8/3/2023 0 Comments Speed reader on ellenThere was something different about watching a white man in a position of authority seemingly with ease and indifference – snuff the life out of a handcuffed black man slowly before our very eyes with three other officers standing by and doing nothing to stop it. Indeed, white America has seemed quite willing to minimize if not ignore decades of pleas from black America on a broad range of racial injustice issues – housing discrimination, police brutality, the wealth gap, unequal pay, healthcare disparities, etc., but fortunately this moment feels different. Having said that, I can certainly understand some of the “blowback” Kirkpatrick may have experienced. Obviously, we often hold tragically similar racial experiences, but we’re quite diverse in our thoughts, opinions and approaches so it’s no surprise that there are a range of perspectives. As a black woman, I certainly can’t speak for all black people. I felt like they were just getting a taste of the discomfort that women had internalized for too long, and now I see that that’s how many black people must feel now.” The question for Kirkpatrick (and many like her) remains – Where do we go from here? The answer to that may lie in first gaining a more enlightened understanding of each perspective.įirst, the “black perspective”. She explained, “I realized that I had that same negative, offended, impatient reaction to men who insisted ‘I don’t know how to act around women or what to say now’?” She remembers, “I had no pity. She likened the situation to the trepidation that many men expressed during the #METOO movement. While we both agreed that the mixed messaging can be counterproductive and dangerously discouraging, what was so refreshing was that she (like I) completely understood the reasons for the cynicism and exhaustion of some given the long, well documented history of racial justice talk with no action, broken promises, and outright indifference from much of white America. In her email, she outlined examples of the contradictory messaging that she feels white people often receive.īillionaire Andrew Tan’s Megaworld To Invest $6.3 Billion On Philippine Townships, Hotels In Next Five Years She explained that the awkwardness that she felt that night is similar to the broader awkwardness she feels now in this extremely powerful Black Lives Matter moment. (Yes, please let that sink in.) As one of only three white people there, she felt conspicuous, tolerated…almost invasive. As she entered, she realized that having her wristband put on at the door was the first time in her life that she’d ever been touched by a black person. She detailed an example from this past March where she attended an African dance event with two white friends to try to learn about black culture and hopefully meet black people. ![]() One white woman Vanessa Kirkpatrick wrote me a very long, raw, revealing account of how throughout her life she’d lived in very diverse cities (including New York City and Paris) and traveled to Africa more than once only to find herself at age 35 with zero black friends.
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