For my Meme Posting Friend

To my friend who posted All Lives Matter-type memes.

I spent this morning making you something that I hope helps you. I didn’t feel like engaging in a Facebook tit for tat – I didn’t feel like the tension it brings, I didn’t want to drag this out into the open for everyone to scrutinise and generate an arena for nasty judgmental commentary. I want to encourage you to think differently. Here goes.

1. There were massive and devastating injustices to people of colour throughout history.

I think you know about some of this – so I’m not going to spend a lot of time here. I think you know that hundreds of thousands of people were taken from their homes, separated from their families, bought and sold like livestock to live as slaves to the benefit of others much richer and more privileged. I want you to re-read that last sentence though, and think about all of the suffering contained in it, because this is where today’s suffering started.

The suffering started when they were oppressed by colonial powers who had invaded their countries, where they were hunted down, herded away and families were torn apart. Imagine not knowing where your family members were, of being afraid that you could be next, of seeing your family killed or tortured in front of you, of being treated like an animal. If you survive the voyage, you live your life as a slave and for the benefit of someone else, not free to have your own choices or pursue your own happiness. You are a prisoner and live in constant fear. You don’t get paid for your work, you have no power, no freedom of expression. You have nothing – you don’t even own the clothes you wear.

Hundreds of thousands of people all around the world spent their lives like this. I want you to really immerse yourself and feel what this life would have been like – I want you to imagine the squalid conditions, the hard, forced and relentless labour, the despair, the sadness, the anger, the resentment… because any human would have felt like this if their lives were stolen from them as they were living them. This is where the black suffering started, and it wasn’t fair.

2. A magic switch wasn’t flicked that gave people back their dignity when slavery was outlawed.

Slaves didn’t stop being slaves in the eyes of their oppressors overnight. They didn’t become human to them, or suddenly have recognised wants and needs, and their new-found rights weren’t enforced uniformly. The police who were used to rounding them up didn’t see them as different, nor the legislators, nor the general public. Slaves were now seen as intruders into lives that until then had only been enjoyed by the privileged.

It’s important to stop and think about what the word ‘privilege’ means for a moment. It means someone has more than someone else; more opportunity, more advantage, more comfort. Imagine now, that you’ve lived a privileged life and suddenly the people who were contributing to that privilege through their servitude would be free and potentially share in and threaten this. Now, as the slaves were freed, people who were previously defined as having less than you, are now able to attain the same freedom and riches that you have. You’d feel unsafe, scared, and eventually angry that this advantage was potentially able to be eroded – that these people who were previously controlled and kept away from you were now free. Who were these people to threaten your way of life? Why do you have to treat these people as human rather than a servant to your needs? Why did you have to treat them with respect with the uncomfortable knowledge that you hadn’t been previously?

This is where the tension and shame starts for white people. Until now, things had been clearly defined – you’re less than, I’m more than. You did what I wanted, and I benefited from it. I didn’t have to care about what you needed or who you were because that was irrelevant. The laws and society said it was irrelevant. Now though, I have to acknowledge your humanity and understand that you might want the same comfort, opportunity and privilege that I enjoy. I worry that there’s not enough fortune to go around and so now I see you and your dark skin as a threat. One law said slaves were free – but other laws and society were catching up with what that meant for everyone.

In order to maintain their privilege, white people generated ideas to keep black people as ‘less than’. Black people were portrayed as stupid, listless brutes. They had no dignity, no aspiration and no worth. There was no pity, just shameless disregard of the centuries of disenfranchisement, of disadvantage, of abuse – slavery was over, but former slaves weren’t seen as human, they were a monumental threat. Blacks were hunted and murdered in order to keep them in their place, their mutilated bodies displayed to their communities. History was re-written to portray slaves as grateful for their lot – that whites hadn’t treated them so badly. They were grateful for what they’d been given by their generous owners. Slave traders had done people of colour a favour by bringing them into our society.

These actions resolved a lot of the shame and tension for white people – but it only added to the injustice for people of colour. Coupled with decades of continued harassment, people of colour continued to see their disadvantage in society – segregation (legislated or otherwise), micro-aggressions, full-blown hostility, persecution and unfair treatment, solely based on the colour of their skin. Their skin immediately meant they were still considered ‘less than’ and a threat. They couldn’t achieve the same fortune, and if they did it was often taken away by one means or another. People of colour were still oppressed.

3. What happened then still matters now because the same principles are still in place.

People of colour are still among the most disadvantaged in our society. The opportunities afforded to white people centuries ago allowed them to build a strong foundation of wealth that continues to benefit us today. As white people, we have a different history, we have a different story, and we have a different understanding of our place in society as a result today.

We may not have separated the slaves from their families, nor enslaved people for decades. However we do benefit from generations of privilege. We have had better education, health and wealth. This divergence over time creates a huge gap – we can’t simply pay slaves’ families reparations for the years of unpaid labour to make up for this. To truly make up for it we would have to pay for the many subsequent years of additional advantage that was also taken away – black families spent year after year trying to make up for that gap as the rest of society flourished, and they remained impoverished.

White people can participate in society without someone ignoring us due to the colour of our skin because we are perceived as ‘less than’. We can walk the streets without someone perceiving us as a threat, and locking their doors on our approach, or calling the police because as we go about our lives people are suspicious of our presence. The colour of our skin means that we are not more likely to be pulled over by the police and treated more harshly by the judicial system. We are not as likely to be trapped in a cycle of poverty, in prison, or die younger. We are not as likely to be killed by police who are meant to protect us and uphold our laws, and if police did kill us, they would not be as likely to get away with it. These problems are absolutely defined by race – this is how systemic racism manifests.

Meyne Wyatt says it how it is

Civil rights movements, peaceful protests and symbolism have created some change, but not enough. After watching more and more people of colour being killed by a system they’re asked to participate in, people of colour and their allies are marching in the street demanding change. The laws might say that you can’t discriminate against people of colour, but we now want society to catch up. Token gestures are not enough – people of colour are demanding to be seen, to be heard, and to be treated as human. They are demanding true equality in our society.

And as we’ve seen before, white people are uncomfortably denying (or not understanding) their privilege. They are minimising the protests, saying that all lives matter, even though not all lives are equally threatened or disadvantaged. They are focussing on the riots to revive the idea that people of colour are listless brutes with no aspiration or dignity – shamelessly ignoring generations of disadvantage, discrimination and oppression. It’s not the point that people are rioting – the point is that people are oppressed and killed by a system we are supporting.

Trevor Noah on the money

Whites feel threatened that if equality is truly achieved, that they might not have as much, that their position in society is under threat. They aren’t interested in a conversation that might find a way for all of us to benefit. Who would whites feel better than, then? When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression.

John Oliver's breathtaking piece on police brutality was perfectly summed up by Kimberly Jones.

I’ve deliberately kept this very general, because from what I understand this is applicable in many parts of the world and I want to focus on how people have felt over time, as facts don’t seem to make a difference these days. I know that I have fallen appallingly short of capturing every aspect of how people have been affected over time, and I haven’t included every aspect of history. I’ve portrayed the oppressors as being white, but they’re not the only oppressors in the world.

I want to be the first person to say that I don’t know nearly enough, but I want to continue to learn. It makes me incredibly angry our schools taught us a whitewashed version of history – it has lessened my ability to contribute meaningfully to our society and its discourse. I want to learn what happened and how I can help now. I know it’s my responsibility to educate myself, and I want others to understand that they need to do the same.

So this is why I wrote this for you, my friend. I think you’re exploring this topic and learning more, and I want encourage you to think about this deeply, as everyone deserves compassion and understanding. I hope that this helps you to identify these trends in the news stories we see, and in the conversations we have. I hope you see this as a thoughtfully considered gift, and not a patronising political rant; these times are not for friends to fight.