Iesha Williams
Aug 24, 2017 · 4 min read

White fear got us here….

You don’t get to define being black for me if you are a not a person of color. You just don’t get to. There are things that I’ve experienced that you can never even fathom or never even have to think about going through. I anticipate and fear having to talk to my future children about the condition of human society. How the world sees them as a threat before they have a chance to become all that they are destined to. That my little black boy will be seen as a monster before he leaves the womb; stealing his innocence and joy away of just being. My little girl will bear the strain of being an angry black woman because she demands to be treated like a human by whites and black men. White women disguising their concerted efforts into feminism meanwhile not caring about our black bodies that were experimented on by “renowned” gynecologists and hailing women such as Margaret Sanger who clearly believed and demonstrated the practice of eugenics.


Do you fear when your husband leaves the house being pulled over by a racist and over aggressive cop? I’m even nervous about being pulled over by a cop; you just don’t know what will come of that experience or if you’ll live to tell it. No accountability, I am a monster, I am allowed to be invaded and infiltrated; I’m not allowed safety or trust.


You don’t get to tell me anything, none of this is open for dialogue unless you plan on helping. I don’t need you to validate my existence nor my pain. You will never have to live the narrative that I do, ever. So don’t tell me to get over it, you understand, you wish racism didn’t exist, because it does. It is stained on your hands with the blood of my ancestors and the stolen innocence of my unborn children.


For some reason black people are feared. Back when being poor was all that was needed, poor whites and blacks were oppressed together and eventually banded together; because there’s power in unity. They also had a common problem; oppression. The powerful fed the poor and closed minded whites this narrative and “gave” them control and power over oppressing and taking the lives of blacks so they felt superior (slave patrol aka state troopers). It was also so they don’t have to be accountable to them and to keep them distracted from the real cause of all of the oppression of all people. What do you think will happen if we get together and go after the real enemy? Whites blame immigrants, blacks and natives who built this country or had it stolen from them, for the poor condition that it’s in. No, it’s in this condition because karma skips no beats; how you acquire is how you’ll lose. The very things you created will destroy you and it. The sad thing is, we can’t even fight for the the things that really matter because you’re too scared of my skin and too ignorant to accept that my difficulties are realities that YOU created and continue to perpetuate. Whiteness can’t protect you from 45 and it can’t protect you from what you hate most of all, yourself.I don’t need you to be liberal, democratic, republican, woman, man, religious, non religious, I need for you to be human first. We are always a circumstance away from a life changing event.


Pain has been passed down from generations and we have yet to have a chance to break the cycle. Trauma remains ingrained no matter how much you think it doesn’t affect you. It will find a way to manifest and release itself unless you do. Those things leave an imprint in your DNA; while that may be implicit, it has never stopped us from rising above our predicted circumstance. Imagine how potent we’d be without societal and psychological constraints….it’s why we’ve been suppressed and systemically oppressed for so long. FEAR. But given our power, we don’t want to kill or destroy, you’re only fearful because that’s what you’ve put out for so long. It’s how you’ve come to “acquire” anything. I see so much wasted energy on debating people who have already decided to remain ignorant and have already decided to hate or think it’s not their problem. I think about some of my white friends who remain silent or use general terms, generalizing all people, instead of directly addressing racism and bigotry. There aren’t two sides, there’s only the narrative of the oppressor and we all live in it. It’s only a matter of time before you realize your freedom is at stake…and I only say realize because it’s already at stake, the day you turned your back on your fellow human being.


This isn’t written out of hate but frustration…I just want a better place for my children.

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    Iesha Williams

    Written by

    Writer. Poet. Blogger. Published author. Advocate for Endometriosis and Fibromyalgia.