Sadly, POC tend to perpetuate injustices through our desire for dominant group approval. When marginalized people benefit from a system, they tend to find all sorts of reasons to get real quiet. We learn all sorts of ways to justify our neglect of our fellow image beaters. https://twitter.com/tisaiahcho/status/1027783780654768128
Do I blame POC who don’t actively engage racial justice work on a personal level? Of course not. They are doing what it takes to make it. Do they perpetuate the harm done to those in the margins? Yes, because they are used as tokens, but that’s something they have to reconcile.
What we need to realize is how race is used in and out of the church. You know it’s activated against PoC when you hear the phrase, “I have a (color) neighbor/friend/coworker...” or “We have PoC working for us...”
But many of the PoC i encounter tend to understand their own racialized experiences without seeing the ways they fit into the larger system and how their engagement or disengagement is used to perpetuate more of the same.
In terms of racial justice, personal relationships and benefits muddy the waters to create confusion among PoC. They will usually say, “But they are just so nice...” or “I wouldn’t have the same opportunities without so and so...”
This is where it usually begins...
This is where it usually begins...