On Queer White People and Racial Preferences: Talk Amongst Yourselves

On Queer White People and Racial Preferences: Talk Amongst Yourselves

This is a special edition post about the subject of racial preferences. Specifically on why y’all-Queer White People™ — need to honestly start having this conversation with each other. I’ll be honest and say that I almost didn’t write this article. Not because I didn’t think it’s an important subject to broach, but because I didn’t know if I wanted to exhaust myself with writing this, but then I saw the comment (made by a white gay, to the surprise of no one I’m sure) I’m using as this article’s main image, and decided it was necessary.

It’s unfortunate, too, because, at this point in life, it’s hard to imagine anyone truly feigning ignorance of racism and the ways in which it pervades our collective consciousness; but I think that’s too generous an observation for those who are never really tasked with thinking critically about the ways racism affects us.

And I could just write another article explaining the issue of why racial preferences are racist, but that would be too easy (and disingenuous on my part because I know y’all know what the issue is).

But I’d much rather tell y’all to do the work yourself.

The simplest reason why is that you, white people, tend to listen to each other more about the oppression people of color face instead of listening to it when it comes from the horse’s mouth. It’s nonsensical because y’all don’t have the real breadth and depth of understanding of racism and the ways it works, or even really how white supremacy works — well, outside of the context of large scale things like slavery, segregation, the KKK, etc.-in the way that people of color do since we have to acknowledge and confront it from the moment we’re born while white supremacy gives you, white people, an intense case of selective vision when it comes to noticing racism and white supremacy. But such is the world we live in.

Another reason is that it isn’t our — people of color’s — job to keep trying to teach you this lesson. By now, I’m sure a billion conversations have been had between queer white people and queer people of color on this subject. And, yes, in the fight for a better tomorrow, some educating has to be done from marginalized communities to their oppressors or they’d never know otherwise; however, it’s typically marginalized communities that end up shouldering the lion’s share of the responsibility of both educating their oppressors and themselves on the subject of their oppression.

This, the business of getting white people to have their come-to-Jesus moment about racism, is your job to do-not ours. We’re not responsible for righting queer white people’s moral compasses. Y’all are. We’re also not solely responsible for ending racism or white supremacy. Y’all have a lot of skin in this game — more than many of you would care to admit. We’ve written all of the think pieces. We’ve done all of the videos. We’ve had all of the shouting matches with y’all. We’ve conducted all of the social experiments. The resources are there. Use them. Over and over again. Exhaust yourselves the way we have when talking to y’all about this subject. Unlearn the things we’ve had to unlearn. Risk the relationships you have with your white peers. Let this be the hill people die on. And do it because it’s the right thing to do — not to prove that you’re a Better White Person because of it.

We all have a role to play in dismantling racism and white supremacy in this world. It’s time y’all, especially if you supposedly don’t have a racist bone in your body and truly care about the friends/partners/coworkers/neighbors of color you bring up to deflect any claims of racism made against y’all, start doing your share of the work and taking it seriously. Because I can guarantee you have a lot more work to do on this subject that you’d like to allow yourself to believe.

Originally published at https://medium.com on May 15, 2018.