It’s time to sit down and shut up. It’s time to close our mouths and use our eyes and ears. It’s time to not make everything about ourselves. It’s time to stop saying “all lives matter” in response to hearing “black lives matter.” We are white and we have an enormous amount of privilege and power, and it’s time to recognize that.
I would like to ask a few things of the white people reading this.
First, develop better listening skills. Don’t take it as a personal attack when you read or hear about a black person’s account of a racist incident. Don’t assume he or she is lying or exaggerating. Instead, think about how unfairly he or she was treated. Think about how you wouldn’t want to be in the situation that he or she described. Think back on a time in which you went through something that other people dismissed, you were called a liar or were told that you were just weak.
Second, educate yourself on your privileges and the oppression that people of color experience. This has been difficult for me; how do I understand something that I have never experienced? What has helped me and inspired me to write this piece was attending a dialogue called “Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter” that was sponsored by the Black Student Union and the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement. The existence of this center may be common knowledge, but if you’re like me and have been living under a rock, you didn’t know about it until recently. If you are interested in an event, but don’t want to go alone, email me and I will happily go with you.
This is not an attack on white people. This is a call for empathy.
Believe; don’t deny. Listen; don’t ignore. Learn about the struggles of other races. We must stop thinking that racism doesn’t exist. We have to admit that we experience less poverty, less police brutality and fewer hardships on average. We need to recognize that people of color are stopped, arrested and killed by police officers at a much higher rate than we are. We need to stop assuming that the people killed were being unruly or had illegal contraband. And even if they were disorderly or had drugs, why do we believe that those actions and possessions merit murder?
We need to reflect on our own behaviors behind closed doors, and consider if we have participated in any of the behaviors that are used by police officers as justifications of murdering people of color. Have you ever jaywalked, shoplifted or gotten high? If you answered yes to any of those, do you believe that you deserved to die in any of those instances?
If you really do think that all lives matter, start acting like it. Practice what you preach.
Taylor Moore is a junior geology major from El Sobrante, California
