Moving beyond white noise
To all my white friends, family and colleagues
Our social media feeds are full this week of people sharing their abhorrence and disgust towards the racist abuse the three England footballers Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho have been subject to following the Euro 2020 final.
Like you, my heart is full of sadness for these three men, their families and team mates, and it is encouraging to see the nation supporting them and rallying against the bullies and trolls who attacked them.
However as I’m sure you know, racism doesn’t just come from people. It comes from a deep rooted embedding in our systems, structures and society. It happens at the highest most public levels, as we have seen this week, and it happens on a daily basis in our schools, nurseries, workplaces, shops, streets, communities and so on.
It isn’t right, fair or just that many black or brown friends/colleagues experienced dread and fear about the racism that would emerge following the football final. It isn’t right, fair or just that black or brown friends/colleagues sent their children to school on Monday worrying about what their children might face (see my friend and colleague’s Nate Holder’s blog here about this). When Southgate missed his penalty in 1996, distraught as people were, I can almost guarantee white parents didn’t have any fears about their children being verbally or physically attacked for the colour of their skin because of a missed penalty.
So, if you felt compelled to publicly share a social media post condemning racism, my question is what will you do about it next?
Being anti-racist is a lifelong commitment, and it isn’t necessarily an easy or comfortable one. (If you want a reminder of the difference between being not racist and being anti-racist do check out the great John Amaechi’s concise description here).
It can mean ‘calling in’ the views, opinions and language of close friends and family members. It can mean challenging your employers on their policies and on how inclusive (or not) the organisational culture is. It can mean giving up some of your power – leadership and/or financial – to create opportunities for black or brown colleagues. It can mean talking to your children’s schools about how they are educating children on anti-racism and what their approaches to decolonising the curriculum are. Whatever it means for you, it often involves an element of personal or professional risk, which is how genuine change happens.
This post isn’t written from a place of judgment, and it isn’t intended to preach. But it is driven by a desire to encourage a move from empathy (for example showing support and understanding for Rashford, Sancho and Saka by sharing social media posts) towards radical empathy (for example taking individual actions and changes to eradicate the discrimination that exists).
As the inspiring Dr Muna Abdi tweeted: “If you are inactive…you are part of the problem. Impact not intention.”
Our intentions may be well meaning, but it is our impact that matters. Otherwise it just becomes white noise.
