Why do I always have to make it about race?
I have a friend who has said this to me frequently in the past and I respond by saying because IT IS Always about race. It IS what people respond to first. When we see, meet and greet each other we respond viscerally and instinctively to the color of one’s skin. We don’t think about it, because it’s one of those things that just Is the way it is until it is not…
White bodies don’t want to believe it is about race when it does not serve their privilege. And what kills me is that the ancestors of white supremacy created this paradigm and then oppose it when it is used to elevate the truth they created. The hypocrisy is mind blowing and unfortunately never ending.
We were trained as toddlers with age appropriate messages abut who we have to be. We remained as adolescents about who we are not. We had to practice “how to be” so as not to offend the oppressor and the. In higher level education we were reminded of how to work harder, be better. than the rest. Professionally we practiced the lessons on maintaining our peripheral vision but don’t don’t lose track of the gaze but do not become distracted by the past because we must stay one step ahead of what is next.
Our Black excellence is measured against white mediocrity and still told to do more. We were led to believe we must sell out to buy in when in reality our success cannot be measured by that which marginalizes us based on the construct of race which they now deny.
In the end I don’t truly know if I believe change will occur in my lifetime because of the ongoing genocide on Black bodies. However, I do know that in order for real and significant change to exist it begins with the truth. There is a reason white supremacy lies and it is because the truth hurts all of us.