OPINION: Many self-styled allies in the fight against anti-black racism have deep work to do on themselves but do not always recognise this while performing their virtue-signalling, writes Eusebius.
My first explicit memory of directly experiencing anti-black racism was in the first week of high school. Schools had only been racially desegregated the year before, and so the idea of cross-racial contact between children was still something of an experiment on the eve of democracy.
I then worked extra hard, not only because I enjoyed school, but because that moment of mockery had cut deep. It made me feel like an outsider. It made me feel like an impostor. It made me feel like standards of excellence are the exclusive business of white schools. But achievement is never enough for racists. They keep moving the goalposts. Racism works in such a way that victims and survivors of racism can never satisfy them. You work your butt off to be excellent at cricket and, after becoming “the first black” to spearhead the bowling squad, racists shift the goalposts by demanding black people prove “they have what it take” to be top order batsmen, as if there is no sophistication involved in the business of taking wickets as a brilliant bowler.
They want to avoid coming across as bigoted, so they conceal their intolerance by playing several games.There is a spectrum of “racisms” in the world that do not get enough attention and should be exposed. No victim of racism is short of ideas about what we should do. But solution-speak is easy. The hard work for anyone serious about eliminating racism is to sit through a painful conversation — during which their white privilege is muted — and listen to the effect of racism on the lives of black people.
You reduce the odds of an anti-racism plan achieving its desired outcomes if you bypass the psychological work. Yet many white allies, who purport to be on the frontlines of the fight against racism, run away from emotionally uncomfortable conversations with black friends.
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