Being Anti-Racist
This one is for anyone trying to be anti-racist, y’all — for realz!
If you White or anybody who’s tired of looking around at a sea of White faces and ready to diversify, here are a few things you can do.
First, stop hanging out in places where everybody White. That means you gotta notice who’s frigging around you. If everybody White in any establishment, it ain’t no accident. That’s been designed that way. If mostly White people there, that space been made to cater to a certain cultural standard that prefer White people and that White people prefer. It’s probably not an anti-racist space even if it’s trying to be.
Next, seek out spaces where White people are in the minority. It ain’t that hard. Go into communities that are mostly non-White. Go to the clubs, shop at the stores, eat at the restaurants, and, of course you can take your ass to the churches where non-White people go. Don’t make a big show of yourself while you there. Just be humble AF and take your ass there, knowing you been living in a White bubble and you need that shit popped like a persistent zit.
Stop trying to change shit to fit your own cultural bias. Don’t get into non-White spaces intent on “fixing” shit. You may think you’re helping but you’re not. You’re just escaping back into what’s safe. You’re making a space that wasn’t made for you, more comfortable. You gotta learn how to sit in your own discomfort until it stops being uncomfortable. Even if you are 100% sure that the idea you have will make everybody better off, keep that shit to yourself. Trust, if it’s that important, somebody done already thought of it.
Learn through observation. Just shut the F up and see what other people are doing. Learn how people are relating to each other. Focus less on what people are saying and just watch. Listening is also important, but in listening, stop trying to translate shit into words you can understand. Don’t ask questions. Just hear the rhythms of the speech. Listen to the tonality. Learn the music. Understand the custom of what people are doing by seeing it (and doing it, if invited to participate).
Stop commodifying your experience with non-White people. Don’t write a book about how you stopped being a racist. Don’t do your f*cking thesis about it. Stop thinking that your experience with non-White people gives you any damn credentials, especially with White people! I include myself in that. Don’t open a school to teach people how to be “less White.” Don’t do anything with what you come to understand from getting out of your White zone. Don’t even congratulate yourself for doing it. Just appreciate that you are saving your own life by opening yourself and your mind to a more full human experience.
Ain’t no point where you get to be done with this process. Ain’t no degree. You may never see the benefit. Maybe 400 years from now, though, there won’t be anymore White spaces where people are wondering how to “bring diversity.”
