Let's All Keep Learning
A third generation immigrant poet of Seattle, Washington, who has been writing since she was much shorter.
A statement about process, and the queries an inner dialogue about racism inspires. Like Socrates, I know nothing. I have no answers, merely more questions.
By Nicole Renée La Follette
A friend from South Africa wrote me recently about something I had shared on social media. It was a meme with the statement:
‘White supremacy won’t die until White people see it as a White issue they need to solve rather than a Black issue they need to empathize with.’
The friend asked genuinely, as part of their ‘process of learning about this racial issue,’ “How does one fix "white supremacy?
What is it that we must do in order for it to be fixed?”
I replied:
I won’t profess to know how we can ‘fix’ White supremacy any more than I could build a particle physics lab to rival CERN.
To me, White responsibility on the issue of racism towards any people of a different skin tone, let’s use BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color), starts with asking ourselves the deep questions:
Am I racist?
If so, in what way do I think myself superior to BIPOC?
How did I become biased in this way?
In what ways have I been indoctrinated by my society/family/school/friends/television/media/books, etc.? In other words, was I raised to believe that White people were superior to BIPOC?
Throughout my life, how have I been given privileges (e.g., a warning in lieu of a ticket/arrest/jail/homicide, a scholarship, a seat in a concert hall, acceptance to a university, …) when those same privileges weren’t allotted to equally-capable BIPOC?
Did I merit those privileges any more than a BIPOC who wasn’t afforded the same opportunities?
Am I willing to acknowledge that NOT being racist is my responsibility alone?
Am I willing to lose family and friends who continue to think themselves part of a superior race because they are White? [Yes.]
And so forth…
What can we do about it?
Start by shifting our focus, render the responsibility of racially-influenced biases to a personal level then outward into familial, societal and political spheres.
Pause from thrusting our fists in the air to probing our own hearts on all levels of racism. (e.g., Individual, Institutional, and Structural.)
Acknowledge where we have faltered and judged another because they were a BIPOC.
Stop ourselves from our habitual tirades and ask why it is we think what we think.
I am interested to hear your take on the issue. As a White man raised in South Africa, how has baasskap influenced the decisions you have made to form your belief structure?
Let’s all keep learning,