Unpopular Isn’t Oppressed:
Why White America Must Sit in Discomfort
"Being unpopular is not oppression, however, if you do not address the oppressive acts you will become unpopular."
I have said this for almost 2 years now over several social media platforms. It is now time for me to begin enacting this personal public policy.
It is difficult for me to accept that white bodied people remain ignorant of white supremacy or racism flowing off as their arguments of apathy, impotency and inability to challenge what is happening as the current events of injustice.
I accept that millions of European Americans are functionally depressed.
I accept that millions of European Americans are swinging from Fear/Flight/Fawning as they tell themselves they have to survive white supremacy - in an attempt to find intellectual common ground with Black, Brown and Indigenous people.
I also accept that I can not help European Americans when it comes to articulating how they "feel" right now. Nor can I give them a stamp of approval that I feel "safe" in their presence.
The medicine for this moment in United States history is for our European American friends and family to FEEL WHITE and not become violent towards Black, Brown and Indigenous people.
Yes, you are going to feel like "there is nothing I can do to defend myself" and "so, am I going to be treated like your enemy?" and "if you reject me just because I am white, isn't that the textbook definition of racism" and "how is me feeling shitty about myself good for me?"
WHATEVER you feel is more than what you have ever ALLOWED yourself to feel up to this point in your life. And, like most of us socially programmed in this damn Babylon, you don't want to feel "bad about yourself just because you happened to have been born white."
However, only European Americans can heal other European Americans. If you are scared, then, that fear needs to become a part of the national conversation.
Black, Brown and Indigenous people need to back up and let you FEEL your emotions without attempting to soothe you. Otherwise, we are being complicit in our own oppression.
So, millions of European Americans are going to feel oppressed because Black, Brown and Indigenous people, such as myself, refuse to validate their arguments of white supremacy culture, microaggressions, white racial innocence and impotency in the face of the current second Trump Administration.
Millions of European Americans are going to start questioning whether they are having genuine experiences with Black, Brown and Indigenous persons or if the Black, Brown and Indigenous people in their lives are doing everything to remain within their right to comfort and survive their white presence.
Remember, whatever you are experiencing is what you voted for. If you want a different experience, please turn to your nearest white person and begin working with them.
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