Don't Be Complicit

I know people who are racist. As a child growing up in state-sanctioned apartheid, a legacy of chattel slavery, I could not have imagined it. Under my parents' watch, how would I come to know people who were blind to the white body privilege that was birthright, and the struggle their ancestors bequeathed to me because of my African ancestry. 

Actually, that is untrue. I must correct this statement because their ancestors did not expect the struggle of Africans to endure for four hundred years. In their arrogance, they assumed that at some point the beatings and lynchings would have led us to acquiesce and resign ourselves to their judgement that we were not humans graced by God and entitled to the full rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

The evil of white supremacy and its racist ideology reflect the worst of humanity. Despite the aspirational ideals of our nation's founders, they refused to eradicate these problems that were created to ensure the economic wealth of men with white bodies. Consequently, the roots of racism have been nurtured and encouraged to grow deep within the American soil as elected officials have used their authority to promote policies designed to protect white bodies and discount the lives of BIPOC. 

Codified in law or practice, the ramifications of these practices directly impact the lived experience of people of color. White supremacy and white body privilege are woven into the fiber of our society. As a plethora of disparities reveal, it is in the air we breathe. 

Now, let's return to my opening statement of knowing people who are racist. Exhale. Unfortunately, people who are racist do not wear a scarlet "R" on their clothing, nor do they have a physical identifier so that we would avoid them. They are among our neighbors, classmates, students, colleagues and co-parishioners. Often, they will be quick to deny that they are "racist" because at some point during my lifetime that term has become one of shame.

Those who are willfully ignorant,  have a naive understanding of the construct of race and the concept known as racism. They don't know that race is based on lies generated by greed. Unwilling to engage in difficult conversations with BIPOC, these persons think their struggles deny their white body privilege, and assume racism is disliking someone because of their race. The blinders of white privilege blind many from seeing how it is deeply woven into the fibers of our society. 

Racism is a complex systemic evil functioning overtly and covertly in our communities and our nation. In its various forms, racism is complicit in the perpetuation of white supremacy as reflected in a plethora of disparities. As a child of the Civil Rights movement, there is a profound sadness in recognizing that future generations must continue in this struggle, and other children of color will question the blatant injustice and hypocrisy of racism in this nation that celebrates life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and declares all to be created equal.