non-black people of color:
just because we fall outside
of the black/white binary
does not mean we are exempt
when people drop knowledge
or calls to action
directed at white people
about racism and anti-racism.
you can still be a benefactor and perpetrator of white supremacy even if you are not white. yep, even as a person of color. this is why we need terms like “anti-black racism”— to signify the expanse between this phenomena and racism in general. this is why we must name, explicitly, that black lives matter.
anti-racism is a practice that nbpoc must fervently adopt.
a few years ago, i spoke to former LAPD— a black man— who served on the police force in the 80s and 90s; this all has been happening. state sanctioned lynchings and violence against black people has always been rampant— since before smartphones and the internet.
“all lives matter” is a given, but “black lives matter” is something society apparently needs to be told— over and over and over and over again. the black lives matter movement was started in 2013. their calls for humanity and action have always been the same— calls that somehow largely continued to fall on deaf ears. by some weird pandemic grace, the world is now listening.
for non-black people of color who think they are exempt— we should be listening just as keenly as white people; we are in a unique position to be allies to black folk and are in just as unique a position to cause harm if we don’t appropriately assume our responsibilities. in certain ways, the harm we’ve caused and can further cause black people is worse than the harm caused by our white counterparts— it is betrayal. in sharing an oppressor, black people are our siblings in struggle— whether or not we are even consciously aware of all the ways in which we, too, are oppressed.
white supremacy is a system, an ethos, a virus that’s woven itself into our very fabric; though we benefit from it in different ways and to a lesser degree than white folk, white supremacy makes nbpoc instruments of oppression in our own right— whether or not we realize it;
by being a “non-racist” nbpoc, your silence and inaction aids the oppression of black people via passive complicity, which activates and perpetuates harm; when non-black people of color think they are exempt from their responsibility to be anti-racist, we become de facto weapons for white supremacy;
whether or not we intend to, we become proof for white systems of power: “hey, these other browns aren’t really saying or doing anything, so looks like they probably agree with us; whatever those black people over there are up in arms about must not really matter— they’re probably just being extra.” in general, white people know that nbpoc are also oppressed; so when we are problematic, even out of our own ignorance, they co-opt our shittiness to buoy their own conscious and subconscious anti-black agendas.
it can sometimes feel complicated to also call out non-black people of color when naming the work white people need to do. so, when you see white people being called out or called on about racism and anti-racism, particularly by black folk and nbpoc, do an honest check in; you might find that you need to call yourself out, too.
i regularly quietly take notes, check myself on my internalized shit, and make adjustments to my racist thoughts, beliefs, and behavior. i invite you to do the same.
anti-blackness is the root of all racism and white supremacy. so i do not stutter when i say that our collective liberation as human beings is inextricably tied to the liberation of black people; none of us are free until all of us are free— there are so many levels to this, that i can’t even begin to articulate them. white people? prisoners of their own racism, ancestry, and enculturation— they, too, are not free.
though our essential nature is freedom, the history and current climate of this earth do not support such an existence at present. none of us are truly free in this human form right now. none. of. us.
though our current reality is bleak, it is not static; we can raise our vibration, our speech, our thought, our beliefs, our actions— all of it. this is anti-racism work. liberation work. non-black people of color have remained silent, inactive, and complicit in regards to anti-black racism and white supremacy for too too long.
my people. feel me, get with me: let’s create new norms that mean something. tell your socials, tell your mama, tell your cousin, tell your coworker where brown folk stand, and let's get to work.
