White People: I Want You To Understand Yourselves Better
Ijeoma Oluo – 7 februari 2017 – link artikel
Your survival has never depended on your knowledge of white culture. In fact, it’s required your ignorance.
Why do I know white culture so well? Because I’m a black woman. And while I, and just about any person of color who has spent their lives in a white supremacist society, know enough about white culture to write a book or two on whiteness and option the bestseller movie rights, y’all know almost nothing about us and even less about yourselves.
Why? Because you don’t have to.I had to learn to talk to my white teachers in a way that didn’t seem “too boisterous,” and I learned why enthusiasm would be disruptive from me yet welcomed by white boys. I had to learn what level of eye contact with cops seemed respectful, what seemed evasive, and what seemed challenging. I had to learn why clerks in the grocery store were following me. I had to learn why the same white people who clutch their purse around me when they have a coin will come running to me for help when they don’t.
And as much as I’d like you to see me — as much as I’d like systemic racism to simply be a problem of different groups not seeing each other — I need you to see yourself, really see yourself, first. This is the top priority.
Er is zoveel te leren over hoe ik als witte mens in een maatschappij leef die voor mij gemaakt is. En Ijeoma heeft veel waarheid en inzicht te delen. Een waanzinnig goed artikel uit 2017.
Wat kan ik doen. Meer erover leren. Mijn privilege erkennen. Mijn stem gebruiken bij onrecht en ongelijkheid en de ruimte geven om verandering mogelijk te maken en die te ondersteunen.
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