The Cost of White Ignorance
Tags: Social Justice, Self-awareness, BlackLivesMatter, Racism, Change

Racism

The Cost of White Ignorance

White ignorance is violent, dangerous, and deadly, and it must no longer be an option

Photo from the author

Throughout the years and throughout my journey to deconstruct my own racist beliefs, microaggressions, and white supremacy, I continue to see the same patterns in responses coming from white people when they are challenged to address their racism. They are nothing new and they are continuous products of white supremacy. These responses have to be confronted and challenged.

For clarification purposes, I am very aware that I will have to dismantle these harmful and deadly ideologies that live within me until the day I die. So, as a white person, this piece 100% includes me as well.

Priorities

The amount of information that is available to Americans is truly something that cannot be fully grasped. There are seemingly endless opportunities to research, learn, and grow on our own. We can choose what subjects we want to learn about, and we make that decision every single day. That could look like learning about political candidates, looking at consumer reports on cars that we are interested in buying or researching different diets.

It can take us mere seconds to choose to research some of the most trivial things. We sift through different information in our minds, and we prioritize them according to our interests and according to what we find to be important to our lives. There are specific subjects that hold different weight for all people, but there is one subject that most white folks conveniently keep either in the back of their mind or entirely out of their train of thought.

That subject is racism.

Choices

When it comes to racism, white folks have the privilege to learn about it without experiencing it or just completely ignore it; because not only does it not affect us, but we significantly benefit from it. We make conscious and subconscious decisions daily when it comes to issues of racism. We often opt to ignore it and remain as comfortable as possible. That is a choice, and it is one we make on an almost continual basis.

As white folks, white comfortability is one of the most frequent choices we make every single day, and that choice carries deadly consequences.

We have the information available to us to address our racism and the systems of white supremacy that have served as a foundation and fuel for this country for centuries. Yet, many white folks choose ignorance instead of basic human decency. They actively choose not only to ignore the issue of racism, but they decide to stand in defense of racism.

The white folks that offer undying support to police, racist presidents/politicians, the criminal justice system as a whole, the child welfare system, redlining, racist doctors, lawyers, and judges are often the ones that publicly prop up these significantly problematic ideals. However, the white moderate and apathetic white folks (aka self-proclaimed “peacemakers”) allow racism to flourish and spread rapidly amongst their white friends, family, acquaintances, coworkers, and communities.

It is just as much of a choice to remain completely silent on issues of racism, white supremacy, racial injustices, social justice issues, and pervasive, wide-spread inequity as it is to overtly support these things.

Learning

White folks often want to rely on research, articles, books, and other means of impersonal information gathering in order to remain comfortable. Genuinely learning about Black folks comes from interacting with, learning from, and being open to being corrected and educated by the Black Community. Along with this understanding should also be the understanding that the Black Community never owes us their time, emotional energy, or education. So, when we get the opportunity to learn from Black folks, we have to understand that we are not owed that time and energy, and we must treat that information and the time offered to us accordingly.

One of the first lessons we must learn and fervently employ is the necessity of silence and active listening. It is impossible to learn if we are speaking or have a rebuttal, question, or response lined up in our head when we learn from the Black community. Choosing to be anything other than silent and to listen as the first line of understanding is a demonstration of white supremacy.

Our white supremacy already tells us that we are the standard for excellence, prosperity, and progress in this country. We have to kill those problematic ideals the minute we feel them arise in our spirit. It is illogical, impossible, and downright asinine to assume we can have any input on living Black in this country. It doesn’t matter how much research we do or how much anti-racist education we engage in. We are still the oppressors. Oppressors will never feel the experience of those they oppress.

Learn information about the Black Community from the Black Community.

White educators, Non-Black Persons of Color, and other white-influenced means of information can never fully inform us of what the Black Community experiences. Learning is a choice. Choosing to learn from sources that have never experienced or lived out the thing that is being discussed is willful ignorance at best. It leads to disingenuous misinformation that is both severely inaccurate and significantly dangerous.

Choose to learn from resources that are specifically sourced from the Black community. That includes learning from and building relationships with Black folks. That is non-negotiable.

Bias

We all have biases. That is a fact that we must agree upon; because to say anything to the contrary is both a lie to ourselves and everyone else involved in our lives. Those biases inform how we view the world around us, and they help us piece together different narratives about other humans.

These biases directly play into racism and white supremacy. There are frequent discussions by plenty of white folks about specific Black voices that meet their white-centric worldviews and uphold agendas riddled with White Supremacy. Many white folks will ignore 99% of the Black community and choose to use the 1% of the Black community that espouses their same views. They then decide to use those 1% Black voices as the standard when looking at issues of race and social justice.

White supremacy is white folks believing that their ideas hold more weight and are more accurate than what 99% of the Black community experiences and knows as factual truth.

White folks need to learn how to accept the majority voice of the Black community when learning about racism and what it means to be Black in America. Confirmation bias is a deadly beast that white folks feed daily. We have to make conscious efforts to address our biases. If we don’t, then we tell ourselves that it is acceptable to hold views of the Black community that are inaccurate, unrealistic, and deeply problematic.

Unacceptable

There are no excuses when it comes to learning about and addressing our racism. The vast amount of information about racism, Civil Rights, criminal justice reform, Black leadership, activism, Black liberation, Black History, and Black culture available to us could keep us busy for years. When I hear white folks say things like, “I didn’t know it was this bad.”, “Racism has been over for years.”, “I’m colorblind.”, “I have experienced reverse racism.”, or “Donald Trump isn’t racist.” I am reminded of the privilege that we all have to say willfully ignorant statements like that without receiving any life consequences.

I believe that a severe lack of critical thinking skills regarding white folks and our perception of racism and systemic issues is tied directly to our white privilege. White folks inherently believe that if racism doesn’t directly affect us, then it can’t possibly be an issue for anyone else. Even on the off chance that white folks can finally admit that racism is experienced by someone else, they will try to attribute it to that person’s lack of ability to “deal” with that issue instead of understanding our complicity in propping up the systems that keep racism alive and healthy.

We must choose to learn about and address our white supremacy every single day. There are no excuses when it comes to this. Ignorance doesn’t cost white folks anything, yet the consequences of our white ignorance can cost a Black person their life.

Consequences

With all of this in mind, we must take the time to understand the cost that comes with our white ignorance. We can freely walk through life without experiencing significant consequences for our ignorance. Black folks are directly affected by our white ignorance, and we will never feel the deadly effects of our ignorance, yet we will be the first ones to blame the Black community for the results of our ignorance.

There are severe consequences to white folks having no direct interactions with folks from the Black community. There are deep-rooted systemic issues that have stayed in place for centuries due to white folks ignoring the facts, history, education, and experiences of the Black community. Generations upon generations of families have suffered because white folks choose silence and ignorance instead of learning ways to address the issues that we are responsible for creating and maintaining.

When we are completely detached from the Black community, we will form our perception and understanding of the Black community based on media and our white parents’ perceptions and experiences. This leads to white folks not only discounting the experiences of being Black in America, but it allows for murder to become palatable to the white majority. This detachment dehumanizes the Black community and enables white folks to have zero empathy for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. All of whom were executed by cops or over-zealous white citizens.

Many white folks argued in support of the cops that murdered 12-year-old Tamir Rice. The depravity found in that experience alone is one that demonstrates the pure evil that is engrafted in white supremacy. The constant and vigorous support of cops who publicly execute Black folks is the norm amongst white America.

The cost of our white ignorance is a price that we will never have to pay.

White ignorance allows us to view the Black community as lesser than. It provides opportunities for us to victimize individuals who murder Black folks. It sets the tone for the way we teach our children to view the Black community. It informs our biases that attribute fear and misunderstanding to be the first-line descriptors of the Black community.

The consequences of white ignorance are continued violence against the Black community. Acts of physical aggression don’t solely define violence. Violence also looks like the following: Redlining, the School to Prison Pipeline, Voter Suppression, New Jim Crow, Inadequate Medical Care, Inequity in Education and Quality of Teaching, Gentrification, A White-Centric Criminal Justice System, Wealth Gaps, Unequal Pay, and Racist Policies at Places of Employment, and that is the shortlist.

When we look at the issues of racism in America, white folks must understand that we cannot look at the Black community as having anything to do with racism. We have to take an in-depth look at ourselves and understand what we are responsible for. We have to admit our racism. We have to accept correction from the Black community. We have to realize that we comfortably live within the lie that our whiteness is somehow superior and that anything opposing our whiteness is inherently dangerous to us.

We have to focus on cleaning our house and our house alone, period.

The time to change is far past due. The longer we wait to violently attack and address our white supremacy, the more harm we perpetrate against the Black community. Once the change process begins, it is essential to note that we will get things wrong. We will be embarrassed, angry, confused, and get our feelings hurt, but that is a small price to pay when we understand the cost of our ignorance. Speak up and speak out regardless. Challenge your white family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers. Be prepared to lose some of the most precious people and things in your life when you choose to stand for the truth.

We are not saviors. Requesting praise or time to grieve when we finally admit to our racism after decades of ignoring it is a way of keeping our white supremacy intact. White feelings have no place in the process of dismantling our racist ideologies. We must do it because it is at the very basic foundational level the right thing to do.

White ignorance is violent, dangerous, and deadly, and it must no longer be an option.