I've heard a lot of fellow white people talk about racism in America/the world as an opinion, recently, which is truly disturbing. One only needs to read the news, read a book, do some googling, and most importantly listen to the experiences of people of color that they choose to share with other individuals and/or the world despite the pain and trauma and injustice of those experiences to know that racism is a fact in this country.
It is not our place to comment on or judge an experience that we will never ever have. It’s not our place as white people to tell a black or brown person how to feel in the face of racism or to attempt to interpret their experience differently in order to avoid facing a reality that requires us changing our thoughts and action in order to improve it.
Additionally, I’ve also heard and read a lot of fellow white people arguing that they themselves have experienced racism or that it is possible for a white person to experience racism. I think it is very important for all white people to understand that we do not experience racism.
Racism is a system of oppression against people of color in which people of color are treated differently and valued unequally because of their race, and racism is experienced by people of color on both a macro and micro level.
For example, racism is experienced in one on one or group social interactions, in which, someone is treated differently and negatively or stereotyped because of their race. Racism is experienced on the macro level by people of color in terms of unequal treatment and the devaluing of their lives by our political and social institutions.
White people do not experience racism. Our race does not negatively impact the way our lives are valued and protected by the government or the way certain people treat us in our everyday lives. White people do have white privilege and benefit disproportionately from living in a white supremacist society. Thus, we do not experience racism.
White privilege bars us from experiencing racism, and that is not an “opinion,” that is a fact. In this moment, if I were in conversation with a fellow white person about this subject they would possibly say, well, that’s not my experience. They might also say that I am doing the same thing that I just said not to do.
I am telling them they are wrong about what they believe they are experiencing, but in this instance, white people who believe they experience racism, don’t seem to understand what the definition of racism is and don’t seem to understand how that doesn’t apply to experiences they have had in which they may have experienced individual prejudice based on their race.
We, as white people, do not have to worry about experiencing racism in the classroom from when we enter kindergarten all the way to when we are in a PhD program. We cannot say that we will walk into a classroom in most higher education settings and be disproportionately represented by our race.
We cannot say that we fear for our safety in the presence of police officers because of our race. We cannot say that someone has asked us to “educate” them about our race. We do not have to worry that people will view us as over-emotional or “obsessed with race” when we engage in discussions of race.
That is a small handful of experiences that white people will never have because our society unfairly privileges white people over people of color.
To all fellow white people, I urge you to reconcile these truths and focus on how we can assist black and brown people in resisting and dismantling white supremacy and changing our society to one in which all black and brown lives are valued and treated fairly and equally.
We are not living in that society, currently, but we all should want to and must understand that that requires unpacking our privilege and figuring out ways of resisting such privilege and the harm it causes others.
It also requires understanding the necessity to center black and brown lives and commit ourselves to thoughts and actions that reflect that understanding. Of course, none of this is possible without self-education and putting in a true effort to learn, listen, and change, and I urge all white people, including myself, to do so.
