The world needs us to understand what it means to be human. To be different types of people sharing a planet/country/community with one another. To live together in ways that are respectful, collaborative, fair and nourish life.
And for my skinfolk… The world needs us to understand what it is to be White. To embrace our ancestry and identity. To face the roles that our people have played historically and are playing in this current moment. To see how we have created societies that are plagued with systems of dominance that oppress other people (and the Earth). To understand how we perpetuate those systems. And to recognize the types of power and goodness that are within us. To use it fiercely to create societies that are healing from oppressive systems and living vibrantly as diverse, interconnected places of peace, justice and compassion.
I believe we are capable of this. Both us White people and us humans. And it will take work to get there.
From the article, White People: I Don’t Want You to Understand Me Better, I Want You to Understand Yourselves by Ijeoma Oluo.
“None of this — not a single word I’ve written in this essay or in my entire career — is new. People of color have been begging you to see what you are doing and why. We’ve been begging you to see what you came from and the true legacy you have inherited…
Find yourselves white people. Find yourselves so that you can know what whiteness is. Find yourselves so that you can determine what you want whiteness to be.”