Many black writers are no longer speaking to white people about race – they have had enough of explaining the issues over and over again. And, as we have seen in recent days, there are many black protestors who have had enough of playing the anti-racist long game of waiting for gradual improvements. Nearly 200 years since the abolition of slavery, who can blame them? The long game might turn out to be eternity.
At the same time, many white people – I have heard this opinion expressed many times in recent days – feel awkward at speaking out, for fear of being presumptuous or of somehow occupying the space that someone Black should be taking up in the public sphere or in the private one of a discussion. The fear of being perceived as speaking for the victims of racism or looking as though one is sharing the pain of those who have experienced racism directly, is clearly a real one.
Yet, not moving beyond this position of respectful silence is to say and to do nothing and thus to remain complicit in the racist structures that one claims to want to change. It is ultimately an act of complacency, falling back on white privilege, a shrug of the shoulders. It is to leave the anti-racist fight only to Blacks and other minority groups who deal with racism every day.
