Over the last several months, every morning when I read the news I have felt physically sick.I consider myself to be fairly politically active. I call my Members of Congress and occasionally meet with their offices. I subscribe to 10 different political podcasts. I read CNN, FOX, BBC, Al Jazeera, IRIN, New York Times and The Skimm. I marched in the Women’s March and actively track social justice movements.
Over the last few weeks, between a busy work schedule and to take care of my mental health I decided to take a step back from the political fray. While I still tuned in for the big events (the Senate [lack of a] plan on health care, the crisis with North Korea), I cut down on my daily media diet. I tried to spend less time on social media. I worried about falling into cause fatigue.
What happened at Charlottesville reminded me that taking a step back from the political fray is a big pile of BS. To say, “I am going to step back for awhile” is, in itself, an example of my privilege in society. You see, I am a cisgender, white, woman from an upper-middle class politically-mixed family. I can claim self-care all I want (hell, I wrote a blog post about self-care after the election), but that luxury isn’t allowed to most people, only those who belong to the culture of power. The same system that encourages white supremacy and protects the right of white people to take up torches and march through the street chanting the nazi slogan "blood and soil" benefits me and affords me a degree of privilege People of Color do not have. You can guarantee that the situation would have been handled differently if it had been People of Color marching with torches and assault rifles.
Transgender persons don’t have the luxury of saying, “I am going to take today off” when last year was the deadliest year on record for Transgender Americans.
People of Color don’t have the luxury of saying, “Not today” when they are violently targeted by the very structures of our society.
The only reason I can say I am going to take a step back is because at the end of the day I am going to be okay.
One of the sentiments I saw on social media was the repeated comment of, “I can’t believe this is happening in 2017.” The common theme? They were all white (at least the people who I know personally). #ThisIsNotUs was trending on twitter, a well-meaning hashtag dedicated to the idea that the white supremacist march that happened in Charlottesville did not represent the rest of America. Yes, it is us. Our country was built with slave labor. Our country broke treaties with Native American groups repeatedly and used residential schools to assimilate young people and force them to lose their traditional culture. These concepts have not gone away. Violence is built into the very structures of our society and Charlottesville exposed that.
Our own president refused to name white supremacy in his remarks for two days. When the White House did call an unscheduled press conference on August 14th to address the the events in Charlottesville, the President's speech started as such: "I am in Washington today to meet with my economic team about trade policy and major tax cuts and reform. We are renegotiating trade deals and making them good for the American worker and it is about time. Our economy is now strong. The stock market continues to hit record highs, unemployment is at a 16 year low, and businesses are more optimistic than ever before. Companies are moving back to the United States and bringing many thousands of jobs with them. We have already created over 1 million jobs since I took office. We will be discussing economic issues in greater detail later this afternoon, but based on the events that took place over this weekend in Charlottesville, VA, I would like to provide the nation with an update [...]" From this point on, the President does go on to openly criticize racism and the events of this weekend, but it must be noted that it was proceeded by 7 sentences of economic policy remarks.
This wasn’t a group of ten old men marching in Charlottesville. These were hundreds of people with torches and nazi flags, including many young millennials. Even this weekend, I heard comments about how we will “age out of racism” as the next generation grows up. Charlottesville demonstrated this is a generational problem that won’t die out on it’s own. These are your neighbors and your family members. The people you saw carrying torches don’t exist in an echo chamber. They are the same people who pass you on the street, coach your son’s little league team, and show up in church pews on Sunday morning.
Racism runs deep in America, and to deny that and declare our nation as post-racial is to deny the lived experiences of millions of People of Color. White supremacy isn’t new. People didn’t just wake up yesterday and decide to march. This ideology has been passed through their families for generations, and in today’s political climate they have been emboldened to take their ideology to the streets.
As Madison Avenue Baptist Church states:
When the news broke in Charlottesville I felt heartbroken, but I didn’t feel surprised.
I followed the news on social media, listening to the stories of University of Virginia students and faith leaders who I knew were participating in the counterprotest. I contacted my Member of Congress asking for their statement on Charlottesville and for them to explicitly condemn white supremacy (I am still waiting Rep. Royce). I read everything I could get my hands on. But that isn’t enough.
Dear white people: This next part is for you. You don’t get to “take a step back” after Charlottesville. That includes myself. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has stated, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”Paulo Freire similarly notes, “Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral.” Silence in the face the white supremacy demonstrated at Charlottesville is a dog whistle of consent to the people in your life that you think what happened this weekend is acceptable. Pretending that Charlottesville didn’t happen is exactly the type of silence that created a breeding ground where white supremacist could take to the streets. No more silence.
If you are at a loss of what to do, read this article from Laura Witt on steps for white allies following Charlottesville.
As for me, I commit to continuing to be active. I will not let what happened this weekend pass into silence. I also commit to calling out racism when I see it, and deepening my understanding of the structures of society that regularly commit acts of violence against People of Color. I am not perfect, but I am learning. In the meantime, I understand it is not the responsibility of People of Color to educate me as I work to deepen my own knowledge and understanding. I am here to listen. I am here to learn. I am here to follow the leadership of People of Color.
As Black Lives Matter activist Shaun King wrote in 2015, “If you ever wondered who you would be or what you would do if you lived during the Civil Rights Movement, stop. You are living in that time, right now.”
Images: Taken from Twitter. Image 1 shows white supremacists with torches around a statue of Robert E. Lee on Friday night in Charlottesville. Image 2 zooms in to show a group of VA students holding a sign saying “VA Students Act Against White Supremacy) surrounded by torches.
