So, here’s a good post called “Dear White Protesters” from Tam who writes on Tumblr as Young, Gifted and Black. It’s aimed at white folks protesting the grand jury decisions on the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases and in general at white people who want to be allies in the struggle against structural violence and discrimination against black people and racist policing.
Tam specifically talks about the protests that happened in Berkeley on December 6th, writing:
I was so happy to read Tam’s post, because I was in Berkeley last week, too, and the protesters were assembled in front of the police station down the street from where I was staying. I went over there around 6.30 because I wanted to join in, and I was missing the protests in New York because of travel. At that point in the evening, the situation was peaceful. The cops were lined up in front of the police station in riot gear, and people were calmly standing around or sitting on the ground singing, “Which side are you on? Which side are you on?” Later, I hear, the protests got crazy and there were rubber bullets, tear gas, windows smashed with skateboards, and tasers.
As I arrived to the police station, however, it was people milling around, getting ready for a ‘die in.’ They started lying down in the street. And I was not sure what to do. I wanted to support the movement and guessed that I should also lie down. But the protest seemed a bit ‘off.’ I hardly saw a black person there. The sign saying “Fuck the Police” covering the body of a hipster white girl lying in the street felt about as real as when middle class white people rap along with the 1988 N.W.A. song by the same name. (OK, confession. I do that. But not in public, and not to make a statement.)
Anyway, the whole thing made me feel confused about what I and others were doing there, so I left, feeling that maybe I was just getting old. I felt like I was not doing enough, but I also felt unable to participate in something that seemed somehow false. As I walked over to the BART station to catch a train, I couldn’t help but notice the group of older black homeless men at the park a half a block away from the police station. I couldn’t help but think of the black man with a shopping cart that I witnessed police harassing earlier that week on a suburban side street in Berkeley. None of them were engaged with this student protest. And I couldn’t help but feel awkward for the protesters who in their zeal to protest, somehow seemed oblivious to their surroundings and their privilege.
It’s possible that later on the protest became different and more diverse, and in that case I will retract these words and feel better, I guess. But I was glad to read Tam’s post. I was having a hard time unpacking my own reactions to the Berkeley protest, and Tam’s analysis illuminated what was wrong. It’s important to have allies in all struggles, but allies need to learn to take a back seat, understand their role, and follow the lead of those whose struggle it is.
Tam gives advice on how:
As Franchesca Ramsey also says: “An ally’s job is to support.” Watch her video (below) on how to do that, and read Tam’s full post for some good insight.
Ramsey’s 5 Tips for Being a Good Ally include:
1. Understand your privilege.
2. Listen, do your homework.
3. Speak up, not over.
4. Apologize when you make mistakes and learn from them.
5. Saying you’re an ally is not enough.
Lastly, a few months ago I read this post about Imani Henry and Equality for Flatbush, who organizes people (of all colors) in the community where I live around issues of gentrification, racial tension, and discrimination against black and brown people by law enforcement. Henry says many of the same things (read that whole article too – it’s really insightful).
There are a lots of places for white people to listen and learn how to be better allies, and opportunities to put that learning into practice. Understanding our own privilege is a critical task, and it’s hard. These are all lifelong learning pathways, and as Ramsey says, we’ll make mistakes. It’s part of the process of changing and shifting the balance of power to a more just one. It won’t happen overnight, but we shouldn’t give up just because we feel awkward and uncertain.
So go to protests, get involved, know and exercise your rights to dissent and assemble, show solidarity. This movement needs everyone to get on board. Like Fannie Lou Hamer said: ‘Nobody’s free until everybody’s free’. But as white people, we need to think through our participation, join as allies, and avoid making it about us.
Wait... What? 
While I understand this post, and agree with some parts, I must admit it makes me uncomfortable – let me start by saying that I’m a (white) old-time progressive raised by a (white) old-time progressive – civil rights leader Roy Wilkins was actually my godfather, and I was brought up to believe that civil rights and human rights were not different – so in that sense, this is about all of us, regardless of race – and the affronts to people of color, to Jews, to Muslims, to Latinos, to Asians and to any other minority are an affront to all of those groups as well as to everyone else — fixing this problem belongs to all of us. I do agree learning how to be allies appropriately is important, and there are many different ways to be involved, but we learned whether in Selma, in sit-ins across the South, in the streets of NY in the 60s and 70s, in the march on Washington and again and again, change requires everyone, whatever their race, refuting the hate-spewing right-wing media, the government powers that be, etc. If something is going to lead to a Federal prosecution (the only way police are ever likely to be brought to justice) it will take all of us working together, showing solidarity across the lines. So it is important to be sensitive and to understand that we’re not all the same with respect to current privilege, but we MUST be all the same with respect to the law and it’s enforcement. The 5 principles above are great as far as they go, but number 5 (saying your an ally is not enough) requires taking action – and finding appropriate and significant actions is crucial to an eventual change in society.
Just my two cents from one who was raised watching one generation’s fight, took part in a second, am seeing my daughter getting involved in a third, and hoping that someday this will stop – and for that to happen, it will take all of us.
I totally agree with you that it’s not the time to disengage. At the same time, it’s also not the time to dilute. I wish we would have a focused fight for now so that it can be won. It’s clearly a structural race and violence issue world wide – torture, war, arms, prison-industrial complex, immigration, women’s rights, etc. etc. It’s the patriarchy. But right now I think we could stand and support and be allies to this specific cause. And I think white people can and should support the leadership of others.
[…] See the original post: “This is not about you” […]
I can certainly appreciate the people participating missing the entire point of the demonstration. What I don’t really think changes in any generation is a young person’s desire to express themselves in any way they can. “If I yell loud enough maybe I’ll know who I am as an individual.”
I believe the real struggle lies in the human condition of fear. I know I can be shut down on so many fronts with arguments structured to defeat me in every aspect of the idea that the real threat isn’t race related. I still can’t help but wonder if it’s just a distraction to the problem of financial profits being made on chaos and discord.
I think I see what you’re saying and I think I totally agree! There is a huge, huge structure of power out there that is not letting go easily or any time soon. It’s embedded in every country, conserved by a number of the most powerful globally, and manifests itself in numerous ways where the powerful maintain their entrenchment and control. I do think it’s really important to see it as a whole and to work on multiple fronts. In the US, that whole structure shows itself in lots of ways, but we can all (and I think we should) contribute to addressing the issue of structural violence against blacks in a focused way, and support black activists and black people right here, right now (and into the future) on this point rather than diffuse the point out to a wider one that will likely end with nothing gained because there is no focus on real wins and concrete things.
I hope that there are specific actions that get taken regarding racist policing, and I feel like if there is a united front on that issue, in support of black activists and their agenda, that something could move. I also agree that there are tons of other things and this is one piece of a much larger problem. Does that make sense? What the ‘non rightwing’ movements tend to do is to see the complexity/the connections across all these problems across the whole world, which is a good thing. But then I think we bite off way more than we can chew and we bring a hundred different banners and agendas to every cause, and the message gets diffused and there are not clear cut and actionable solutions. I think there are some very concrete things that could be done right now, and we should focus there now and help achieve them, but not give up there. And if a better system is put into place for policing, it would probably end up benefiting everyone.
I guess that’s a slightly different topic than the blogpost, but still relevant! I think it’s part of the culture of fear issue you mention. But maybe we can help to tackle the ‘culture of fear’ in a small way by showing a united, diverse and non-violent front working to reduce police violence against black people, taking leadership from black people, who are the most affected by said issue. Maybe that helps show that some of these things that the media riles people up about (protests, racial integration, black people) are actually not so scary. And maybe it helps white people/white activists also see that stepping back and letting others lead is also not so scary!
This: And maybe it helps white people/white activists also see that stepping back and letting others lead is also not so scary!
Thanks for this, Linda! xo