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I will have an inclusive classroom.

Emily Jackman,
Durham, NH

As a future educator, I am constantly learning new things myself. I want to learn as much as I can to make sure everyone (regardless of their race, abilities, or ethnicity) feels safe and welcomed into my classroom. I have made it a life goal to do as much as I can to be an ally and recognize the privilege I have as a white person. I have just begun to do the work I plan to do by attending Black Lives Matter Seacoast events. However, saying I am going to do work to be an ally in life and in the classroom is completely different from actually doing it. I will constantly be listening, learning, and supporting those around me that are a difference race from mine.

Your location influences your perceptions

Dylan,
GA

I grew up on the west coast, and my community was culturally diverse (whites, Asians, Hispanics). However, my community had a low population of blacks.

I moved to the Deep South. This is the least culturally diverse place I have lived. It is quite literally black and white.

The city I live in is majority black. Poverty is rampant. Crime is rampant. In black neighborhoods, people do not care for the upkeep of homes. The tenants could give a damn. Property values are low. The public school are atrocious. Neighbors hate each other.

I have seen numerous examples of black people who carry themselves with dignity and treat others with respect. Sadly, the majority of blacks here are not that way.

I was sympathetic to the Black Lives Matter movement and notions of securing racial equality for blacks by changing the system. Now I see it’s the black community that is primarily to blame for their predicament.

Does racism exist? Yes. Does generational poverty influence black communities? Absolutely. Does welfare help raise blacks from poverty? No. Do blacks lack opportunity in the community because of their skin color? Nope.

Black community leaders need to step up and show them there are other ways of living. Trashy is trashy. Whites have an aspect of their culture which is shameful (rednecks, trailer trash, etc). The core identity of the black community is trashy. Listen to the music young black people listen to. Look at how they dress. Listen to how they speak. Anyone who sees this difference and believes it is perfectly acceptable and not capable of being elevated to a more elegant, culturally rich version is blind.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Marching while white doesn’t declare solidarity.

Katie Moss,
Winchester, VA

I own a t-shirt that lists famous African American leaders on it in bold white lettering from Harriet Tubman to Ibram X. Kendi. I recently wore it while marching at a Black Lives Matter event in my local town in response to the horrific killings of unarmed black people at the hands of police. I remember feeling good about myself, good about the moment I was in marching alongside other black, brown, and white bodies, like I belonged too. I found myself assuring my naive race conscience that by showing up in this woke t-shirt, I was a “good” white person. I wasn’t like the others. I belonged here, too. Marching while singing along to the African American Spirituals as if the lyrics resonated with me, as if my own white hardships could understand, felt like the right thing to do. Later that day as I was walking to my car to go home, this rush of ironic guilt came over me. I thought I was doing the right thing when it came to taking a stand against police and supporting black lives. Yet, I had made this experience about me, and my inevitable contributions to the corporate whitewashing made my solidarity disappear.

Examining my own prejudices and privilege every day has forced me to remember that just by showing up to this conversation about race as a white person, doesn’t mean I am truly marching in solidarity. The choices I make every day, the racist remarks I speak out against, the bigger issues I stand for that make equitable differences are the actions that show that I believe Black Lives Matter. I do stand in solidarity for a better world for them to live in, like me.

Never Been Asked: “What Are You?”

Ella Harris,
Columbia, MD

I always felt disconnected from my African American identity. With my blonde hair, light green eyes, and fair skin, the world that I live in is fundamentally different. I am never asked where I am from, or if I am mixed. I am never asked the notorious, “What are you?” And rather than facing the discrimination that most African Americans face, my dilemma is that I must prove my blackness, and thus my biracial identity, in a society that views me as white.

For a long time I equated my own adversity to the discrimination that most African Americans face, but in reality, I possess a unique power: If I so choose, I can live my life as white without contradiction. This was a privilege I refused to acknowledge for years until I watched the death of George Floyd.

A few days later, dehydrated and aching from holding a sign for hours at my first protest, I somehow felt energized — I wanted to do more. I could no longer wait for someone else to present me with an opportunity to take action. I had to forge my own path to advocacy. I ultimately created an entire website, https://blacklives2020.weebly.com, to present what I had found.

Creating and sharing this website has empowered me to develop my voice and stand firm in my beliefs. I have the privilege of being white-passing and the responsibility to tell the narrative of my African American ancestors.

Becoming an activist has also forced me to be vulnerable with people I have known all my life and people I have never met. I revealed my insecurities about my conscious and unconscious privileges as white-passing. I came to terms with my outsider status in both the white and African American communities, while also accepting that even though my narrative is different, it is still valid.

George Floyd’s murder fundamentally changed how I perceive myself and my role in society. I am black, living under the guise of a white person — a juxtaposition I hated for so long — but now I see the power I possess. It is this power that drives me to continue my journey.

I wish I could do more.

Kit Tompkins,
Boardman, OH

I was born with albinism. I know a little bit of what it’s like to be left out, teased for the way I look, for strangers to comment on my hair. But I also grew up in the south. There were maybe three black kids in my whole high school of 1500. I didn’t think my family was racist until I got into an argument with my stepfather when I asserted I would be comfortable dating a black man. It’s hard to break past all the unconscious feelings and fears I unknowingly absorbed. Not to be afraid of black guys I pass in the street. But I’m committed. Marching through downtown with a BLM protest was one of my proudest moments. I wish I could do more, but at the same time, as a queer, disabled parent living under the poverty line, it feels like every day is a struggle to not give into despair. We fight and fight but things don’t change. The rich get richer and watch the poor die while paying lip service to diversity. I can only hope we somehow manage to leave a better world for our children.

Racism is also prevalent in Canada

Emma Seawright,
Knoxville, TN

I am from Canada and the news covers USA news very often so during the summer when there were protests occurring in support of BLM the Canadian news was covering it. Many people might think that this would start a conversation about race in Canada but it did not, instead, many people felt removed from the uncomfortable conversations occurring. But Canada does have racism and a lot of it. Discrimination against Native Americans is very prevalent and is reflected in the rates of missing and murdered indigenous women whose families never get closure in the form an arrest because the police do not try to solve the case. There are countless other examples like this one, Canadians need to realize that racism is not isolated to the USA and there is a lot of work to be done at home too.

University of Tennessee Sociology 110

BLM protests have turned me

Jö Sharsvën,
Atlanta, GA

The BLM protests have made me “racist”. I use that loosely. I don’t care anymore. If once there was a glimmer of camaraderie with blacks, it’s completely gone now. Racism against whites is growing exponentially. And for some reason it’s acceptable. The unwarranted hate I experience on a daily basis is ridiculous.

You don’t want truth? Too bad.

Sammy Miller,
New Orleans, LA

It’s interesting that people say they want equality. What they really want is to demean. I hear people say that white people are so used to being white that they can’t stand advancement of another race.

We hear all the hurtful mocking of whites.
They can’t dance
They have no taste in music.
They are Karens
They think they are better.
They are trying to “be black”
They are stealing our culture.
They are trying to take over BLM.
On and on.

They say now whites know how it feels.

We have all been mocked, ridiculed, and hurt.
We were taught that kids matter what someone does to you, you don’t take it out on others. This doesn’t seem to apply to whites anymore. Society makes it ok to tell whites they aren’t wanted. That they shouldn’t lift their voices because they don’t know what it is like to be darker skinned. The ignorance of that is staggering.

The hate and vitriol directed at whites because of something someone else did is as irrational as being scared of black men for being black. It’s as useless as believing all black women are baby machines with 7 different dads.
Because you are angry and hurt you want to punish all whites and give them a taste of their own medicine.
While you point fingers at whites for their privilege ask yourself what it would be like to be subjected to the same scrutiny. You say you are invisible. Imagine everything you say and do being dissected, ready to be pounced on as racist or hateful. If a white woman ignores a black man who approaches her in the store then she is a supremacist! not simply disinterested. She is subject to constant scrutiny constant evaluation. You can forget complaining about a completely disruptive employee who happens to not be white because that results in instantly being ostracized.

I hear the seething “well white people deserve it!” But do they?

If dark skinned women yell, act rude, or even brawl in public, it’s accepted as “their culture”. It seems a lot like a “Karen” to think you can do whatever you want and that the rules shouldn’t apply to you.

No one bats an eye at black people promoting the exclusive patronage of black owned businesses. They do it out in the open. Promoting their own brand of supremacy.

Regarding reparations. I’m curious why people are not out demanding reimbursement from families of offenders for lives that have been taken by murder. Is it unfair to hold parent accountable for the actions of their children? If an entire race bears the responsibility for their ancestors or the ancestors of people that look like them, then why can victims of crime not seek reparations from the parents and grandparents of the offender? They are directly responsible for how that person behaves. Parents have a direct influence on how their children develop and interact with society.

Why are women looked down upon for accepting money as reparations for rape when that is exactly what thousands of black people Say they deserve deserve for something that happened to their ancestors.

If a woman Is a greedy B for taking money to make her life easier then what should she accept for a physical and mental violation? An apology? A jail sentence? The fact that it is illegal?

True equality comes from melding of cultures. Are you ready to accept that?

You can no longer dehumanize me.

Lynn Keane,
Canada

I live at the intersection of race + gender inequality.
When I was a little girl, my mother’s coworker saw us shopping on a Saturday. My mother lost her job on Monday.
When I was a little older, someone wrote “n****r” on our apartment door. I remember being scared and hurt.
My dad regularly had ‘The Talk’ with my brother. Instructing him to be respectful of police when he was pulled over. The assumption was not if but when he’d get stopped.

When I was with my small children in an elevator, a woman asked” if I liked being their nanny”? She wrongly assumed that because my skin colour was different than my children, they weren’t mine.
Being racialized makes you a target for other’s ignorance and hate. Treated as other or devalued because of your skin colour.

As mixed, black and brown people we absorb other’s assumptions every day. This is our truth. We must seize this moment to end systemic racism and institutionalized aggression towards people of colour in our communities.

This revolution requires that everyone take action. It’s long-past time.
Black Lives Matter

May God have mercy on us

Phil Nolan,
St. Petersburg, FL

I can’t help it. I know it’s viewed as stereotypical but when I’m around Muslims I am defensive, wary, I take seriously Muslims shouting “death to American, Islam will bury you and behead those who deny Allah.” It’s the same with black people. Their lack of impulse control and history of violence makes me defensive and wary therefore I avoid them and only engage them if they say hello or otherwise act normal, sorry, I can’t help it. Watching the “knockout game” where black guys indiscriminately punch out white people for nothing but a video and a laugh and with all this TV coverage about black lives matter and the constant violence and destruction forces me to be concerned about my safety and that of my family.

I’m tired of Black Lives Matter (BLM)!

Chris Rochambeau,
Seattle, WA

I am ethnically “mixed”, (born in New Orleans – Spanish Creole, Cajun French and Choctaw ), but appear Anglo. I am, also, an ER RN. And, I am tired, sooooo very tired of all the BLM “protests”, (uncouth, unhygienic, rioters tearing up a county that is already struggling ), smack in the middle of this horrible pandemic! *MOST OF YOU ARE NOT SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND MANY OF YOU ARE NOT WEARING MASKS! ( When you do this, you make “work” for me and my kind! And WE ARE ALL BURNED THE HELL OUT!!! ) Do you, ( “protesters”), think you are special? Do you think the virus won’t get you? I can assure you – it can and it will!

We have ALL, ( regardless of gender, skin color, sexual orientation, cultural affiliation… ), have had hard lives, and been mistreated by others. GROW THE HELL UP and stop all this pathetic, whiny, victim-worship! You all better be concerned about this virus, that is about to eat us all alive! Be concerned about the environment, the economy, the sorry state of schools, the eviction crisis, the millions of Americans struggling on unemployment – just trying to make ends meet. Do you want to ‘get behind” something? Get behind that! Those issues affect us all.

Racism IS an important issue, but it is nothing compared to what is going on in the world right now. ( Worrying about racism in the middle of a global pandemic is analogous to a hunchback being upset about a pimple on the end of his nose! ) Get your priorities straight. If you self-serving idiots don’t wise-up, and stop wasting resources there won’t be enough to go around when it really matters! YOUR “RACE CARD” HAS BEEN CANCELED; TRY BACK LATER WITH YOUR “VICTIM CARD”. You want to beat this virus, and support front line workers? Then, do the right thing – mask-up, clean-up, keep your distance and stop all these asinine “protests”.

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