Yes, I quite agree with you, and thanks for the link.
You should check out this piece by a black Ph.d student with a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder. I think that he'll be waiting a long time for some free shit come his way.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/29/white-people-ally-black-people-sacrifice
White people say they want to be an ally to Black people. But are they ready for sacrifice?
Unfortunately, good deeds will not dismantle systemic oppression. White kindness was unable to spare the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, nor any of the countless other victims of White supremacy in our nation’s history. White kindness does not reconcile the vastly disparate social and political vicissitudes experienced along racial lines, nor the undeniable gap in access to healthcare greatly illuminated by the ongoing public health crisis.
The truth is, genuine allyship is not kindness, it is not a charitable act, nor is it even a personal commitment to hold anti-racist ideals – it is a fall from grace. Real allyship enacted by White Americans, with a clear objective to make equitable the lived experiences of individuals across racial lines, means a willingness to lose things. Not just the extra $50 in one’s monthly budget by way of donating to an organization working towards racial justice. I mean palpable, incalculable loss. The loss of the charmed life associated with being a White person in America. Refusing a pay raise at one’s job and insisting that it be reallocated to co-workers of color who are undoubtedly being underpaid. The loss of potentially every close relationship with other White friends and family members who refuse to acknowledge or amend their behaviors that reinforce systemic oppression. The loss of bodily safety, by way of physically intervening when violence is being inflicted on to Black bodies.
This notion, one of true allyship, extends so far beyond the purview of contemporary White engagement with racial justice that it seems fanciful; almost laughable. I hardly ever allow myself the mental space to contemplate it. To wonder, if the White people in my life could hit a button and instantly remove the privileges afforded to them along racial lines, would they hit that button? Would they truly want to wake up tomorrow, in an America in which my life mattered just as much as theirs, if it came at the cost of all they have come to know and enjoy in the vein of White privilege? To expect true allyship from the White people in my life would be to ask them to be willing to sacrifice the thing that they covet most, though they may never be truly conscious of it: their Whiteness.
Yes, I quite agree with you, and thanks for the link.
You should check out this piece by a black Ph.d student with a MASSIVE chip on his shoulder. I think that he'll be waiting a long time for some free shit come his way.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/29/white-people-ally-black-people-sacrifice
White people say they want to be an ally to Black people. But are they ready for sacrifice?
Unfortunately, good deeds will not dismantle systemic oppression. White kindness was unable to spare the lives of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, nor any of the countless other victims of White supremacy in our nation’s history. White kindness does not reconcile the vastly disparate social and political vicissitudes experienced along racial lines, nor the undeniable gap in access to healthcare greatly illuminated by the ongoing public health crisis.
The truth is, genuine allyship is not kindness, it is not a charitable act, nor is it even a personal commitment to hold anti-racist ideals – it is a fall from grace. Real allyship enacted by White Americans, with a clear objective to make equitable the lived experiences of individuals across racial lines, means a willingness to lose things. Not just the extra $50 in one’s monthly budget by way of donating to an organization working towards racial justice. I mean palpable, incalculable loss. The loss of the charmed life associated with being a White person in America. Refusing a pay raise at one’s job and insisting that it be reallocated to co-workers of color who are undoubtedly being underpaid. The loss of potentially every close relationship with other White friends and family members who refuse to acknowledge or amend their behaviors that reinforce systemic oppression. The loss of bodily safety, by way of physically intervening when violence is being inflicted on to Black bodies.
This notion, one of true allyship, extends so far beyond the purview of contemporary White engagement with racial justice that it seems fanciful; almost laughable. I hardly ever allow myself the mental space to contemplate it. To wonder, if the White people in my life could hit a button and instantly remove the privileges afforded to them along racial lines, would they hit that button? Would they truly want to wake up tomorrow, in an America in which my life mattered just as much as theirs, if it came at the cost of all they have come to know and enjoy in the vein of White privilege? To expect true allyship from the White people in my life would be to ask them to be willing to sacrifice the thing that they covet most, though they may never be truly conscious of it: their Whiteness.