The Love Lab

I’m a bit slack with social media, but I couldn’t stay silent about an important issue pervading the world today: racism. Racism =racial prejudice + systemic, institutional power. This issue not black vs white, it is human vs racism. All lives can’t matter, if black lives don’t matter.
We need to acknowledge that not all humans are treated equally and it’s not until all humans are treated equally; will we have a functioning society. The human experience is varied, and our experience is not what others experience in terms of cultural values, norms, expectations and life experiences.
Agents of racism can be both people and institutions, who either intentionally perpetuate or unintentionally collude with racism. In most of Western society, it has stemmed from a historical relationship of whites with black slaves or whites stealing land from blacks. It has started with perverse ideologies during our “enlightenment” period or warped interpretations of religious texts and philosophies. We may not be personally responsible for it, but we have a responsibility to question our own beliefs and the system that terrorizes people of colour.
Our countries were built on these ideologies and our generations grew up with it. It takes courage to admit this. Often, I see that white people hear blame whenever the issue of racism is brought up, whether or not blame has been placed on whites. As beneficiaries of racism and white privilege, we take a defensive posture even when we are not being individually blamed. You may personalize the remarks, not directed personally at you. Why?
You are not being blamed, you are being asked to look deep inside you, be humble, learn and to understand that by being white you were automatically born with “privilege”.
It doesn’t mean your life wasn’t hard, it means we have an opportunity to learn more about the experience of racism from a person of colour. We cannot minimize their experience by trying to make it comparable or less painful than ours. We cannot evade the recognition of racism. I ask why are we more comfortable decrying black people’s oppression than scrutinizing white privilege?
From Debra Leigh, Organizer, Community Anti-Racism Education Initiative:
“Your silence may be a product of your guilt or fear of making people of color or white people angry with you or disappointed in you. You may be silent because your guilt stops you from disagreeing with people of color. You may be afraid that speaking out could result in losing some of your privilege…The reasons for our silence are many, but each time we are silent we miss an opportunity to interrupt racism, or to act as an ally or to interact genuinely with people of color or other white people. And no anti-racist action is taken as long as we are silent. “
Creative Director,
Lewa 🖤