Sometimes, those of us on the left who are white get ourselves so worried over being accused of appropriation, or accused of thinking that our discourse is the normal discourse, that when the time comes for us to be making a lot of fucking noise, we are quiet. And with our silence, we end up supporting the status quo in this country, which is that ALL black men are suspect, and if the cops shoot a black man, well, what did that man do to deserve it?
Do you know where I've heard that kind of bullshit before?
Yes.
You guessed it.
Rape Culture.
At the campus where I teach, when a rape gets reported, the first question out of other students' mouths are, "Was she drinking?" followed by "What was she wearing?" followed by "What was she doing walking around outside alone at two a.m." Followed by the grandaddy of them all: "Well, what did she expect was going to happen? She must have wanted it."
Similar questions get asked when a black man is shot. Did he have a gun? Was he wearing a hoodie? What was he doing in that neighborhood at night? Followed by the grandaddy of them all, "He must have been a thug."
I have two white daughters growing up in rape culture. I am a woman who has been raped on a date. While I cannot know the pain of sending my African-American sons out into the world and hoping that they make it home each night, I do know the pain of waiting for a phone call from an emergency room, or from a dorm room on a Saturday morning. I know what it's like to hear your child sobbing because of what happened.
So, as a white feminist, why would I not say something about the wholescale slaughter of young African-American men in this country? I am ashamed that people with whom I share a skin color believe that they are the only people who matter in this country. I'm tired of arguing with students who think it's okay to use the "N" word because it doesn't mean what it used to mean in "my" day. No, because young black men use that word with one another does not mean you get to use it, too. What on earth do you gain, white boy, by being able to use that word?
If, young man, you really want to be part of African-American culture, then get out there in the streets and march with your brethren. Protect young African-American women who are just as susceptible to rape culture as your own sister is. Listening to hip-hop does not make you understand the plight of black men and women. Stop telling me, student who lives in an all-white town on Long Island that racism doesn't exist anymore.
On Wednesday, a white female student who told me on the first day of class that she hadn't read a book over break, who doesn't read the newspaper, who doesn't understand climate change, or racism, or who refers to feminists as "they," rather than "we," tell me to my face that she thought her generation was the greatest, and that they were doing more to change the world than any generation that had come before hers.
I nearly swallowed my teeth.
I found it hard to believe that she believed the words that were coming out of her mouth.
So when I asked her what had happened in North Charlotte over the weekend and she couldn't tell me, I just sucked my teeth and counted to ten.
If white feminists out there are not making NOISE about the murder of African-American boys; if we are not linking arms with our black feminist sisters and crying with them; if we are not writing letters to our representatives, or having these discussions with our students -- again, and again, and again -- then we have no room to bitch if we are accused that our silence makes us complicit.
Stop hiding behind the walls of the categories that we construct that keep us from assuming someone else's voice. I'm not assuming anyone else's voice but my own. And I am telling you today that what is happening to African-Americans, what has been happening to black Americans is a stain on our national character. The United States is covered with the blood of the young men who keep getting shot down in the streets.
Next time, don't ask what that young man did. Ask why that cop did what he did. Just as it's the rapist's fault--not the woman's--when she gets raped, neither is it the young man's -- but the cop's fault -- when another African-American lies dead in the street.
I will not be silent. We are in this together. Let's focus on forging alliances instead of keeping our side of the street clean. The blood on the other side of the street stains us, and we have no way to wash our hands if we do not offer ourselves as allies.
John Donne was right 400 years ago. "Don't ask who those sirens are after, where that coroner's cart is going to. It is coming for all of us."
What are you going to do to make it stop?
No comments:
Post a Comment