White people don’t see Black people as human. White people are, in fact, incapable of seeing us as human beings. White people don’t empathize with our pain because they don’t see us as equals. White people see us as sex objects, as minimum wage workers, as entertainers and athletes, and as inherently inferior, a sub-human species. That’s been the programming for centuries. We have darker skin and fuller features, our hair is different so they can look at us an see something other than what they are, a human being.
What’s always astounded me is the fact that white people can have such empathy and compassion for animals and yet the same white people who shed actual real tears over a dog in a dog fight or an animal killed on safari will cheer, they will openly applaud a Black person being killed by the cops. As much as it pains me to state the obvious, animals are a truly a different species to homo sapiens. There’s no way you can confuse an animal for a person yet white people will fall apart at a video of an animal being abused. When a Black person is murdered for the unforgiveable crime of being Black, white people donate money to the killer and go on full troll mode, purposefully seeking out Black people online who are outraged and hurt, only to inflict more hurt, to taunt and torment them by saying that that Black person’s life DESERVED to be taken for driving with expired tags or for smoking a cigarette or whatever lame excuse white people use for slaughtering us.
Not all white people love animals more than Black people though, right? Some white people torture and murder animals. See what I did there? You were expecting me to talk about the great white people who aren't racist. That's the programming. You expect whiteness to be exalted as superior. More to the point, it’s not like the animal killers love Black people. They are the ones who are torturing and killing animals, practice for killing Black people. How can I say that? As much as it pains me to say, I’m Black, I know white people. I know how evil they are, I know how much they hate us. I know white people in ways white people can never possibly know us because you are our predator and we have to know you in order to survive. White people, without having read one book by a Black author, without having seen a play, never having any exposure to blackness whatsoever, white people are convinced they know everything about us, our lives, our motivations. Black people have a deeper understanding of white people because you force your culture and norms down our throats and because if we don’t know exactly what type of white person we are dealing with, it could be fatal. It's like how Black people know to distrust cops because there are far more bad apples than white people acknowledge. We know that the TV shows and movies that show white people as the heroes and saviors, saving the day with their inherent goodness are all BULLSHIT.
This new wave of anti-racism is interesting. First and foremost, just like saying, “I’m not racist,” saying, “I’m anti-racist,” doesn’t make it so. “Woke” white people, the infinitesimally small and rare occurrence of them, are CONVINCED, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they are not racist because they follow Black people on Twitter and they proclaim how horrible it is to see those videos of Black people being murdered. And it is. It’s heart wrenching to see Black people’s lives being snuffed out because society says our lives aren’t worth anything. But for me, when I see those videos, Black people begging and pleading for their lives, terrified, I see me. I see my family, my cousins, my uncles and aunts, I see my brothers and sisters. I could easily be a hashtag. All day, every day, I’m in danger of being hashtagable because my skin is melanated. White people, even the ones who proclaim to be anti-racist, can never be hashtagable in this society because this society is set up to see them as the norm. White people see a Black person being murdered and they don’t see their loved one being murdered, they see “other.” They say, “Oh, it’s such a tragedy and I’m sorry I didn’t realize it before.” The key sentiment is that before ". . . I hated Black people and looked down on you previously but I wasn't overt about it but now I’m a good person.” And then when they close their laptop, social justice is done, back to white reality where they don’t have to think about Black pain and they certainly don’t feel it.
Should they? Should white people feel the pain of Black people who have been murdered like animals in the street, their lifeless bodies on display as a message to other Blacks, “Stay in your place or you’re next.” No, no one should have to feel that sensation. I want a life where I don’t have to feel that dread, that ache, that hopelessness. That’s what the cops want us to feel, the fear that we are next, it’s paralyzing and debilitating and that’s the entire purpose of slaughtering us for minor infractions. The power structure knows that we will be forced to hide our pain, suppress our fear, alter our behavior in order to survive our next encounter with the police. Whiteness wins every time a video of a Black person being murdered is shown because no matter how empathetic and woke white people are, they aren’t inviting anyone who looks like Rayshard Brooks or Amhad Aubrey to their dinner table. To their bed? Sure, Blacks are great at sex. But are those white people hiring more Blacks at their jobs, or standing up for the inherent injustice that is built into the very fabric of out society? Not at all. But every Black person who sees those videos wonders if they could be next.
When white real estate agents start outing the racism in their industry, when woke white people who work at Jiffy Lube or Just Brakes or the electric company expose the blatant racism built into their policies, when white people put themselves in jeopardy, when they have skin in the game, that is when their activism is authentic. When white people start calling out their bosses, the people who sign their paychecks, for the inherent racism built into their workplace, then I’ll be convinced of their sincerity. Now, it’s all empty platitudes and lies. Where are the woke nurses calling out the racism inherent in hospitals? Oh no, can’t do that. That would threaten their livelihood. It’s better to just be woke online, on a profile that doesn’t have your name or picture, where you pretend you are horrified at racial injustice and you go to work and you contribute to the disease of racism with your actions and your silence.
The other side of the table are the white people who hate Black people and blackness and they will scour every word I write, finding one sentiment that perhaps I didn’t articulate well or, more likely, find offense at one fact that they think they can dismantle because they believe themselves to be intellectually superior. Of course white people believe that they are smarter than Blacks, it’s how you’ve been conditioned. You feel it’s your responsibility to come on my page and critique and dismantle anything I say about racism or whiteness because I can’t possibly be as smart as you and you can’t let me think I’m smarter. We can’t have those negroes thinking that they can talk shit about the system that allows white people to work less and get paid more, that allows them to commit crimes and then act self-righteous and indignant at a Black person committing a crime to survive.
I’ve yet to meet the Wall Street exec who had to steal to put food on his table but I promise you that I’ve had a half a million of them tell me how criminal Black people are with no sense of irony whatsoever. And he commits more crimes before noon on a daily basis than I’ve committed in multiple lifetimes. White people who do drugs, commit crimes, have criminal delinquent children and are in the most dysfunctional relationships possible will come on this very post and proceed to tell me that I’m wrong about my perception of racism and whiteness because they know more than me. Promise.
I’m not asking white people to love me. I’m not asking for special favors or privileges. I want the exact same special privileges and favors white people get. That’s it. I want Black people to have the exact same privileges, points, perks, bonuses, and rights as white people have. We deserve to have the exact same things that you have because we are human beings, just like you. And the irony is, white people don’t have to give up a damn thing for that to happen. White people don’t have to give up any privileges and favors, they don’t have to become the unwanted of society, they don’t have to trade places with us and become the inferiors. I want to know that my skin will not cause me to be a target. I want to know that my life, my talent, my contributions have value in this society. That’s not asking too much.
Even if I don’t make a mother fucking contribution to society, my life still has value. I want white people to feel pain when they see yet another hashtag and not say, “Oh, it’s so bad that happens to Black people,” but rather say, “Why is this happening to US, why is this happening to me?” See me as a human being. See me as the same as you. Feel my pain. Feel it as your own. Feel the death of . . . whoever the latest Black person murdered was today, as a member of your family. They are. We are all human beings. We deserve more respect than a dog. We cry, we feel pain, we suffer challenges, we are fucking human beings.
The inequity that white people have created in this society is most highlighted by the homeless. I’ve never lived in Idaho or Wyoming, I don’t know what the racial makeup of those places are. I have lived in NYC, Baltimore, sort of Philly (an hour commute away) and Atlanta. I’ve visited a dozen or more other major metropolitan cities in my lifetime, nationally and internationally. The overwhelming and vast majority of homeless people are Black. Not by accident. Not because of any individual or collective choice that they’ve made. Black people are disproportionally homeless because white people don’t see us as humans.
White people make mistakes. They are forgiven. No, that’s not accurate. They are not forgiven, that implies some level of remorse or accountability. White people don’t normally have to feel remorse for their mistakes because society has told them that they are the alpha and the omega. Mistakes don’t define white people. If a Black person is homeless, we say it’s because of their poor choices. Is it? Did they decide to be born Black in a society that despised Blackness? Did they choose to be born poor in a country where a person’s wealth determines their worth as a human being? Did they choose to be undereducated by a system that wants to keep Blacks poor and uneducated? No, they didn’t. Did they choose to seek housing in a real estate market where white men think nothing of cheating, lying, and manipulating to build wealth as the expense of Black people’s safety? No, of course they didn’t make those choices. They were pawns in a game that hates Black pawns. Every facet of society is intended to CREATE Black homeless people, to step over them with an air of indignation and superiority. “I didn’t make the poor choices you made so I’m better than you.”
I’ve been homeless several time in my life. Well, I’ve been without shelter a few times in my life, I’ve lived with friends, slept on sofas, I’ve lived in hotel rooms for weeks on end because I didn’t have an address but I don’t consider that homeless. I’ve had two occasions where I had no residence, no place to go for several days. It was terrifying, not in the physical safety sense. That was draining and stressful. The terrifying part was the voices in my head that told me that I was flawed as a human being because I wasn’t living in a four-bedroom McMansion with granite counter tops and his and hers walk in closets. Wanna take a guess how man woke white people are living like that right this minute and have no concern or care for the homeless? More than can be counted.
In the early 90s, I remember I had just separated from my husband, I was depressed and scared; he had just told me he had one woman pregnant and he was in love with another woman and that he never wanted the reconciliation that he had told me he wanted for two months. I ended up on a 72-hour psych hold because I got drunk as hell and I was walking the streets crying and screaming like a crazy woman. When I was released, I didn’t have a place to go. My best friend was without an address and sleeping on someone’s floor at the time. He offered to let me sleep on her floor while she was at work for a few hours a day until we could find an apartment and move in together. For three ofr four days, I walked the streets of NYC all night, waiting to take the train to Brooklyn in the morning so I could I get a little rest. You can’t rest. When you don’t have a place to lay your head, your brain doesn’t stop working, telling you that you’re a failure. My friend was an immensely talented, brilliant Black man. (He died.) I am an immensely talented, brilliant Black women. Did we both end up without an address because of some inherent flaw within us. NO! The system is built to foster whiteness and neither of us was born with that benefit.
The other time was when I was living with a . . . man I had loved for 7 years. He wasn’t a boyfriend, we weren’t even in a relationship. He was an individual with whom I had a complicated and dysfunctional relationship that consisted mostly of me loving him and him loving light skinned women and him loving how I made him feel for two weeks a year . . . for 7 years. After the two weeks were over, he would say something hurtful, leave, and come back a year later. Whatever one calls that, that’s what we had. I moved out of his place in Chicago, drove back to Atlanta, and didn’t have a place to stay for a few days. I ended up sleeping in my car in the parking lot of a 24 hour Home Depot for a few nights. I honestly can’t even tell you where I ended up living after that. I can tell you that being without shelter didn’t define me. I had just finished writing what will be (or what may be already in another dimension) the most amazing stories of my life. I knew I was an amazing writer with a voice that deserved to be heard even while I was trying to hide from the cops to get me to move my car. Me not having a home in that moment didn’t change any of those things. I didn’t automatically become stupid, or untalented, or lazy because I didn’t have a home. Nothing about me changed other than the fact that I didn’t have a support system or an income to provide for the basics. Being homeless didn’t mean that I made bad choices. It means that society is built to keep me, all Black people oppressed. Period.
Every homeless person has a story. Every homeless person is a human being deserving of respect and an opportunity to provide for themselves. The American system is set up to keep homeless people homeless because they are the plague that everyone loves to decry is so unfortunate but you don’t lose a minute’s sleep over it because you have a bed, you have a car and a fridge full of food so you NEVER have to think about homeless people if you don’t want.
We, collectively, as a society, look at homeless people in the exact same way white people see Blacks. “It’s their fault they are in that situation and it doesn’t affect me, it’s not my problem. It’s sad and unfortunate and I have to pretend to be concerned because I know that society expects me to show compassion but in all honesty, when I don’t see them, I don’t give a fuck about them one way or the other, they never enter my consciousness, their existence doesn’t change my reality.”
The white people who think they are anti-racist and oh so woke don’t care about Black people, they care about the perception that they are racist. They don’t see the humanity of Black people all of a sudden, they see their shame that they were virulent racists and didn’t realize it. There is so much narcissism in white people proclaiming their wokeness and posting about Black Lives Matter.
I’ve said it 1000 times. The worst thing you can call a white person is racist. There is no greater insult. White wokeness is a response to that, it’s the way white people can say, “Look at me, I’m not racist.” Ask a woke white person to invite a homeless person into their home for dinner, give them a place to stay, let them sleep on your couch for a few months and help them get on their feet. You’ll get the, “It’s not safe . . . mental issues . . . my job . . . my children,” all those arguments.” Without knowing one homeless person, without knowing if they had a fucked-up husband who cheated on them or a racist employer who fired them, white people will blanketly disparage homelessness and blackness because they don’t see us as human. No human being deserves to sleep on the street or in a shelter where the admins are going home to huge houses and profiting from their pain.
I’ve done it. I’ve had homeless people stay with me in my home to help them. One was an extraordinarily gorgeous man, one was a mentally ill woman who could sing like an angel. They didn’t rape me or steal from me. I never felt in danger because I see myself in them. I saw them as human beings deserving of help. I’ve fed homeless people out of the trunk of my car at midnight because I worked as a concierge at a luxury condo and I would take the food when I got off at midnight and go to the church around the corner from my apartment. When I lived in NYC, one brotha named Carlos was in love with me because I would give him money every day, stop, and talk to him. He went to jail once for a few months and I was panicked. I asked every employee in the bank where he slept what happened to him, I asked the newspaper guy who literally was 5 feet away from him every day. No one even knew who he was, let alone his name. We treat the homeless like lepers, like they are deserving of living like that because we are a heartless, shallow, self-centered nation. A racist nation on top of that which looks at Black people as is their skin is a crime. The crime is whiteness and what it’s done to create the belief that only people with white skin deserve respect, accolades, pleasure, and opportunity.
As long as white people don’t see Black people’s humanity, nothing is going to change. Until you see that we laugh, we cry, we bleed, we fear, we love in the exact same way as you, until you have compassion and empathy for our unique and individual stories, until you see our HUMANITY, until you acknowledge that we deserve to have everything that you have, a life with minimal, third world stressors like your water heater broke or you have to carpool with your spouse because your car is in the shop, then nothing is going to change.
