One of the best ways individual pakeha can show solidarity for the BLM movement is to start doing some serious self-directed forensics on the ways in which they are attached to, participate in, benefit from, uphold and perpetuate white supremacy.

There’s an abundance of resources and information about white privilege and racial theory available on the internet. You would be doing yourself, the POC you know, the BLM movement, and our collective future a real service if you dedicated some time to educating yourselves.

Some basic af concepts to google include but are not limited to: white privilege, white fragility, inherent bias, prejudice vs racism etc.

I really recommend the work of Jane Elliot for Pakeha especially!

Feel free to add any other racial concepts to this thread!

It may take some researching to find good sources (preferably seek out information authored by poc!). It may take some study, but please remember that POC are not born with inherent racial critical theory either & we are definitely not taught it in schools that’s for damn sure!

POC have been forced to study and learn these concepts for themselves in their own time if just to retain some form of dignity in the face of racism; to learn the language to unpack their racialised experiences and to understand the injustice that they regularly encounter.

So if POC can educate themselves than pakeha can too. & while studying these concepts by yourself saves POC’s precious time and labour (and mamae), if you are pakeha and in a position where you can or want to talk about these concepts with a willing POC....

I encourage you to be brave, and bold, and probably a bit dumb, and embarrassing, and have these conversations regularly! But have them with humility, self-awaress and thoughtfulness for your e hoa.

If an e hoa is providing you with emotional labour, racial insights, and helping you unpack interactions and concepts, then you might want to consider the ways in which you might be able to compensate them.

Also, I think it’s really important for pakeha to prepare themselves to be wrong, challenged, even criticised harshly, and be able to take it graciously and with humility and with a macro-perspective.

If you feel as though a poc has criticised you to the point where you can’t be bothered further engaging with your racial education or allyship that is certainly a reflection of you, your privilege, complacency and inherent stereotyping of the angry poc than it is of them. Tea.

I’ve also noticed that some pakeha tend to want to talk at POC in a kind of demonstration of wokeness or even, confession. If you want to address a subject and have an actual conversation with a POC, remember that the most important thing is to listen listen listen!

& also understand that no amount of education is going to be able to put you in a position where you will be able to truly understand, experience or articulate the racialised experience of a person of colour & that’s not the point

the point is to understand your positioning in racial dynamics. White Privilege is just like any other privilege & you should use it to the best of your ability to protect, support & uplift others until the privileges that you benefit from is available to all