I have concluded that the worst thing you can call a white person is racist even if that person is wearing a confederate flag onesie and wearing Black face.

Calling them racist is the worst thing because racism is universally seen as a moral failure and fundamentally irrational.

There seems to be this idea around the fact that some white people don't think they *can* be racist because they are good people and good people can't be racist.

And that kind of thinking leads to people embracing colorblindness or gentrification in the name of diversity.

Racism is really about power, and recognizing that you have the power to be racist without repercussions. That's where the repurposed idea of 'Karen' came from.

White people may be nice, but when it becomes a question of power in the face of racism-- how do they use it?

As a white person, you do have *some* power even if its not along the lines of gender, economic, or sexual preference.

When someone sees you, they see your white skin and are likely to assume the best about you because you're white OR white PASSING (talking to white POC).

And so because your skin color is associated with all of these positive attributes you gain access to spaces you then build upon the existing power you already possess because you're white.

And so now comes the part where you have to decide what to do with your power.

Being racist then boils down to a white person choosing to make a decision that harms historically marginalized groups that cannot access that power (if we are talking at an individual level).

Now let's take to the systemic level.

Now if white people who gain access to power don't change how that power is accessed or who gets access to the power then pretty much the cycle is neverending.

Marginalized groups continue to be marginalized and nothing fundamentally changes.

So what's wrong with white people having all the power?

Well for starters, slavery, colonialism, segregation, and the New Jim Crow, but also...

THE WORLD IS NOT JUST WHITE PEOPLE in fact it's mostly Black and Brown.

One group should not have VIP access to power and freedom.

So, as a white person... you can be a nice person AND racist. You can be passive about dismantling the structures that allow you and other white people exclusive access to power and freedom AND still have Black friends.

These two things are not mutually exclusive.

And allyship and sponsorship are about white people putting this power you possess inherently and because of the system ON THE LINE for marginalized groups.

THAT IS ALLYSHIP, which is why a lot of people who *think* they are allies, are actually performative at best.

So, in conclusion...

"Being nice" does not exclude you from being racist. The intersection of those two things is quite large.

If you are not actively dismantling systems that exclude marginalized groups, YOU ARE COMPLICIT.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

Shoutout to a real inspiration who had an amazing conversation with me offline @hankgreen for being the match that sparked arguably one of the best threads I've ever written in the history of ever.

You remain the educational . #NFGTBA

Let me clarify a point I made earlier: Being racist is ongoing and not boiled down to one decision.... its multiple decisions overtime.... without any change or any internal work.

You actively choosing to be [anti-Black] racist. It's a verb not a noun.

Okay, carry on.

sksksksk i know academic twitter might be offline today so know for a fact i'll be retweeting this monday morning

To the white folx applauding this thread, good job...

but NOT good enough.

Approving this thread + inaction = still racist.

Why? Because nothing has changed. Until you've helped dismantle the systems that allow your whiteness to retain absolute power, you still racist.

Here are some orgs y'all can donate to in the DMV

Also some political education for your TL this evening:

1) Dark Matters - Simone Browne
2) Are Prisons Obsolete? - Angela Y. Davis
3) Black Women's History of the United States - Dania R. Berry and Kali N. Gross

I am excited to reup this post tomorrow morning at 9 AM :-)