July 2012
Dear White People: Here’s an easy list of rules for you
- Stop posting that Morgan Freeman quote without asking the black community at large what people think about it.
- Stop thinking your white opinion on Black issues is superior and you’re somehow not racist for that.
- Stop saying that you’re colorblind, that just means you’re privilege-denying.
- Check your privilege. If you haven’t experienced someone else’s reality, then you need to defer to them on issues relating to their struggles.
- Stop crying reverse racism. Even if it were a big deal, it would be distracting from the issues of institutional oppression by bringing up some time someone was mean to you.
- Stop being pissed off by people’s tone. But trying to tell us you don’t like our tone is like saying that you’d care about oppression if we were just nicer to you.
- Accusing us of hating white people because we recognize difference might actually be the single least productive thing you can do.
- Stop trying to compare everything to something you’ve faced. If you haven’t had our experiences, you don’t understand them. Respect That.
- Never, ever, ever try to tell us that it’s not as bad as we’re saying. Sit down and listen. You have no role in this play.
Play
1:45
