WHITE LIBERALS: What are you willing to lose? 12 Questions to think about!

What are you willing to lose for equality? What are you willing to sacrifice to combat the hate of the Trump Administration? Are you willing to work to end White Supremacy?

I have been doing work around diversity and inclusion for over 10 years. I have worked in community building and engagement for almost 20 years. In this time I have met great people doing exceptional work around difficult issues. A number of these people are white liberals, whom I’m proud to call colleagues and friends.

In my recent travels doing this work during the Trump Administration, I’ve found my white friends to be more concerned than ever before about our country and the safety of minorities. As they should be! Now, these are conscious white people who have known that people of color are and have been, over the course of history, oppressed. But what I also sense from them is that the euphoria of the Obama Administration is now over and racism is back with a vengeance. However, racism has always been around living and breathing in our institutions and practices. And it’s not going away if we don’t address White Supremacy and its creation and perpetuation of systemic oppression that benefits all white people, and within which all white people (even well-meaning liberals) are complicit.

I’m not saying that I don’t like white people. What I am saying is that I detest a system that propagates the idea of whiteness over everything and the idea (that has real consequences) that people of color are morally, intellectually and humanly inferior. According to Critical Race Theory, our society has perpetuated the idea of whiteness as the norm and as always right (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Therefore, it is all around us, in every interaction, and we each play our own roles within it. In my book No Entry: Examining the Powers that Undermine our Full Potential, I share how the elites of this country used their power to create the idea of race to generate a wedge between people of color and poor whites (2017). You see, racism isn’t just a social political tool: it’s also a business model.

The election of President Trump isn’t new to this country’s history. His election is the system balancing itself. Therefore, we must address White Supremacy. White liberals need to invest in ending this system, which would also require disinvesting in the idea of whiteness and being cognizant of their privilege every day at every minute. If you are a white person, are you willing to lose your white ignorance and comfort and be continually held accountable by people of color?

Looking throughout world history, we see that any human rights movement has required sacrifice. For systemic change white liberals would have to denounce and sacrifice the benefits that White Supremacy affords them. And I would argue sacrificing such a system could mean superior gains for all people. Paulo Freire, author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, argued that in a system of oppression both the oppressor and the oppressed is dehumanized (2000). “To surmount the situation of oppression, people must first critically recognize its causes, so that through transforming action they can create a new situation, one which makes possible the pursuit of a fuller humanity” (Freire, 2000, p. 47). So, as a people let’s end White Supremacy and help each other raise our humanity.

Toward this end, I offer…

12 questions to direct thought, imagination and discussion:

Are you willing to allow people to call you out on your privilege and white fragility, without getting defensive?

Are you willing to be quiet and allow people of color to direct and control conversations and discussions?

Are you willing to educate yourself on institutional racism?

Are you willing to push for a strategic plan of diversity and inclusion at your organization?

Are you willing to learn Spanish because it’s one of the top languages spoken in the United States?

Are you willing to pay an additional tax to India every time you go to yoga?

Are you willing to name your child or children historically Black and Latino/a names to end biased employment practices?

Are you willing to move into predominantly Muslim, Asian, Latino/a, or Black communities to end segregation?

Are you willing to invite people of color to live in your community?

If available, are you willing to move into vacant industrial areas to slow down gentrification?

Are you willing to hold law enforcement accountable by pulling over every time you see a police officer stop a Black or Latino/a person?

Are you willing to assist and support policies and legislation that specifically benefit people of color?

Work Cited

Delgado, R. and Stefanic, J. (2001). Critical Race Theory An Introduction. New York, NY: New York University Press.

Freire, P. (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York, NY: The Continuum International Publishing Group.

Prosper, C. (2017). No Entry Examining the Powers that Undermine our Full Potential. Createspace: Colber Prosper.

Special thanks to my Dr. Rebecca Berkey, author of Environmental Justice and Farm Labor and her partner Jonathan Berkey. This piece is an example of accountability within cross racial friendships.