In the midst of a myriad of social media attention and traditional news platform coverage, the United States has come to the forefront of discussion on race-relations in the modern world, more so than perhaps any other time in recent years. Police brutality in particular, and the apparent lack of care and interest on the part of the justice system in America, has heralded a new wave of black-empowerment movements and racial equality discussion which are beginning to encompass further movements like feminism and transgender rights. From an outside and foreign perspective, it’s easy to feel removed from what’s occurring in the US, but it’s important to constantly remind ourselves of the continual presence of racial disparities in this country.
Social media has been the the most useful outlet for me in terms of being educated about the complexities of modern day racism and the day to day struggles felt by the black community in particular. Twitter has been by far the easiest way to do this, and based on various people I follow, it has become less of a social media platform and more of a constant stream of discussions and educational materials on issues like racism. The vast majority of these opportunities to learn originate from the US, however one particular string of conversations was rooted from an article tweeted by a British journalist. He was speaking about the actions of a university coordinator in London, who whilst tweeting about a meeting for ethnic minority students, included the hashtag ‘#killallwhitemen’.
As the journalist correctly pointed out, a literal interpretation of this tweet might see it as inciting racial violence. He went on to explain how in a modern day context for many ‘radicals’ racism is actually structural, and that majority groups cannot be truly discriminated against due to their inborn privileges and advantages over minorities. This was in fact the university coordinator’s main defense, along with those who defended her on the issue. Finally however, this journalist argued that whilst this may be the case, excluding white people from discussions of racism/POC issues is counter-productive, and makes anti-racism campaigns ‘incomprehensible’ to the public. His main line of argument is that this was an example of the left in Britain trying appropriate the word ‘racism’ and embed it with the definition of ‘structural racism’, and that this is a bad thing.
My main issue with this article was one that often arises when I read texts surrounding racism that are written by non-POC. The issue is that what this article does, is apply an overly academic and in many ways irrelevant pressure to the underlying discussion about the inequality at hand (racism). Which is ironic because he refers to the left as being too concerned with ‘semantics’ in his article. Racism in the western world, is unequivocally structural, and trying to deny the advancement of discussion on the dynamics of this is counter-productive.
White men like this journalist, who believe in racial equality, must realise that removing the focus from anything other than trying to modify the structure of society is fastidious and pointless in the wider context.
If we accept that racism is structural and can only flow in one direction, we must also accept (something that this journalist wanted to derail) that POC who comparatively to white people lack the platform to do so; must be able to have their own space for discussion and campaigning on race-related issues. The general message to majority/privilege bearing groups has to be loosely based on the phrase ‘speak when spoken to’. Too often have I seen white people questioning POC’s arguments and opinions on race, usually when they involve a criticism of white society in general.
The moral of the story is that racism has a literal definition yes, but if we want to progress with racial equality in this country and in the West in general, we must always consider racism with it’s structural implications at hand. The white people excluded from that meeting by that tweet may have had some hurt feelings, there may have even been tears, and perhaps that coordinator could have been more tactful (but this is again irrelevant in the long run). The fact is that there is no need for coordinators to hold meetings on university campuses for white people, and that in their lifetimes 99% of any of the very small amount of racism white people will experience will not affect their educational, living or career prospects. Until the same can be said for POC, white people need to have a solidified position on how they approach racial issues, and think of how they can address and challenge racism in structural terms only.
Bill C
UK
Baron B 