Note: I was asked by SURJ (Showing Up for Racial Justice – a group which organizes white folks against racism) to write a few paragraphs offering a perspective on white solidarity. It was to open a national organizing conference call. What I wrote follows:
White people are taught that racism is a personal attribute, an attitude, maybe a set of habits. Anti-racist whites invest too much energy worrying about getting it right; about not slipping up and revealing their racial socialization; about saying the right things and knowing when to say nothing. It’s not about that. It’s about putting your shoulder to the wheel of history; about undermining the structural supports of a system of control that grinds us under, that keeps us divided even against ourselves and that extracts wealth, power and life from our communities like an oil company sucks it from the earth.
The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average.
This will also be the measure of your work. Be there. No one knows how to raise a child but we do it anyway. We don’t get it right. The essential thing is that we don’t give up and walk away. Don’t get me wrong. It is important to learn and improve and become wise in the ways of struggle – or of parenting. But that comes with time. It comes after the idea of not being in the struggle no longer seems like an option.
One more thing. You may not get the validation you hunger for. Stepping outside of the smoke and mirrors of racial privilege is hard, but so is living within the electrified fences of racial oppression – and no one gets cookies for that. The thing is that when you help put out a fire, the people whose home was in flames may be too upset to thank and praise you – especially when you look a lot like the folks who set the fire. That’s OK. This is about something so much bigger than that.
There are things in life we don’t get to do right. But we do get to do them.
Categories: Activism, Justice, Movement Strategy, Politics, Race and its "ism", racism, Uncategorized
Ricardo Levins Morales
Ricardo Levins Morales Art Studio 
thank you so much!
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Thank you, thank you, thank you.
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As an anti-racist, I agree with the content. However, as a reader with aging eyes, I find the blog design to be irritating. Gray type on white may be considered cool but it is hard to read. Legibility suffers and you risk alienating some of your potential fans. Lose the gray and stick with black.
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Wow. Just plain lazar to the heart of what I needed to hear. Thank you a million times over. “The names of the euro-descended anti-racist warriors we remember – John Brown, Anne Braden, Myles Horton – are not those of people who did it right. They are of people who never gave up. They kept their eyes on the prize – not on their anti-racism grade point average.” I keep on keeping on and will continue to do so with your quote as my mantra and reminder when I regress to the “not good enough” B.S. You are a wise person and I am grateful to have seen the post on “Let’s Talk about Racism In America” FB page.
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Well written, and so very true.
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Reblogged this on spatialfolds.
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Reblogged this on Hillombo and commented:
These kinds of white voices will stimulate thought and justice in the development conversations about the Hill District. While this is written by, about and for white people, I appreciate it as a bi-racial Black person, a special Black person, you might say, in the construct white supremacy construct. It resonates with me, particularly the part about wanting to be thanked. Thanks to Etta Cetera of WHAT’S UP Pittsburgh for tweeting this piece out. Onward and upward.
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