In a discussion with a new acquaintance of mine who holds steadfast to proclaimed progressive views, while simultaneously participating in gentrification living in Denver’s “Harlem of the West”, race relations in America came up. And the conversation quickly spiraled into his own personal crisis with white identity. For him, a black sports newscaster on ESPN serves as both a trigger and an outlet to spew his racial animosity. From “why can’t he call white guys brother”, “I have a black friend”, to “I can’t even listen to him, I change the channel.”
What he did was forcefully insert his presence to center the conversation around whiteness. In a visceral fashion, the immediate response of where, when and how to voice dissent quickly became prominent. Stealing the narrative and distracting from the message using antiquated tools of white supremacy is a century old protocol. After 30 minutes of an uninterrupted rant, when pointedly asked, he could not recall the context of the newscasters message because it was his “delivery” that he was hung up on. I am interested in the message – not in the tone or the delivery of it. This circular conversation unequivocally proves another iteration of whiteness is as strong as ever simply because the message wasn’t palatable for his liking.
Repeatedly voicing, “it is about delivery, the tone, the way the message is being delivered. All he does is complain and bitch instead of talking about solutions… the message is getting lost because he’s angry – I am just tired of it, it’s not like I owned slaves.”
While I understand there is a lot to unpack, I do not have the time to unravel it – so I will summarize. The white community always attempts to place itself at the forefront of these conversations, proclaiming they are for racial equality, while simultaneously criticizing, vilifying and outright dismissing the black community for the way in which the message of structural, cultural and institutional oppression is delivered. What he views as complaining and bitching, I see as historical violence and the perpetuation of intergenerational trauma rooted in the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and racial oppression.
It is moments like these where Toni Morrison warned that, “The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work.” Until we can have an honest conversation about the legacy of racism in this country, and as Bryan Stevenson pointedly said, “we can’t recover from history until we deal with it.”
Interactions like this, reaffirm how critical and important this work is. We still have a very long way to go.
And no I don’t hate white people, but I will be the first to call you out on your bullshit.
Challenge The Narrative 