LISTEN. PARTICIPATE. EDUCATE. ACT.
LISTEN…
I am weary of promoting hope. My heart is cold and tired of longing for justice. I came to know about racism in America. I was born in West Africa. We watched those dreadful shadows of colonization and apartheid, in the south and east of the continent, shatter the lives of our people. I also read of the struggles of Black folk in America, but real-time accounting and my first-hand encounters with racism came when I emigrated here. I state that as no excuse. It is merely to point out that I cannot escape reality by ignoring its presence because I am not responsible for how it started, or that it was my ancestors’ problem and not mine. I am here, I have been here for thirty years, this is my home now. This is my fight.
This fight transcends my heritage but is anchored in my skin tone, my soul, my simple existence as a person of color; a Black woman. We are constantly reminded by these atrocities that ours is not an existence that holds value in this system. My lens today is not focused on the good many. I acknowledge that there are people who see me as equal, but I am very aware of the plenty who see me as beneath them; inferior, unworthy. I speak to the countless carriers of knees that continually rip life and hope out of the bodies of black and brown peoples. I speak to the many who will not sacrifice their comfort or privilege to stand up or speak up against these injustices. I speak of us and our pain.
We have tried for ages to find the right words, to protest in the right ways, to express our frustrations in manners you have prescribed as appropriate, yet you have failed to hear us. The very premise of our existence in this space, your beautiful land of the free, is rooted in your savage removal of us from our dignified states to serve you and to build the very institutions you continue to use against us. You are handicapped by your egos that have falsely assured you that you are better than us. When you estimate divine order you erroneously situate us at the bottom of that ladder. Your system repeatedly denigrates us, while serving your selfishly curated agenda designed to consistently best us. You have been perpetrator, judge, and jury on the fate of a people for whom you’ve succeeded in creating a myriad of nuanced angles of the same monolithic view. They are angry, they are defiant, they are unruly. George Floyd is dead today because law enforcement deemed him angry, defiant, and unruly.
We lag in healthcare, education, housing, finances, and on pretty much every marker on social and economic scales. The Black family has disintegrated under the weight of a colossal knee, your justice system. American justice disproportionately levies harsher sentences on Black people for similar missteps made by our White counterparts. The weight of your knee chokes my confidence, my brilliance, and my light. When we give voice to our realities, you do not relent, you press on but call us angry.
You feign admiration for our culture yet draw margins to demarcate where and how we can play. Your ever so divisive policies have maintained those red lines that relegate us to the pits of well-orchestrated strata. Thereby resigning us to the least offerings.
All of this is not news to you. You have heard it before, but have you listened? This time you will listen, and you will do so with compassion and without defense. I am telling you of the wrongs your forefathers have done because they are the laurels upon which your current privilege lies. The benefits you enjoy are historically girdled by the schemes of your racist predecessors who suppressed opportunities for people like me. We expect patience and compassion when you listen because it is the only way we shall move forward.
PARTICIPATE…
These disparities are not new; they have been a problem for a long time. A problem for which it seems a reckoning has come. We are at the cusp of something remarkable when it comes to racism in America, the most effective action is changing. It cannot be any other way. A change will come and with it the need for creating spaces for real dialogue that results in action. We have been talking for a while. Action is the demand, and I suspect it will be from now on.
Your silence sanctions your complacency in privilege; and it is not enough to tell us that you are not responsible for the actions of your forefathers, or that you have a token Black friend; or that you do not see color. The crisis that is bigotry, which in turn leads to racism, has gone on for too long and you cannot be excused with a pass anymore. Those extra points for participation will now be counted, and your wholehearted presence is required. When and where it has felt the most uncomfortable is exactly what is needed now; sit in discomfort for a little while, because that is precisely where we predict you will be before you decide to act. We ask that you not stay there too long because time is of the essence. These protests you now see, and maybe even condemn are only emblematic of the over four centuries of the brutality, the injustice, and the hate that is racism.
Use your voice. Standing by and staying silent does not absolve you of the ills of injustice; it makes you complicit. Do not turn a blind eye to your gauge of the weight of the knee because it is not on your neck. You do see that it is heavy, so help take it off ours.
EDUCATE…
Ignorance of these atrocities cannot be excused anymore. They occur everywhere. Countless names across the country. So many families devastated by these tragedies. Horrific acts of violence perpetrated on unarmed men and women, and with impunity. These habitual offenses are rooted in the abuse of power and often with conceit guaranteed by no reprimand; no consequences.
Regard for our lives can only come from education about us as people. Dehumanizing Black people comes easily when you fail to see our dignity; when you are misinformed about us. Stereotypes are often based on miseducation. If you have failed up until now, it’s not too late, even though you have no excuse, because there are countless titles and lists curated to help you understand the history of racism in America. There is no shortage of tools with which to access this information either, the most efficient of these being this very information superhighway-the internet. How America has managed to routinely graduate students from some middle and high schools with such scanty details about slavery never ceases to amaze me.
Fund schools enough to be able to bring speakers, educators, and other professionals who are experts that will help your constituents unpack issues of race and race relations. Stop spending just the bare minimum that will narrowly permit you to check the box; invest in the work. Law enforcement does not only need consequences for blatant misconduct and bloody murder, they need retraining; departmental leadership reorganization, and policy reform. Economic policies and practices need to be completely overhauled so they can benefit minorities too. Abandon divisive zoning that results in underfunded and dismally failing communities. Criminal justice reform is imperative and oh so long overdue. We are tired of the routine debasement of people of color, by limiting many of us to schemes designed to marginalize and disparage us.
You may think I paint too gloomy a picture, and you’ll think it isn’t as bad as I say it is because you know a Black colleague who’s doing just as well as you. Here’s what I can tell you as surely as the sun shall rise tomorrow, she has had to work twice as much to be doing just as well as you. He has had to climb every rung of the ladder under the weight of that knee, you might have climbed just as high on the same ladder, but your neck was free.
ACT…
When you know better, do better. After all, it would be an absolute shame to have listened, taken some part, even read through this piece only to sit still and do nothing. Act. Interrupt patterns. If you can call changemakers, then do so. If you can donate to causes, then do so. If you can get involved at grassroots and community levels to organize for systemic change, do that too. Active, meaningful engagement is what it will take. If your thing isn’t committing to the daunting task of reading all the resources for books and publications you can find online, then listen to them, or find videos and watch them. Simple, practical ways you can learn, and teach others.
If you are in a position of influence or power always find ways to include black voices, and yes, all other minority voices too. Be inclusive. Be fair and embrace equity. Find a good balance and seek varied perspectives.
Stand up for racial justice. Be a change agent, don’t settle into the complacency of your privilege. Read, exchange ideas with Black people. She is not your token friend that gets invited to things most times so you could fill the diversity quotient or conscience; get to know her. It’s often a small step, a smile, a genuine gesture that can make all the difference. Many of you are genuine friends to us and we know you see our pain. We know you will stand up for the cause. Yet so many others are duplicitous or hesitant to engage. Now is the time to step up not for just the Black race but all in the human race, and if your knee is a burden please cast it aside so we can breathe.
