Today Baltimore police officer Edward Nero was found not
guilty on all charges. In addition to arresting 25 year old Freddie Gray without
probable cause, Nero failed to buckle him into a seat in the police van,
causing Gray's neck to be broken during transport while he was handcuffed and
shackled. Gray died of an injury to the spinal cord, which medical investigators confirmed
to have occurred while in the police van.
As I heard this news I happened to be leafing through my agenda
for next week’s National Conference for Race & Ethnicity in American Higher
Education.
Among the many excellent panels I plan to attend, I’m
particularly drawn to these:
“Nothing to Add: A
Challenge to White Silence in Racial Discussions”
“Where Are All the
White People? Strategies for Engaging White People in Collective Action for
Racial Justice”
And this one:
“White Fragility”
Looks like I’m not the only one perplexed by the crickets
that answer a Facebook post on police brutality when a cute kid video gets 57 reactions.
Let me be clear, this
isn’t a commentary on anyone’s apathy or evil nature, but rather a straight forward
accusation that you’re too damn nice.
For exactly the same reason that I love you, I want to shake you silly. White
friends, please, you need to stop being so nice, and this piece will explain why.
When you learn that a bombastic xenophobic racist won
another state in the presidential primary, do you ever find yourself pondering the question,
"WHO EXACTLY ARE THESE VOTERS!?" To help answer your question the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a watchdog group for social injustice, has
conveniently pointed them out on a map that tracks hate groups across
America:
SPLC Hate Map
If this terrifying Hate Map of the USA doesn’t light a fire under your Lily White behind, then I don’t know what will. When our country has 892 verifiable
and active hate groups, which is up 14% from last year, no one is safe. These folks are loud. They are busy. And
unless you’re louder and busier, they will win.
Not feeling so nice anymore? Good.
In the Salon article, “What Chris Rock Got Wrong: ‘Nice’ White People Perpetuate White Supremacy,” the author writes the following about Eric Garner's killers, but
he might as well have been writing about the police officers who murdered
Freddie Gray:
“The officer who
applied that pressure to [Eric] Garner’s neck might himself be ‘nice’ in the
sense that he is kind to old people, babies and animals. Likewise, the grand
jury that decided not to indict him for any crime might well have been filled
with nice people, who send get-well cards to sick friends and relatives,
participate in Secret Santa at work and volunteer at the local food bank. And
what of it? Their niceness, however
real it may be in some abstract sense, means nothing.” (http://goo.gl/XAY1yy)
As it turns out, being nice has little to do with playing an
active role in creating a just and safe world. Surely you’ll agree that not much has ever changed when pioneers of a social movement were concerned with
being regarded as “nice.” But,
alas, our politeness is ingrained in our own white cultural value system, and it’s
a way of existing that won’t easily be changed. We scream into pillows. We
drink martinis. We use passive aggressiveness. We’ll do anything to suppress
what we consider the greatest indication of having lost all control: Anger.
As such, it’s probably safe to assume that you’re not the
type to attend a rally or get into a heated debate with a stranger. It’s okay, neither
am I- that’s why I’m blogging. You can express outrage without giving up your sense of control and without others suspecting that you may have lost your mind. How about choosing a method that’s more your
speed, like sharing a few posts on Facebook?
Why is this suddenly your job? Because the people and organizations whose
real job it is are not doing their job.
According to the agenda setting theory, our news media single
handedly determine what we consider important, and therefore have a large
influence on what we believe is true. The
news to which we’re exposed creates an alternate reality that is a far cry from
what’s really happening in the world. Research studies consistently find
that in their attempt to draw interest, media sources distort the public sense
of who commits crimes and how often. Case in point: White Americans are overrepresented as
victims of crimes perpetrated by people of color, the number of crimes
committed by black Americans is exaggerated, and the victimization of black
Americans is downplayed. In fact, the majority of US homicides are
intra-racial, but media accounts often portray the majority of offenders as black
males. (http://goo.gl/2ALWHS)
Social media outlets
are the worst offenders because they trick us into believing that we control
what we see. The Guardian lays out the power of Facebook to determine
something as grand as the American presidential election, explaining that
paying advertisers are “faceless engineers that control what pops up in your
news feed.” (http://goo.gl/m3nX3D) Social
media expert Xeni Jardin calls Facebook a
“pay to play operation” meaning that publishers pay to boost posts, and guess
who’s paying the most? Fox news has the
most shared content of all the organizations on Facebook and Donald Trump has
the most likes of any presidential candidate ever. If you’re familiar with
how Facebook works, this means more people are likely to receive content shared
by Fox News and Donald Trump than from any other source. Jardin warns, “Never in history has one news outlet had
this much control over the content we receive.” (http://goo.gl/O2Crgv)
If you’re interested in being a change maker, or a white ally,
or simply more than a really nice person who is accidentally part of the
problem, my challenge for you today is so
easy. It only involves going to battle with America’s largest and most
powerful social media network.
Here’s how you do it: Simply Like some Facebook pages that will give you news feeds inspiring you to rise and
shine like the good citizen you are. Then, in the spirit of being Fair and Balanced, share the content you think might get "overlooked" by more traditional news sources.
Here’s how:
1. Type each name from the list below into the search bar on
your Facebook page.
2. Ignore the first options, which are internet searches, and select from the option that appears in the lower area to actually go to their FB page.
3. Like it
4. Don't forget this important step: Click the "Liked" icon to see the drop down
menu, and select "See first" so this page's posts show up in your regular feed.
Here are some of my personal favorites, for starters:
The Woke Folk
White People Challenging Racism
Racism Review
Showing Up for Racial Justice 865
NAACP
Gathering for Justice
Innocence Project
For Harriet
Black Lives Matter
BYP 100
Let's Talk: Whiteness Project
Please feel free to contribute to the conversation by
replying to my post of this article with other pages we can Like to
get better access to news stories related to social justice. And don’t forget to
share, share, share.
Oh, one last thing. As a fellow sufferer of chronic
Need-To-Be-Nice Syndrome, I’d just like to say that I hope I haven’t hurt your
feelings by saying I have an issue with you, and I really hope you still like
me.
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