White privilege is a subject most people tend to avoid talking about. White people?who do talk about it are usually called apologists and victims of “white guilt.” But those who truly understand what white privilege is have a clearer understanding of the world. They recognize that past injustice has its roots in the present.
It’s not easy coming to this unpopular catharsis. There?is sure to be lots of pressure to “not apologize” for things your parents, grandparents, or even great-grandparents may have done to contribute to social injustice. There are those who would say every life is a clean slate in America, with the past bearing no real effect on the present and future. This extreme misunderstanding of the very nature of history is not only reckless, it’s dangerous and leads people down a dark path towards hatred and bigotry.
This poem is a beautiful illustration of a young lady’s mental awakening and a call to her people, to reach for understanding, love, pride, and a new sense of shared humanity.
“My people: white people” ?written by Dana Kaiser-Davidson.
My people: white people
Truth be told ?we? never were a people, fragments of cultures that bought into privilege
called whiteness, the invisible word
I remember 10th grade family history project being more concerned about my place in the human race
Bypassed cultural legacy for oneness, WE are all one my white people said
Not a color thing, just people.
My people: white people, Land of independent nuclear families
Smothering ideals of perfection, Bottled up resentments, Blistering silences
No such thing as mistakes or getting messy
We keep quiet to our own addictions, then blame people of color for all things called bad
poverty, drugs abuse, domestic violence, molestation??. perceived as isolated problems that white people are free from.
My people: white people
We say we are not racist, yet we are raised in a racist society
Pass on stereotypes of what we think people of color are really like to our children
We are fed half-truths and lies in history books
We sit silently while children are made into puppets on T.V color
White children learn diversity through Disney’s Pocahontas and Aladdin
Stereotypes that my grandparents taught me filtered my own perceptions
My people we have been hurt to think this separation does not chain our minds and hurt our souls
As I mind my mind with forgiveness, I let go of shame for my own people
I’ve deemed myself better than
I’ve acted out the lies I’ve been told, believing I was never racist
I sat in silence, guilt immobilized my mind
Held my own spirit captive
ego chatter categorized good and bad white people
Heaven on earth looks like oneness
With my own people
What is the use of pretending I am not like those white people
Who latch onto other cultures in order to cope with fragmented family histories
My people
From Irish, Scottish, English, German and unknown descent
Carried legacies of hurts with them
Pulled up from bootstraps laced in shoes stained in blood of slavery and genocide
My people: white people
Let’s love the hurts of forgotten legacies into wholeness
Let’s forgive our forefathers and mothers as we forgive ourselves for the violence, silence, shame and separation that internalized racial superiority has caused
For living in comfortable bubbles of safety
For believing we were never racist
Lets educate ourselves and other white people to histories ignored instead of asking people of color to be our teachers or explain the hurts they have faced
My people: white people
I vow to love you arms wide open as I love my baby niece
All white people no matter what you’ve said, done, kept silent in the name of privilege
You are good people
It’s time to mourn the hurts we’ve afflicted as a people
It’s time to grieve our separation from our own indigenous heritages
each cultural legacy dropped in the name of survival
It’s time to love our peoples, love ourselves
consciously awaken from our legacy of racial smog
Into awareness of our white privileges and culture
Let us create pride in our people
birthed in freedom, shared power, prosperity and tangible oneness with all people
My people: white people, the spiritual revolution is calling you.
Featured image via The Conservative Wife
