Dear white people

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These are the things I want to say to the white left. To the white right – I can’t even deal. 

Racism is not classism. I will not elaborate on that here today because I have so many little things I want to start with. The basics (…for basic people…) – let’s go:

Why is it offensive to call you white? Are you not white? We need to tick the same boxes you tick ‘white, black, asian, arab’ (and what is up with those categories – ethnicities, races, geographical places all mixed into one – why haven’t they fixed it yet?). How am I meant to call you out of your racism, or on institutional racism if I can’t even name my oppressor?

Black people and brown people are called such every day. And yes we are lowered when we are called such. And yes yes many brown and black people get offended when they are called these terms because of that but you are not. And yes yes yes I acknowledge the viewpoint that we are all human and we should stop using these terms. But we are not living in a post-racial world yet (if you believe you are, you’re wrong). Stop getting offended and start listening to what I am saying before or after I say ‘white people’.

The same goes for whiteness. When are you going to start accepting that whiteness exists. And unlike white people, whiteness does not refer to individual white people (tbf, often even white people does not refer to individual white people but if you were listening rather than getting offended you would know this). Whiteness is an ideology. Whiteness is superiority. Whiteness is eugenics. Whiteness is instiutionalised. Whiteness is all the statistics I could name but allow that because you are accessing this online so you have access to Google (and yes I mean statistics because that is all they have become because they happen so often, and only through you searching yourself for their names and stories will they become humans to you). Whiteness is the fact that race is man-made. Whiteness is cis, straight, white, middle and upper class, middle-aged men ruling everything – from what we learn, who how we learn, to who we punish and how we punish, to what we wear and how we wear, and where we live and how we live, and what we buy and how much we buy.

Why is playing the race card your defence? The fact that race crops up so often they made a card for it like birthdays should tell you race is a problem. And above all else, the fact that a person who faces racism is telling you a problem should tell you it’s a problem.

Why do you expect people of colour to tell you not only when you’re going wrong but how to fix it too? And why oh why do you feel like you need to tell us how to organise and heal. Being a good ally means letting those facing an oppression lead.

If you don’t understand terms like white supremacy, white privilege or even racism – Google it! We don’t always have the time, energy or patience to teach you all the time.

The facts are – race is socially construct by white people to maintain white supremacy. The fact that people causally say Noughts and Crosses is based in a racist world but can’t acknowledge it is literally this world not so long ago (and still remains this world in many parts of the world and in other parts of the world we’ve changed the ways we oppress people but still oppress people) baffles me.

And because I’m in a super generous mood (it is Ramadan)

• Reverse racism
• 5 tips for being a good ally – video
• 8 things white people need to understand about race
• Understanding whiteness
• Reverse Racism: explained through comedy
• 8 reasons the curriculum is white
• Dismantling the Masters’ House
• Media Diversified

Note: the above links are from quick Google searches. I have not read all the content on the websites so may not endorse all that they have on there.

I know my tone isn’t exactly welcoming and I doubt anyone who I need to say this to will actually read this post. And for that I acknowledge my shortcomings and will work on my delivery. But these are things I want to shout so instead I am writing them here.