White Opinions on Black Lives: 1600–2015
The first 19 African indentured servants arrived in the Virginia Colony of the future United States of America in 1619. They were indentured servants and not slaves because the Spanish had baptized them and the English believed that baptized people could not be enslaved. The transition to slavery took time, but by the 1650s it was becoming institutionalized. Around the same time “whiteness” laws would start to institutionalize the “chattel” component — that slavery was for Black people in perpetuity, freedom for white people in perpetuity.
This era was truly the beginning of white opinions dominating Black lives across continents. From the European peninsula of the Eurasian continent, to the coasts of Africa to what came to be known as the Americas, white people had opinions about what Black people should be up to. Mostly what they thought is that Black people should stop being what they called “savages” and the way that this could be achieved was a. by acquiescing to being kidnapped, b. by worshipping a Christian G-d and c. doing it while working for (mostly) white people for free.
In what is known as the beginning of modern, enlightenment era European/white thought, those were most white people’s opinions on Black lives: they were worthless unless they were serving white people and their G-d.
Fast forward to 2015, and some things have changed. It’s no longer okay to make Black people work for white people for free unless the Black people have been convicted of a crime. Then it is okay. It’s still okay to have Black people living in deplorable conditions with no real health care or food security, but while they constitute the most disproportionate community represented in these conditions, they are not the only ones living like that. A Black man can become President, at least if he’s raised almost entirely by a white family and is academically talented enough to end up in charge of the Harvard Law Review. A white guy only has to barely not fail out of Yale College to achieve the same. I, a rather light skinned Black woman with Jewish heritage and a white parent, can attend Harvard College, get a PhD in physics, and work in a prestigious research group at a prestigious academic institution. As long as I accept that it will be lonely and the path will involve seriously obstructive racism that my white counterparts will never deal with, of course.
Here’s one thing that hasn’t changed at all though: white entitlement to have opinions about Black lives, opinions that have real electoral and political consequences. What I’ve learned from listening to white people who self-identify on a political spectrum that ranges from “pro-white power” to “progressive” is that Black people need to: pull ourselves up by our bootstraps; stop pointing out and complaining about fucking obvious connections between chattel slavery and community conditions today; stop protesting and just work harder at McDonald’s for a minimum wage that keeps people below the poverty line; straighten our hair; talk more like middle class white people; put white people’s feelings and comfort before our own in discussions about race by only speaking in tones that make white people comfortable; never mention true historical facts such as Thomas Jefferson’s sick, racist propensity for (child) rape; try not to be driving a car, going on a date, or walking down the street if there is a cop in the same city who might see you and mistake your non-criminal behavior for fundamental criminality; stop asking for Black children to learn Black history and read Black writers; oh and love Bernie Sanders because during the same era that he was writing about how women fantasize about rape, he marched with Martin Luther King, Jr. who is probably pretty chafed from all the rolling around he does in his grave every time white people evoke him to express a white opinion about Black lives and how they are being lived and stolen.
A lot of white people seem to have a lot of opinions about Black Lives and now our movement to point out that Black Lives Matter! And those opinions as I hope is clear from my rather lengthy list above are with high frequency rather smug and condescending, with regular reminders that we should be grateful we are thought of and cared for at all. Some things done changed, but unfortunately, some people really don’t want to cede that Black people should be allowed to be the architects of their own destiny.
White American ideas about Black people, Blackness, and Black lives have determined how we lived and when we died for far too long. If you are a white or non-Black person of color who has recently been experiencing strong opinions about what Black people should and should not do in relation to challenging white supremacy, it’s time to ask yourself if you are really on our side or not. If you are pro-Black and therefore anti-racist, then you will be hesitant about and in fact resistant to participating in a centuries-long tradition of other people’s opinions determining every feature of our lives and deaths.
What we are learning now is how many people actually think this noblesse oblige is still okay, as long as they think their ideas will improve our lives. But Christian slave owners told themselves they were civilizing us for our own good. We are still suffering the deadly consequences of their ideas.
Am I really saying that you can’t have an opinion? No. It’s unrealistic to suggest to people that they not think of pink elephants. If you tell them not to think of pink elephants, they will definitely think about them. Even if you don’t, they may think about them anyway. The problem historically and presently is that when Black people have had opinions about how things should operate in their lives and social justice movements to protect their lives, those opinions have been far less important to the powers that be than what the white people around them thought.
This means that white people having opinions about Black Lives is a phenomenon with unfair power attached to it. Even if they never express those opinions in public, because of disproportionate power arrangements in our society, private opinions of white people are powerful. If they do express those opinions in public, they are even more, disproportionately powerful. Sometimes this is also true of non-Black POC when it comes to Black issues. So, what I am really asking is for white and non-Black POC allies — if they are truly interested in the continuous effort that is allyship — to consider the opinions they are forming and what they do with them. You should ask yourself some questions. If you are hosting a conversation with your friends, making voting decisions, posting on social media, are you doing so with an awareness that Black people may read your posts and the attending comments? That if your friends write racist things, you are responsible for providing a space for that racism? If you are engaging as a thought leader and thought guide, what kind of example are you setting? What kind of emotional support are you creating a need for or providing to your Black acquaintances?
I am also asking white and non-Black POC allies to consider a practice of mindfulness around what pieces of information they discount when they form their opinions. Are you listening to Black voices? Are you only listening to the Black voices that agree with your gut reaction? If your answer is “no” or only “maybe” then what you are mistaking for “logic” or “rational thinking” is actually biased toward our culture’s white supremacist traditions which are irrational at heart.
Do better. Be better. Set a good example. A better version of us is possible, if we are willing to work for it.
Here are some resources on best practices for conversations with minorities:
WHAT’S THE HARM IN TONE POLICING?
How to Talk to Minorities, Part 1
How to Talk to Minorities, Part 2
