A White Writer Stands with Black Voices

Learning

I opened my history textbook and saw a divided past. I saw death by colour. I saw privilege by whiteness. Not just in individuals, not just in communities but in institutions. In the holders of the power to decide what is right and what is wrong – who is right and who is wrong. In the implementers of safety and punishers of violation. In the law makers and law takers. Justice was not colour-blind. She was ruling in full colour. I wrote essays on the emancipation. I wrote essays on desegregation. I wrote essays on the success of the freedom fighters, the moves of presidents and school children. I wrote essays on what had been and I closed my textbook. I closed the pages of history and looked out the window to the streets. The history book was not closed afterall.

I will never understand but I will stand against it with you. I cannot imagine the fear of persecution due to skin colour. I cannot imagine the rage against closed eyes, ears and minds. I cannot imagine the exhaustion of it happening again and again.

I am privileged. I am safer. I am disgusted.

We desperately need change. Lives are constantly being lost without it. I am just a white writer but I will not close my eyes, ears or writing mind. Written word is powerful. It projects voices far and wide. It has allowed me to hear the voices of many amazing writers of colour. In a time where we are reminded of the black voices being lost every day, I want to share just some of the black voices I admire.

This post won’t change the world. This post won’t save lives. This post won’t end racism. It will celebrate black voices, mourn black voices lost and value black lives as much as any other life.

1. Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses is probably the first piece of literature that made me think about race. It is an impactful story for young adults, portraying the reality of racism and the detrimental affect is has. It gave me a chance to see through the lens of discrimination and think about what it is like to be on the opposite side of the privileged.

2. Maya Angelou’s poem And Still I Rise impacts me to my core. It conveys extreme suffering and extreme strength. The power of endurance is something many of us need in our everyday lives as well as for social change. Also, she has published with Virago (a British feminist press) in its early days leading the way for the empowerment of female writers and editors.

3. Angie Thomas’s The Hate You Give has created such an impact within young adult literature. It is the step-up from Noughts and Crosses, a dystopian world allowing for distance between the events and the reader. The Hate You Give is a hard-hitting contemporary about race relations in America today. You jump into the reality of police shootings, the fear of speaking out, socio-economic privilege and the stereotypes of blackness. All this pressure on a teenager. A black teenager who wants to succeed just like any white teenager.

Diversifying your media consumption and literature will only make you more informed about experiences outside your own. It is something I am constantly trying to improve. You can’t assume that a diversified reading experience will come to you, you have to consciously seek it out. I want to make myself informed as possible because I know I can never understand but that doesn’t mean I should ignore something I can never experience.

Words pick a powerful fight.