I realized as a result of the #SurvivingRKelley conversations that this distinction might be useful for my fellow white people. I'm going to put it briefly, but questions are welcome if you need me to elaborate. 1/
Your personal blamelessness with regard to racism (and none of us are blameless, obvs, but let's assume as a thought experiment that you are) has nothing to do with your accountability to the world, and Black and brown people specifically, due to your membership in whiteness.
By "membership" I don't mean something you get to choose. You don't. It doesn't matter if you don't want to be white, don't feel white, don't "act white," whatever. You benefit from being (or appearing--long digression possible there) white, and that means--this is the key--
--that you benefit directly from this whiteness, not in a neutral way, but at the direct expense of Black and brown people. Read that again. You benefit directly, not from a never-ending supply of resources, but at the expense of Black and brown people.
So what does that mean? Well, it seems like a lot of us have our heads wrapped around the "personal action" part of this okay. You do your very best to not be racist, you actively practice anti-racism, etc. That is great. But there is another part of this accountability--
--the collective, "member of a group even if I don't wanna" part. You are responsible for noticing and acting on what happens due to white supremacy. And for noticing and acting on what white people are doing as a group. So--example! Let's imagine this--
Let's imagine that I, as a white woman, have been speaking up about #SurvivingRKelley. And then I read a tweet that says, "White women are so silent about R Kelley. The anti-racist response is NOT to tweet, "NOT ME THO, I AM SAYING THINGS! AND SO ARE LOTS OF OTHER WHITE WOMEN!"
One possible anti-racist response might be to listen to that and say, "Huh, even though I'm noticing a lot of white women speaking up about this, my Black and brown acquaintances are having a different experience. How might I learn more about this? ...
"Perhaps I might read the full thread this comment is part of, or more of this person's tweets. Perhaps I might look around Twitter and other venues to see if this difference in experience seems to be occurring between other white people and people of color. [Spoiler alert: Yes.]
"Perhaps I might take a few breaths and spend some time listening. If I need to express my feelings of defensiveness, perhaps I can find a white friend to talk this out with. Or anyone who has said specifically that they have time and energy to help me learn more about this."
Side note: it's totally okay to feel defensive. It's not okay to take it out on people who are the targets for it rather than the reasons for it. Anyway, hopefully you get the picture. You take a minute to think about the larger dynamic rather than your personal blamelessness.
And finally, if the thing you want to defend is white peoples' blamelessness in this particular situation, consider whether that's really the best use of your energy. White people already have a huge system working on our behalf all the time. So maybe instead we could ...
... put that energy elsewhere. In closing: Am I fantastic at this: No. Do I fuck up all the time? Yes. I've said this not because I'm an authority, but because I perceive--after listening and reflection--that it might be helpful for some other white folks. Thanks for listening.
