You’d also probably ask yourself if you should believe them when they say they are a great swimmer. You might even wonder how they know whether you can swim or not and think they are racially profiling you. But if you were walking on the beach and a stranger ran up to you and offered to save you if you should ever be on the verge of drowning, you would think they were strange and condescending. Think of it this way: if you were drowning you would want someone to pull you out of the water. Either way, you risk achieving the opposite of what you are hoping making them feel unsafe and weirded out. Or they’ll think you’re trying to get in their pants, which is also not a great look. If you do they will probably conclude that you are racialising them and feel patronised and insulted. So I would strongly advise against making eye contact or nodding your head at random strangers who happen to be a people of colour. Of course I may be confronted by racism at any time but if I were defined by the possibility of that experience that would be a sad life indeed. I’m just eating my burger or sipping my soy flat white and I’m pretty relaxed.
For example, when I am in a restaurant or a cafe I am not looking for affirmation or reassurance from the white people around me, nor am I especially worried about racism. Racism can take up far too much of our time and energy but it doesn’t define our every waking moment.
The work you might have to do may be deeply personal.Īt the moment you are making the crucial error of reducing the experiences of people of colour to race alone, as though the sum total of our lives take place in the glare of racism. Instead I would ask you to think about the real experiences of people of colour to figure out what they actually need and determine whether you have a role to play.
0 kommentar(er)
