Want to practice talking about Whiteness?
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I’m learning that talking to others, especially Other White People, is necessary for the work of reflecting on Whiteness, so I’m making this selfish request to you, Dear Reader:
I personally need the “talking to others about being white in America” practice.
If you need to talk to someone about Whiteness, please, talk to me. My BIPOC friends have enough weight on them as it is, so I’ll no longer rely on them to help me carry my Whiteness.
In my past, I let my BIPOC friends bear my weight because I hadn’t honestly tried to train my mind to handle uncomfortable realities, truths, and facts. In my past, I’ve shirked ownership of my personal, internalized racism. In doing so, I shirked truth, hid behind ignorance, and let others suffer for my inability to carry my self and my whiteness.
That’s what it is to be White, though. I don’t have to think about it. Thinking about race is a choice for White People like me. No one’s ever stopped me in the streets because of my skin color. No one thinks I’m a threat because of the way I look. I can live comfortably in my whiteness every day because I’m not systemically oppressed. My BIPOC friends are systemically oppressed. Thinking about race is not a choice for my BIPOC friends.
I’m White. I’ve the privilege to choose this work: I want America to live up to its promises of equality, so I’m starting with how I’ve allowed inequality in my past.
I want to think more about these difficult truths. I want to talk more about these uncomfortable realities.
I want to be strong-minded. I want to be anti-racist. I’m not there yet. Truly, I’ve yet to begin.
That means more work and more reading and more conversations and more training and more discomfort, and frankly, I just don’t want train alone because it’s hard work. Also, I think good training and good work are personal efforts, but great training and great work are team efforts.
I think America is losing its ability to work as a team. I hope I can start to help change that.
TL;DR:
If you’re struggling with whiteness: email me here. If there’s a weight I can help lift, I will.