,
3 tweets,
1 min read
Read on Twitter
Something I've been thinking about since the hearing yesterday is the way that proximity to people of color is often used as a means of absolving a person of their racism. But proximity, by itself, has never something that inevitably mitigates someone's racist actions or beliefs.
Slaveholders were *proximate* to the ppl they enslaved. People who colonized other countries were *proximate* to indigenous populations. People who work in prisons are *proximate* to the incarnated. It's not just about proximity, it's about the dynamics of power that shape it.
Proximity, at it's best, and when engaged in on equal terms, can certainly be a catalyst towards empathy. But becoming less racist is not an automatic feature of working alongside, living next to, or going to school with someone different than you. That distinction is important.
