How Images of Unity Between Police and Black People Protects White Comfort and Upholds White Supremacy
I’d like to address my white friends.
I see many of y’all out here sharing posts almost exclusively about “good cops” joining protesters, or taking a knee, or standing up to their colleagues who are brutalizing black people, or “good protesters” who are shielding/protecting cops from angry protesters, along with all the feel good images of white and black/cop and protester unity that these stories provide. And I want to invite you to ask yourselves why these are the stories you are sharing? What is your investment in these stories over stories of black rage? Why are you choosing to center stories of unity with the instrument of white supremacist and capitalist oppression?
I understand that what is happening right now is scary and heartbreaking. I understand that we are witnessing a deep rift in our society and it feels like it is breaking apart, breaking open, breaking down. Good. It is time. It is past time. Black and Indigenous people have been telling us that it is past time for a long time, as they have continued to be brutalized, killed, imprisoned, and disenfranchised at the hands of the police.
We, my friends and I, live in a community (Ithaca, NY) that is known for being a progressive enclave for hippies, scholars, and massage therapists, people who care deeply about and dedicate their lives to the pursuit of deep wisdom and healing modalities. We enjoy a history of anti-war protest and activism, as well as the honor of being the seat in the United States of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. But it is also an enclave for whiteness and white privilege. And it is COMFORTABLE for us, myself included. Though not necessarily so for our black and indigenous neighbors (I invite you to read Meryl Phipps’ piece about her children’s experiences living in this community).
Most of my white people who I am addressing right now are those I know from healing contexts — astrology, massage and meditation, etc. — and are all truly beautiful people who have dedicated their lives to creating spaces of peace and healing. I so appreciate their work and their voices. And I feel their discomfort during a time of intense and rapidly progressing social upheaval and, hopefully, change. This all feels so far from the peace and tranquility that we all hope and desire for ourselves and the world. And there is absolutely an important place and function for meditation and a practice of deep love and stillness, perhaps especially right now, in order to ground this volatile collective energy.
But — and this is IMPORTANT — there is also absolutely an important place and function for rage, both black and non-black, as well as protest in all its forms — peaceful as well as targeted property destruction (property is systemically held by white and wealthy owners over and against poor and people of color as a perpetuation of economic and social injustice and is thus a symbol for that injustice) and, yes, even looting. All are valid responses to police violence and repression, which is happening RIGHT NOW in the streets (three* PROTESTERS have been KILLED this week — one by National Guard, one by police, and one by a white property owner), as well as systemic oppression that has been happening and compounding for centuries. And it is working! Police departments are discussing defunding and reallocation of funds to communities of color, and even disbanding completely and starting with a completely new system. So far these are only words. We need to hold the pressure until we see action. We need to hold the pressure until we see systemic change.
Peace and unity are ideals to strive for, yes. But not at the expense of justice. We cannot have peace and unity until we have justice, until ALL PEOPLE can have peace and unity. And that cannot happen under the system of policing (and capitalism) that we currently have. So while I appreciate your desire and intentions for uplifting narratives of peace and unity, I implore you to consider and recognize how peace and unity right now, under an unjust and oppressive social order/reality, is actually helping to uphold that very order of injustice and oppression. It is upholding white supremacy in the interest of white comfort and at the expense of black lives. Hear that. I invite you to read that sentence again.
And yes, I know that these are images of black people standing with and hugging police who have laid down their arms (for the moment), or of a black woman high-fiving an officer who is marching with instead of against protesters, or of black men protecting a police officer from angry protesters. But here’s the thing: it is too easy for us, as white people, to see these feel-good images and think, “well, it’s black people so it must be okay to share,” and then pat ourselves on the back for sharing images of “good cops” and “good black people” getting along. What this does is two-fold and would be paradoxical except for the complex and nuanced reality of how white supremacy and anti-black racism works: these images function to simultaneously perpetuate the myth of the individual good cop, the individual good white person, thereby alleviating the frustration with and pressure on the SYSTEM of policing that is inherently and systemically racist and oppressive, while also perpetuating the requirement that all black people be good, be noble, be peaceful, even against a system, a society, and yes, even the individuals who actively uphold and enforce violence and oppression against them. This is a nuanced critique, but do you see it? We congratulate the INDIVIDUAL white people/police officers who make gestures of solidarity (gestures, mind you, are not allyship) and we require that black PEOPLE emulate only those qualities that we deem comfortable for us, specifically in actions that do not threaten the system of white supremacy or our comfort.
Now, let me be clear, black people, INDIVIDUALLY, can choose to act however they see fit. They can shield a police officer; they can hug a police officer; they can high-five a police officer; they can march peacefully. They can also scream, they can rage, they can throw bricks, they can throw tear-gas canisters back at the police that threw them in the first place, they can set fires to police precincts that have overseen (pun absolutely intended) the murders and incarceration of countless of their brethren and sistren, and they can loot and take what meager amounts they can carry in their arms of the reparations that are owed them by this country. This post and this discussion is not about their actions or how they choose to comport themselves in response to 400 years of injustice. It’s about how we do.
How do we respond, as white people, individually and collectively, to say no to and stand WITH black and indigenous people against this state, the American experiment, that has and continues to enslave (literally, incarceration is slavery according to the 13th Amendment of the US Constitution — watch The 13th on Netflix) and murder them? We can hope and work for peace and unity, that is absolutely the goal. But we MUST support revolution in order to get there. We are seeing the change that such revolution can bring. None of the officers who killed George Floyd would have been charged if not for this revolution. The Minneapolis PD is discussing radical ground-up change to their policing system because of this revolution. Los Angeles is committing to defunding their police department and investing in communities of color because of this revolution. The whole damn world is standing with this revolution!
Because this movement is bigger than George Floyd, or Breonna Taylor, or Tony McDade, David McAtee, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland, Jordan Edwards, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Atatiana Jefferson, the list goes on and on and on and on (#SayTheirNames, Say ALL Their Names), and it’s even bigger than the history and karma of the United States. This is a movement against white supremacy, which is a global scourge, and against state violence and repression everywhere. This moment is vital! And we must nurture it, we must kindle its flame, we must support it to do its work, to break us open and change us, collectively and individually. We must not stem the tide now. We must not subvert or hamstring or abort (sorry, bad metaphor) this movement before a new world is able to be born. Right now what is and has been needs to crumble, needs to burn, needs to be cleansed away so that we can build something new together, something truly just for all people. And only THEN can we sincerely begin to call for unity. Until then, as it has been for decades, calls for unity are merely words. Desperate words to quell the anxiety of the unknown and protect the comfort of the few, of the privileged, at the expense of the most marginalized and most vulnerable among us. I cannot join you in such pleas. Not yet.
(At the risk of losing some of my readers, but for the benefit of my astrologer friends, Pluto is moving into Aquarius in the next decade. What we are seeing is the crumbling of the old structures (Capricorn) in order to make way for a new collective organization and solidarity of the people. But WE have to make that happen. The planets will not do it for us. They are harbingers, guides, but it is our responsibility, our free will, to take the opportunities (fate) that they give us and make it count, make it fruitful, make it meaningful.)
So I encourage you, with love and respect in my heart, to take this opportunity to look deeply, honestly, critically at what is in you as a white person. Where does your comfort lie and where are you experiencing discomfort around what is happening right now? And then I encourage you, I invite you, I implore you, to lean into it. Have compassion for yourself, ask other race-conscious white people in your lives for help, or google anti-racism resources for yourself (recommended: How to Be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi), listen to the stories and experiences of black and indigenous people, and be curious about the nuances of whiteness and your white experience, privilege, and yes, even racism. It is only through excavating our own individual karma around our whiteness that we can truly lean in to and support this movement for black lives, for justice, for unity and a more peaceful world. So I invite you in with me. And that may include me calling you out — know that it is with love and a deep hope for us. I want, I need my white people with me in this. I want us to uplift each other so that we can heal the trauma that we inflict on people of color, perhaps not even meaning to, not even aware of what we are doing, but simply by existing complicitly within a racist white supremacist society. We were born into white bodies for a purpose. Let this be our purpose — to change what it means to be white. We can only do that by dismantling and uprooting racism and white supremacy from the ground up wherever we witness it, including, especially, and starting with ourselves.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for sticking with me, to the end.
I love you.
#BlackLivesMatter
#WhiteSilenceIsViolence
#NoJusticeNoPeace
*In an earlier draft of this piece it was recorded that four protesters had been killed — one of those protesters’ family has said that he was not protesting when he was killed.