I received a text today from a dear white friend, very concerned about the riots. Let’s just jump in to it!
Here is my response, as a white woman who has been on an Antiracism journey for the last 11 months…
“We are not being asked to justify horrendous acts of violence on the streets.
We are not being asked to sit idly by as horses are killed and shop owners are physically and mentally destroyed.
We are not being asked to weigh in on how much is too much and we are not being asked to predict the outcome.
We are being asked to turn our eyes and ears to Black voices.
We are being asked to stay focused and vigilant about unpacking hundreds of years of internalized racism.
We are being asked to declare out loud that Black lives matter and we won’t back down from our own internal AND external work until all systems of oppression come all the way down, and Black lives matter to this country, it’s people and the globe.
We cannot do this when the media keeps distracting us with footage of riots.
I know, I know this has become a blood bath. I know that innocent (meaning non-directly antagonistic) people are being mamed and destroyed on many levels.
I know that many of the looters are instigators and agitators who have no real eye for the movement. I also know that many of them are Black folks.
We have never been here before. Black lives mattering has never happened in the history of this country.
We don’t know what it would look like if it did.
I have listened to and spoken with so many Black folks not just in the last few days but in the last year and they have asked me to stay focused.
They have asked me to look the other way on the riots and mind my own business and refrain from forming my own opinion on whether the riots are right or wrong; that such thoughts are distracting and inherently racist.
They have asked me to put my body on the line for them and they have asked me to listen.
There are many Black folks who are vehemently against the protests and riots. As they have every right to be. The same is true for Black folks who desperately want to see this toxic thing burn to the ground by any means necessary.
That is a discussion for the Black community. Not for us.
I know this stance is divisive and the whole thing is truly unfathomable..but so is the idea that Black lives matter.
As a white women, I’ve never been required to listen to Black people. To take their words to heart in a personal feet-to-the-ground way. By looking the other way on the riots and instead staying focused on antiracism work, I am correcting my habit of only listening to white people.
I invite you to not take sides on the riots and instead start reading books by Black authors and listening to Black owned podcasts and paying Black women to educate us, and I’ll keep doing the same!
Action Item:
If you want to SUPPORT BIRTH EQUITY AND BLACK OWNED BUSINESSES: DO THIS: URGENT SUPPORT NEEDED: Roots Community Birth Center in Minneapolis, owned by black midwife Rebecca Polston, is in need of urgent support. Rebecca was forced to abandon her birth center due to the protest and fires near her business. Funds are needed to purchase hotel suites for clinic, delivery and postpartum support. There are only seven black-owned birth centers in the United States, please help keep this one open.
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MAKE A CASH DONATION: Venmo @projectmotherpath
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