By: Morgan Howard (’18), Staff Writer
America, we have a problem.
If that sentence alone puts you on the defensive, strap in because it’s about to get a whole lot more uncomfortable.
America wasn’t built on the principles of liberty and freedom, it was built on the blood, sweat, tears, bones, and humanity of slaves and Native Americans. It thrives off the dehumanization of anyone that is not a wealthy straight white male, so not all white people were safe either. And it continues to prosper off the whitewashing of history and institutional racism.
- Hillary Clinton was not the ideal candidate, just the lesser of two evils. An ideal candidate would have never referred to black people as “super predators.” If we’re going to hold Donald Trump accountable for bragging about “grabbing women by the pussy” 11 years ago, we have to hold Hillary Clinton responsible for the blatant racist policies she supported being put into effect 20 years ago as well.
- Donald Trump did not invent racism. Police have been getting away with killing black citizens for years. Selling or being in possession of marijuana is a nonviolent crime that can lead to serving in jail for almost the same amount of time as murder. That is not an accident. The fact that black and brown people are convicted of these crimes at a disportionate rate their white counterparts is also not an accident.
- You can’t tell students of color that their demand for their own space at a predominantly white university is racist. Especially when that university didn’t even admit people of color until fifty years ago.
- Oh, also: black people can’t be racist. Black people can be prejudiced, but they can’t be racist. Racism is more than not liking someone based on their skin, it’s creating systems that devalue their humanity and hurt their opportunities to succeed.
- White people you don’t get a cookie for being an ally. You don’t get rewarded for loving and supporting a person of color. Thank you for being a decent human being but that’s about the most appreciation you’re going to get. Sorry you can’t all be Sam White’s and Matt McGory’s and get famous because you tweet #BlackLivesMatter and get platforms to say the same things people of color have been saying for years. If you want to help, if you want to be an ally, talk to EACH OTHER. Don’t talk to me, I already know and what I don’t know I learn from my people. There is nothing you can teach me about oppression or how to fight it. But you can talk to other white people and help explain that oppression is real, how it exists, and how to use your white privilege to help dismantle it.
- Also black people and people of color: we can be better allies too. There are a lot of negative tensions that have historically existed between certain groups and are still alive and well today. Educate yourself on them. Educate yourself on other issues besides your own. The fear I have every time my dad walks out the door that it might be the last time I see him is just as real as the fear my Latinx friend has when their father (who is an illegal immigrant) walks out the door. The immigration system is just as racist as the justice system. Our pain may be different, and in no way are they equal nor do they even compare, they are just different and REAL.
To sum it up: we all can grow, we all can learn, and we all better hurry up and do it fast. We can play the blame game all day every day, but real change will come when we accept our history, what we did wrong, and make sure we don’t do it ever again to protect our future.
