For white people who need translation as you read the headlines from Buffalo yesterday:
- Lone wolf = white supremacy terrorist
- Mentally ill youth = white supremacy terrorist (white supremacy is not a mental illness)
- Random act of violence = white supremacy terrorism
- Unspeakable tragedy = white supremacy terrorism
- Buffalo shooter = white supremacy terrorist
- Killed = lynched, white supremacy terrorism
- Supermarket attack = white supremacy terrorism
- Racially motivated = white supremacy terrorism
- Peaceful surrender (never happens with Black suspects) = white supremacy cultural norm
- Shooter = murderer, white supremacy terrorist
If you find you’re being silent, you are complicit, and demonstrating one manifestation of white body supremacy. It just is. If you find yourself thinking “Kelly, why is it always about race? Why do you keep talking about it?” Because it is and because we white bodies have lots of work to do because white bodies prioritize our comfort over Black lives, and all bodies of culture. This is our racial reckoning again and again. It is the civil war that has been coming since the last one and if you think we are NOT in a civil war, you are likely mistaken.
With this civil war we each get to choose how we want to create our culture and society – one with love, justice and liberation for all, or one that maintains the systems put in place by a white body, heteronormative, violent, patriarchy centuries ago. It is an ideology of hate, embodied by and promoted by an entire political party, former president and Amerikkka’s most watched news channel, to name a few – who continue to perpetuate and profit from the fear of blackness and from violent white supremacy.
Every day as a white person I ask myself, “To what extent, how far am I willing to go for humanity?” When my discomfort, inconvenience, overwhelm, powerlessness, guilt or shame has me considering taking a break from my involvement in somatic abolitionist work, that’s my cue: my thinking is showing me the limitations of what I am wiling to do because I believe I CAN take a break – #LivingWhileWhite.
I can never know the daily experience of having my life offered up as a violent sacrifice to keep white bodies comfortable and in power. What I do know is that there is no neutral stance, no sideline to sit on, and all perspectives are NOT welcome. In this racial reckoning, pick your side, and should you choose the side of love, justice and liberation, then get off your affirmations and stand up for what you say you believe. If I can’t tell by what you do to care for yourself and for ALL, with grit, discipline and commitment, then you are complicit.
My work is to choose the side of love. Love is messy, risky, revolutionary and comes from the best part of myself. It begins by understanding the big picture, educating and identifying our origins, and being willing to fight. Violent white men are cultivated at the dinner tables, family gatherings, and with the seemingly innocuous neighbors and friends, so these are the places where I can I choose love, defend what I say I value. When I see and hear racism, I speak into it, rather then being quiet and agree with “Well, it’s just Uncle Bob.”
My work is to do my own racialized trauma healing- COMMUNALLY – and do less harm in the world as a white body. I fight to let go of irrelevant intentions and focus on my impact. There are no guarantees and the risks can be high. Even as I write this I can feel my own anxiety rising within me. I know I will be seen as the enemy, lose relationships and feel lost… AND I still don’t live each day wondering if today is the day I am sacrificed to keep, violent, white supremacy systems in place.
