
against? Why can
you not see that
this is our
responsibility
as white people
to do
something?
To speak up. To
say something.
To not
participate in
harming others.
To take action
to fix this. To
support those
who are in pain
and scared.
So many white
people have
suddenly become
great followers
of MLK in
conflating
protest with
rioting. “MLK
would roll over
in his grave.”
“MLK this.” “MLK
that.” “MLK the
other.” Well if
you are one of
them, here is an
MLK for you, “In
the end we
remember not
the words of
our enemies,
but the
silence of our
friends.”
Silence is
complicity and
if you are
silent when our
fellow citizens
need your voice,
you and I are
done.
As long as you
are busy citing
MLK, why not
also quote
Eldridge
Cleaver? “If
you are not
part of the
solution, you
are part of
the problem.”
And if you
choose to remain
part of the
problem, not
because you
didn’t
understand it,
but because you
actively refuse
to understand
it, you hold
values that are
irreconcilable
with many
others. You
certainly hold
values that
preclude a
friendship with
me. You can stay
in your own
decade or
century, but the
rest of us are
moving on
without you.
BLACK
LIVES MATTER |