The hardest part of confronting White people about their racism is having them see it. Being raised in a family that in history semi-recently identified Jim Crow, Lynching, and Racism as social taboos. If your family doesn’t discuss taboos, they surely aren’t talking racism.

Like, there’s so many unspoken things in Black families because trauma. I think that White people surely don’t talk about things due to trauma, but another MAJOR and STRUCTURAL reason they don’t talk about things is because of SHAME.

White supremacy can only sustain itself so long as the believe that Whiteness is superior exists. The moment this argument is dismissed, then White Supremecy collapses. What does that then do for the “Witches you could not burn” and the “Boys who will just be boys!?”

Respectability politics and unresolved trauma are tools to sustain White supremacy, whether we like it or not. Trauma can lead us to act against our best interest, out of fear, illogical, defensively, with greed, to have a fixation on maintaining power/control, to project.

Until we develop a culture of healing, we will live in a culture of White Supremacy. We can not sustain ourselves, it is a poison. Privilege can only exist if there’s someone to oppress. There will always need to be someone to oppress, because Whiteness is a social construct.

So if White people actually want to see White Supremecy collapse, it requires White people working with or against their family members who’ve chosen to sustain it. Which most White people (including liberals) don’t do (Clue: they might not want to actually lose their privilege).

For Black folks, we are probably better just focusing on building our own while continuing to excel within a system of supremacy. Develop boundaries. Trust what actions you see. Establish and maintain friendships with Black people who can validate your experiences.

Also stop internalize the “millennial snowflake” and “participation trophy” critiques. We have our own issues in our community between the generations, but they are different and have to be handled differently. We ain’t the same type of millennials on the basis of being Black.

Which isn’t to say that there isn’t overlap, but it’s different due to something we lack (privilege). To some extent I would argue that some of the Boomer think pieces have valid points and critiques, depending on the lenses in which you’re looking, e.g. the snowflake critique.

I think as Black and Non-Black poc, it’s most productive for us to identify the issues within our community before unpacking the issues of others. Why? So we don’t internalize criticisms that don’t even consider us. As a result, holding the people it’s intended for accountable.