In class the other day, you said something that struck me and challenged me to my very core. As we were discussing all of the recent shootings of unarmed Black and Brown people, by the police, I could tell you had something important to say. You, the only White student (and a hip hop artist!) in a class full of students of color, then confidently stated your opinions. You said that while some of these shootings might have been wrong, many of them are justified and the police are probably doing what they need to do to stay safe. You asserted that Blacks commit more crime than other groups, and that police need to defend themselves against “thug behavior”. As “evidence”,  you cited the fact that “at this school, the Black students are more out of control”, and so are in need of harsher treatment.

And as if under a spell, the students of color who had all been very vocal about their feelings of sadness and anger only moments earlier, stopped and were transfixed by your points. They were expressing a feeling that I remember having as a kid too–not having the education or ammunition to respond, and being silenced by a White, seemingly “authoritative” voice that is confidently spewing bullshit.

It’s not your fault, because there’s much you don’t know. But you have a social responsability to learn, and I have a social responsability to be patient and teach you. And as a hip hop artist, it is up to you to learn more about Black culture and history. You can’t immerse yourself in something rooted in Black culture and struggle but yet think that the people who created it are apart of an inferior culture. It’s disrespectful, wrong, and irresponsible. It’s what we call cultural appropriation.

Now as your teacher, I have a lot of love for you! You’re a deep, analytical thinker that cares about others–a powerful force in the classroom, and so it is my duty to make sure that you know more when you leave my class then before you got there. While I was offended at first, you’ve given me an opportunity to say what I wish I could’ve said the countless times this happened to me in the past.

What you don’t know is that in that moment, I was transported back to so many conversations I’ve had with White people throughout the years–especially while attending a private school–that ended with me feeling disempowered and disenfranchised, because I didn’t know enough about my history to respond. But now I do. And I was able to help all those students of color who were silenced by your comments and who didn’t know how to respond, and help you to learn more.

In probing your position further, you admitted that your opinions are based on what you have seen on TV and what you have seen growing up in SF. I appreciate your honesty, because I could tell your desire was not to claim expertise but to keep it real with your experiences.

LET’S TALK FACTS.

Science now proves that we are all 99.9% the same genetically. We are all the same. Our minor differences are in surface only (skin color, hair texture/color, etc.). So we now know that race is a NOT a scientific construct, it is a social one. Since we are 99.9% the same, that means we are all human, with the same intelligence, emotions, and basic motivations (hunger, our need for shelter, love, acceptance, fear, etc.), with our good qualities and imperfections, just like you. Every human being on this planet has complexity. Every human being on this planet feels the same range of emotions.

So if we are all the same scientifically, why do you and so many others in our society believe that Blacks are somehow more prone to violence and crime? We are not different on the inside, however for centuries fake science sought to prove otherwise and created a hierarchical understanding of race that we are only right now starting to disprove. Blacks have been portrayed in the media as being a bunch of violent, lazy, stupid criminals–a stereotype that has been forced down your throat without you realizing it.

What you’re not shown are the realities of oppression in this country: You’re NOT shown all of the ways Black and Brown people have been oppressed in this country.

 

YOU’RE NOT SHOWN THE STATISTICS ON BLACK PEOPLE AND CRIME. 

Let’s look at our the facts when it comes to who is committing the most crime: Drug laws and sentencing unjustly affect and target Blacks, despite the fact Whites commit more of those crimes. The police position themselves in Black and Brown, low-income communities. This would suggest that more drug crimes happens in the hood, but they don’t!

 

YOU’RE NOT SHOWN THE POSITIVITY IN BLACK COMMUNITIES.

This might come as a shock, but not every Black community has problems with crime. The media tends to focus on the ones that do. There are many Black and Brown neighborhoods around the country where the crime rate is low or non-existent. Take for example, Grass Valley in the Oakland Hills, cities like Atlanta, and many others.

 

YOU’RE NOT SHOWN THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF POVERTY AND OPPRESSION. 

In Black neighborhoods where crime is higher, the poverty level is incredibly high. Remember, poverty and oppression create hopelessness. We know that hopelessness and poverty create crime–not race. (There was a time in thus country when immigrant communities like the Italians and the Irish were also stereotyped as the criminals of the day.)

Let’s take East Oakland as an example (since you mentioned it). East Oakland used to have way more thriving Black businesses and a middle class, and thriving activism. Talk to my parents’ generation and they remember all of this. The crack epidemic–which we now know was encouraged by the CIA–helped to decimate L.A., Oakland, and other low-income neighborhoods across the U.S.!

Imagine how you would feel when your basic needs for survival, love, and acceptance are stomped on. Imagine how you would feel when your basic rights and dignities are trampled on for centuries! Imagine going through slavery, poverty, convict leasing, segregation, terrorist attacks, redlining into sub-human living conditions, COINTELPRO, substandard schools, mandatory minimum sentences, school-to-prison pipeline, man-made drug epidemics, mass incarceration, families being ripped apart, etc. (Google the terms you don’t know.) Imagine how you might act when all of these things are stacked against you. You too might occasionally struggle with your sense of humanity when you’ve been treated like an animal.

 

YOU ARE TAUGHT THAT YOUR PERSPECTIVE IS MORE VALUABLE THAN MINE. 

It’s clear that this is difficult and hurtful for you, because you got defensive in our conversation. You talked about how White people are scapegoated for Black issues. You said that Blacks continue to blame historical, “old things” that happened in the past on White people today.

I understand your pain, and defensiveness is one of many natural human responses to feeling criticized. But when you get defensive, you are getting indignant with the victim! You are turning the situation around on us, compounding our pain, by forcing us to live in denial so you can feel comfortable. You are prioritizing your feelings and perspective over mine.  

The truth has been denied and swept under the rug for so long, it’s maddening to be told you are exaggerating.

It makes me think of a rape victim whom no one believes. A woman who is slut-shamed for “dressing too provocatively”. Pretty soon, the world has dismissed everything that she has been through: the physical assault, the PTSD that surely follows it, and begin to muse that she must have brought it on herself in some way. Maybe this wouldn’t have happened, if she wouldn’t have walked down that road. Black people in this country have been slut-shamed, made to feel crazy for “complaining”. And like our hypothetical rape victim, the trauma and hurt and anger are compounded. With so many people telling you that you did something wrong, you start to wonder if you did do something wrong. If you do have a character flaw that makes you deserve such treatment. And you start to hate yourself and your people. I remember being in high school myself and seeing the same images you’ve seen, and wondering what was wrong with us. You start to feel ashamed of yourself.  

You haven’t really experienced being hated on a societal level. For no reason. To be told that you are an abomination and deficient. An animal that needs to be broken. It continues to this day. Police officers who can shoot you, unarmed. The wounds run deep.

 

YOU ARE NOT SHOWN HOW THIS COUNTRY HAS FAILED YOU TOO. 

You’ve been mis-educated. We all have. Our society has wiped away most mentions of people of color. The pages of our history books have been full of half-truths, lies, and omissions. You, as a white male, are all over the pages, fully represented. No one in this country has a one-sided image of white people, because you are shown as multifaceted, and complex. People of color are reduced to stereotypes–one single story. This makes most of us grow up feeling like certain people are superior and to others. You have grown up with this and other privileges, and that has to be accepted in order to properly heal.

The only reason we are having this conversation is because American schools have failed you. And the media has failed you. They have failed all of us. It’s more damaging for Blacks in this country, because we grow up seeing the world’s scorn or disregard, and we sometimes start to internalize self-hatred. I secretly asked a lot of the same questions you did. I worried about my blackness and felt like I was wearing a scarlet letter, but I didn’t realize how limited the information was that I was getting!

I don’t blame you for the ills of the past. That’s silly. But you have privilege in this country, and you have benefitted from a system built on discrimination. And if you’d like to move forward, you have a responsibility to learn the true history, however uncomfortable it makes you. And you have the right to do things differently. As uncomfortable as these truths are, you do have to be aware of them, because it is the only way to move forward from it. It is the only way for you to heal. REMEMBER THIS, BLACKS WERE ENSLAVED LONGER THAN WE’VE BEEN FREE. The only way to properly deal with it is to go through the discomfort with honesty and love and humility.

 

I forgive you. Up to this point you didn’t know most of these things. You didn’t realize the magnitude of how and the history of all this. But now you have a little taste. And now it’s on you to do better. Remember that racism is more than riding around town in white hoods; it also shows up when you choose the elements of blackness you like, while ignoring the plights. I have a social responsibility too. I have to teach you, to love you through what you don’t know. I will support you as your teacher, like family. But just like any other family I will encourage you and also hold you accountable when you mess up. When you’re wrong. I will demand action and change and transformation from you as you deepen your understanding of this. You may not always like it, but it is necessary for healing. Whether or not you know it, you have also been scarred by all of this. And now, don’t run from the discomfort use it as the opportunity for growth that it really is.

The best thing you can do, particularly in cases where that you can’t relate to, is to listen. So many people of color and black people are speaking out against these things. Take it as valuable insight and learn from it. Just listen… with an open mind. Because after all, you are with family.

 

Sincerely,

 

Ms. Labossiere