10 Commandments for tackling racism
- Melissa Herrera: Not Waiting for Friday
- June 21, 2020
- 6443
I get it. I do. I was like you, rising in the morning, drinking a strong cup of coffee, organizing my workday. Normalcy, with nothing to provoke it, is ease. Now there is confusion because something is required of you, a small step toward being an ally, sharing a post that makes you uncomfortable, an unsettled feeling burrowed deep inside you, the way certain words are avoided so as not to ruffle feathers. I get it because I was once there. Please don’t grow weary. Because once you’re awake with new eyes, as someone I love said recently, “You can never unsee it.”
Someone once suggested, when I was having writers block, that I pen a Ten Commandments of Writing. But today I bring you the Ten Commandments of Tackling Racism in a Small Town. I write this essay as a native daughter of Holmes County, for my husband, my children, my sons-in-law, daughter-in-law and soon-to-be-born grandson, who I want a better world for, and who know implicitly what I mean as I offer these words.
1. Recognize racism exists. Because it does. The words “but not everyone is like that” must be silenced before they cross your lips. It nullifies and absolves you of seeing it. Say the words out loud.
2. Stop being defensive. Recognize racism isn’t about how you feel, but how for the 13% black population, 18% Latino population (statistics as of July 2016) and more populations, it’s a perpetual state.
3. Identify triggers. Growing up in Berlin in the '70s, I wasn’t taught to hate other people. But the evening news “taught” me most crimes were committed by POC, and if there was mention of slavery, I learned “it was a long time ago and it was time to get over it.” These ideas need sprayed with Round-Up and rooted out with a garden hoe.
4. Don’t deflect. Imagine a setting where a POC is relaying a story about how they were cheated out of what they were owed for a job because the person who hired them thought they wouldn’t understand the math, then being told by the person they’re confiding in that they “don’t want to hear about this story because they’d like to continue having a nice day.” Or maybe how they’d been stopped for no reason, illegally searched, car towed and left in the streets to walk somewhere for help. Before you say “but at least you weren’t arrested,” please rethink. Do you believe the very least outcome is the best they can and should expect?
5. All lives won’t matter until black and brown lives matter too.
6. Seeing should equal believing. Can you count the times someone was shot, choked or killed and the first thing you could think to say was “but they shouldn’t have done it that way and they’d be alive?” George Orwell said, “The party told you to reject all evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential demand.” Don’t defend the indefensible and explain away what your eyes are seeing.
7. Talking about racism isn’t divisive. If there’s a problem at work or home, you bring that problem up and find a way to solve it. When someone says “stop using the race card,” it means they are uncomfortable and in denial. There is no race card, but there is racism.
8. Be uncomfortable. As I said at the beginning, “normalcy, without anything to provoke it, is ease.” It’s arrogance to suggest we should slide through our life without attempting to understand and aid in others' pain. We raise money for missions in other countries, we do fundraisers to help people that have cancer and we band together to feed those in need. In this area we take action and help others. What would happen if we told someone their cancer wasn’t real? If their financial situation wasn’t really that bad after losing their job after an accident? Racism has lasted for centuries, yet we still want to deny its very existence and the wounds it causes.
9. Don’t use derogatory names. Learn what names are derogatory. Too often my own children have been told they should ignore someone calling them a racial epithet because it’s part of life. We taught them the opposite because ignoring racism allows it to flourish.
10. Love one another. We’ve been taught “do unto others” until we’re blue in the face. Doing unto others can mean signing a petition, posting something online you would’ve previously been uncomfortable sharing, researching history we weren’t taught in school, putting a sign in your yard in solidarity and instead of commenting “I don’t believe this happens,” turn it into “I’m listening.”