To Act is to Love

“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
Man’s greatness consists in his ability to do and the proper application of his powers to things needed to be done.” Frederick Douglass, circa 1845

“Our country’s national crime is lynching. It is not the creature of an hour, the sudden outburst of uncontrolled fury, or the unspeakable brutality of an insane mob. It represents the cool, calculating deliberation of intelligent people who openly avow that there is an ‘unwritten law’ that justifies them in putting human beings to death without complaint under oath, without trial by jury, without opportunity to make defense, and without right of appeal.” Ida B. Wells, January, 1900

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed…For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’" Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” 16 April 1963

 “Don’t talk to us about looting. Y’all are the looters. America has looted Black people. America looted the Native Americans when they first came here. Looting is what you do. We learned it from you. We learned violence from you. So if you want us to do better, then, damn it, you do better." Tamika Mallory, “State of Emergency Speech,” 29 May 2020

White people in America are very uncomfortable right now as we confront our own complicity in the ongoing dehumanization, brutalization, and murder of Black people.

Many of us want to say we didn’t know, we want to believe we’re not part of the problem, we want to express our love for Black people, we want to ask for forgiveness. We wish we could do something to make it all go away, to make it all feel better. But, as the saying goes, the only way out is through. What we claim to see only now we have known all along: all White people benefit from the societal norms that systematically oppress and murder Black people.

Listening to Black people and acting on their demands and directives is the right action in which we must all engage. Here is some of what Black leaders in the movement for social justice are communicating:

 1. It is not enough for us to not be racist; we must be actively anti-racist. If we don’t understand the distinction, we must immediately and appropriately locate the resources that will bring us clarity. This is the most urgently valuable work White people can be undertaking.

2. Learning to be anti-racist is not like studying for the SATs: we can’t cram, pass a test, and move on. It’s a lifelong commitment to engagement and action. 

3. Black people are not an endless well of information for White people to drink from; we’ve been doing that long enough. Learning to be anti-racist is White peoples’ work and we need to dedicate our resources, whatever they may be, in order to reap the knowledge.

4. Black people don’t need to give us some form of approval when we do the decent, right thing. And they don’t need to sugarcoat the truth to spare our feelings. We’re grown-ups who can handle the truth and take right action.

5. Listening to and amplifying Black voices is more important than using our own. Now is the time for us to learn and act according to what we know is morally correct.

6. White people need to do less talking about Black people and the reasons for their actions, and more talking about/learning about/dismantling the sickness and pervasiveness of White supremacy.

How we engage in the ongoing movement for social justice depends on many factors, including but not limited to age, mobility, health, immigration status, legal status, and work and/or family commitments. Not all of us are going to be able to march in protests.

Here are some of the many ways you can contribute:

*Donate to a bail fund, maybe one in a state that hasn’t gotten a lot of press lately. The main bail fund in Minnesota has begun to refer donations to other funds in need. Look here for a fund to contribute to: https://bailfunds.github.io/

*Donate to the National Lawyers Guild here: https://www.nlg.org/

*Contribute to your own unlearning of systemic White supremacy through studying with Rachel Cargle, who teaches “The Great Unlearn.” Find her here: https://www.rachelcargle.com/ Or, study the writing and activism of Layla F. Saad, author of Me and White Supremacy. Find her here: http://laylafsaad.com/meandwhitesupremacy

*Fund Black activists, such as those who run the organizations Until Freedom and Black Lives Matter. Find them here: https://www.untilfreedom.com/ And here: https://blacklivesmatter.com/

*Fund organizations that focus on the needs of LGBTQ+ Black people. Here is one such organization: https://centerforblackequity.org/

*Support Black-owned small businesses of every kind. Black Americans are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and need us to support their businesses. A quick internet search will easily yield result in your areas of need or interest.

*Use your social media platforms to share information with your White friends and colleagues, so that they, too, can begin the work of becoming anti-racist.

*Establish a phone campaign: every day, make a phone call to local, state, and/or federal government offices to demand police accountability. What to say? Start here: https://8cantwait.org/ Then, call your local mayor’s office to demand they defund the police, jails, and prisons and reroute funds to social services.

You might feel overwhelmed by what you’re seeing in the news or witnessing on the streets of your community. You might feel guilty that it has taken you so long to accept your own complicity and act in accordance with what is right. You might already feel defeated by responsibility or physical or emotional constraints. You might feel apathetic and believe that your voice won’t matter. It is natural to feel these things, as we have been slumbering so long.

But we can’t let ourselves be so overwhelmed by our feelings that we are immobilized. Action begets more action, and even small actions add up.

Get going. Keep going. Don’t ever stop.

To Act is to Love.