Dear Karen
Dear Karen, do something or mind your business,
Before you read any further, I need you to take a long deep breath. I write this NOT to shame you but for you to take a second to put your feelings aside and listen. While many of your intentions start off well, I have found that your performative allyship is an example of white supremacy. The way you treat me and others in your labs, in your seminars, in your hallways, in your workplaces, in your tweets, is the reason why white people predominantly occupy academic spaces.
I can see that you were trying to be a good person; developing a seminar highlighting marginalized groups once a quarter, or hosting listening sessions to understand Black lives for the first time in 10 years. However, rarely do the actions put into being a “good person” come across and initiate valid change. Honestly Karen, this is trash, you threw away your one opportunity to use your white privilege to make a difference instead you continued to perpetuate white supremacy culture by not listening. Your actions only reinforce that BIPOC should be segregated from whites and our voices are only to be listened to when you are ready. Instead of using your privilege for good and addressing our concerns, you get defensive, fragile, tearful, fearful. You block people on social media while your bio screams #AmplifyBlackVoices, we tell you what you’re doing isn’t helping us, yet you respond, "Well, at least it is something!"
No, Karen, it is not something. Your bare minimum effort is a slap in the face. Instead, this indicates that you single handedly slowed down the momentum of BIPOC. So, fuck your damn seminars, listening sessions, and viral tweets. We are not to be highlighted; we are to be featured. I want to make it extremely clear that your act of kindness is truly an act of racism, it is the exact reason why BIPOC are segregated from STEM and disproportionately represented at all levels of academia.
Before you can initiate a seminar or listening session on race, you must understand the problem. And the first step to understanding this problem is to accept wholeheartedly that you are the problem. The erasure of Black history has allowed you to believe you are the superior race and you have benefited from these racists systems. It’s time for you to unlearn ALL that and learn about the Black experience instead. And not at these listening sessions, because we have BEEN talking and you can literally Google us (like y’all do everything else!). Take the time to realize that you are a product of a society where the Black story is ignored. Know this and work to STOP IT! Engage with minority serving institutions, learn about Black culture. Treat it as if it is your own history, because it is. Black history is American history, it’s our history.
Again, remember to breathe, changing the mind hurts the brain. Please accept that my intention was not to embarrass you, but to address the undercurrent of white supremacy. You can use your position of power to do more. Begin by educating yourself on how to be a better ally and begin normalizing micro activism, which means having uncomfortable conversations with your cousins, friends, neighbors and questioning their continual support for Donald Trump and the Republican Party. More importantly you should wake up every morning, and ask yourself, “How can I be a better ally and use my position to help BIPOC?” It can start by voting and reducing white leadership and defunding the police. Even further, you can change the entire seminar series to highlight marginalized groups every week, all year (there have been PLENTY of all whites for years) or step down and provide the space to hire true allies. This type of activism is what transforms into a repetition, which forms into a habit, which can change the system.
