No Right To Comfort
By Lisa Lasky, Managing Director, National Equity Project
I shall not look away.
This has been my mantra since Oscar Grant was shot point blank in the back while he lay face down at the Fruitvale BART station in the early morning hours on New Year’s Day 2009 in my city, Oakland, CA. The images of that incident stay with me to this day — as does the subsequent and continued fight for justice in his name in our city and nation.
Trayvon Martin. Tamir Rice. Michael Brown. Eric Garner. Philandro Castile. Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. Sean Monterrosa. Justin Howell. Jamel Floyd.
There are many more, I know. And the ripples of unspeakable pain and loss extend out from those stolen souls to countless more men, women and children who live with that loss every day. I won’t look away from these stories either. Even as yet more flood our news on an all too regular basis.
Between the shelter-in-place orders, the unrest in the streets, the fires, the loss of great national warriors and leaders (Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Representative John Lewis, Representative Elijah Cummings), I’ve had the time and the calling to do some serious window and mirror work. (The metaphor of the window and mirror comes from the work of Emily Style at The National SEED Project.)
Mirror: Where am I in this tapestry of our national unfolding, racial reckoning, extended moment of resistance, transitional state, movement through the portal? Who am I now, and who am I willing to become to stay in the fight — as a co-conspirator in the movement for greater dignity, respect and justice for BIPOC communities? Am I prepared for that sustained fight? Probably not. Am I ready and clear about what to do every day as a 50-something White woman, self-proclaimed social justice equity warrior. Hell no! But that’s not the point. If I wait to act until I feel completely clear, safe, comfortable, confident, steady and ready — that perfect day will NEVER come. Waiting, instead of acting, is an egregious exercise of privilege and unearned advantage.
Window: Take a look out one. What do you see? Rather, what do you choose to see?
I see pain and loss and violence and inhumanity. Look at the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, cousins, children of the murdered… Mourning, grieving, twisting with each new blow of injustice and disregard.
I also see courage, strength, power (the good kind), brilliance and tenacity. Look at Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — holding steady and resolved in the face of constant attempts to diminish them.
Look at Dolores Huerta — at 90 years old still fighting for the respect, dignity, and rights of some of our most vulnerable children and families.
Look at the fighters, warriors, marchers, protesters, resisters, insisters in the streets — from Portland to Seattle to Oakland to Chicago to Louisville to Atlanta to Washington, DC (and lots of places in between).
Look at the writers, speakers, and leaders calling us, teaching us, schooling us, guiding us.
We White people don’t get to be too tired, too scared, too uncertain, too cautious, too upset, too still, too silent, or too uncomfortable to participate. This is our time to act as well.
Stay in the struggle. Don’t fade away as if there was a “season of resistance” and now it’s time to get back to “normal.” Bonsu Thompson’s White People Are Cashing Out their BLM Currency is an important hypocrisy test for us.
This is our time to stand up, join in, listen, learn, vote, support the leadership of others, create the conditions for the next generation of leaders, artists, activists, scholars, legislators, representatives. The next generation of rebel leaders.
The writer, teacher, activist Tema Okun nailed it when she put out this list of characteristics that describe how White people move and operate in spaces. Ask yourself if any of these values or characteristics live in your workplace, your place for learning or your home:
- Perfectionism
- Sense of Urgency
- Quantity over quality
- Worship of the written word
- Only one right way
- Paternalism
- Either or thinking
- [And… wait for it…] The right to comfort.
Who — I ask you — has the right to comfort right now? Where did that notion even come from for us White people? Go find out — we must learn about our history and how and why the “racial superiority” of whiteness was created and reproduced.
This is not the time to study, research, or analyze what’s going on at the expense of action. It’s not the time to retreat into “woke” book clubs, podcasts, Instagram likes and follows, performative retweets. Alicia Garza (Black Lives Matter co-founder, leader, activist) says, “Task Forces are the place where accountability and action go to die.” We have to do better than our reflex responses.
The time for searching for the best sourdough bread recipe is over. Not to worry — we will get back to our hair salons and mani pedis, fitness centers, movie theaters, department stores, wine tastings, our favorite brunch spots, that martini bar we love and miss so much. We may even get our children safely back in those school buildings — but hopefully not back to the same structural designs that reproduce the inequitable experiences and outcomes for Black, Brown, poor and immigrant children with sharp predictability that have persisted since the beginning of public education in our country.
We have a chance now to create something new. Something for all of us. But we can’t get there from where we have been. We can’t just tinker with the foundation we’ve been living on all these years. That foundation is cracked, infested, broken, sunken, hollow. It was born from the lie of racism and White supremacy. It was built on the backs, blood, sweat and tears of enslaved people, on stolen land.
Instead, we must co-construct a new world; one that is enriched, infused, and strengthened by the stories, truth, honor, and strength of those who have fought and sacrificed and resisted. Instead, we must center with the lasting values of love, humanity, equality, equity, freedom, and justice. Would that not make a stronger, more lasting foundation for future generations?
I call on my White brothers and sisters, shakers and makers, leaders and movers — let’s do our mirror and window work together. Let’s put our resources, influence and advantages to good use. Let’s enroll other White people into the realization that we only win when we ALL win. We can stand on something that restores our collective humanity. I believe that to be true.
And in the meantime . . . I shall not look away.
