Saturday, January 26, 2019

what white people need to know

this post explains more eloquently than anything else i have come across what i think white people need to know about the incident involving black people, native american people, and white people at the lincoln memorial recently.

an excerpt:

"White people have a moral obligation to understand how we carry the violent history and heritage of the genocide of Native Americans and the profound trauma of chattel slavery in us. "

"Being aware of how Christians felt entitled to not just space, but spirits, cultures, bodies, families, and homes is a must for white-skinned Americans.  Such awareness would prevent us from making such flat-footed claims about our personal space being encroached upon when a Native Elder approaches us with a sacred gesture."

"When white people walk into a space where black bodied people and Indigenous people are voicing their pain, their perspectives, we carry with us a violent heritage, whether we know it or not...That pain is real whether white-skinned people believe it is not."