What happens when you've grown up in the company of individuals who freely exchanged racist jokes without any recognition that you might be personally hurt, fundamentally offended by their "humor" at the expense of "people like you"? What does it mean to have been taught to check Hispanic/Latinx on every form you've ever filled out but to have never had to worry about racial profiling?
What is the role of someone now who is very privileged but also not of utmost whitecismale privilege?
- Protest this weekend! If you're able-bodied, and are able to safely assemble where you are, please get out there, know your rights, and march/rally/kneel/lie down/cheer in solidarity. Search a local blog or news site to find a protest near you.
- Acknowledge your racist biases, and then, unlearn them. It's on you to do so.
- A fellow accomplice (met on the yoga retreat pictured above) invited me to join a book group. How to Be an Anti-Racist is up first. Want more? Some recommendations by HTRAAR author and scholar, Ibram X. Kendi.
- Watch (or re-watch) Ava Duvernay's 13th and so many other films that tell untold Black stories and provide a broader context to the rage we should all feel.
- Listen to Black voices generously ushering us forward. Some of my favorites as of late: Scene on Radio's Seeing White, NPR's Code Switch, WNYC's Come Through with Rebecca Carroll, The Ringer's Higher Learning with Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay, and Good Ancestor Podcast with Layla Saad.
- Have tough conversations. A resource for speaking with elders. A resource for speaking with kids; and another, for kids, because futures depend on their understanding. A resource for speaking with colleagues. A resource for "casual" racism. And a starting point-resource for all those least willing to engage.
- Donate effectively. Some places doing good work, and some more, on behalf of Black Americans. Supporting mental healthcare is beyond essential; and the Southern Poverty Law Center is always a good idea.
- Also, pay special attention to support Black artists and creatives and farmers and restaurants and makers and small business-owners. As we know, BIPOC communities have been disproportionally impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic, well before this most recent assortment of murders.
- Vote. Vote. Vote for local officials that promote racial justice and ensure all citizens are registered to do so.
- Rest and restore. We are, culturally, in the eye of the tornado. Our lives have slowed down to the point that society's most horrific ills can no longer be ignored by those of us not directly experiencing them. This perfect storm has seemed to have activated more people than ever before to bring transformational change to life. Take care of yourself, still. He couldn't breathe. You can. Find a restorative practice so you're best able to "keep your foot on the gas." (For me, that’s been yoga with aforementioned retreat instructor). We're in this for the long haul. Sending love.
I wonder how you thoughts have changed after Priscila Garcia Jaquier's deconstructing Latinx series? I found it through your IG stories, thank you, she is fire! You wrote this before that, and here you say, "I am not white." Have you come to a more nuanced understanding now? You *are* white. Hispanic/Latinx is not a non-white race, it is an ethnicity as varied as Americans but more importantly it is constructed *by* America and erases us all -- especially when it encourages/allows white women who look like us to claim non-whiteness. I am Brazilian raised in America. I am white. In Brazil I am white, too. I have white privilege in America, I have white privelege in Brazil, and I have white privilege everywhere I have traveled and lived in the world -- as I've seen you have everywhere, too. You're white, and that doesn't mean you're not Latinx. Just like being Latinx doesn't mean you're not white -- across Central and South America there are millions of white residents, millions of Black residents, millions of indigenous residents, millions of Asian-descedent residents, millions pf mixed residents -- all who trace their families back generations in Central & South America, like you & I also do. You are Latinx and you are white and you cannot co-op a non-white experience by saying "I am not white."
ReplyDeleteThank you for prompting this inquiry! I prefer to speak to my "white-passing" identity because I experience the privilege of being light-skinned in all case except where my last name identifies me as *Other*. I am not claiming non-whiteness but rather rejecting the pervasive white American ignorance that so many exist in. It has taken some work and self-actualization to express my identity with everything-but-white first and I am conscious to remind others who may perceive me as white as to how nuanced appearance and identity and racial/ethnic labels are, as well as how ever-expanding whiteness has been – to now include Americans of Polish, Italian, Irish descent, for example.
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