Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race

What do we consider racism? From using the N word and humiliation all the way to the rape, torture and murder of somebody for the color of their skin, racism has long been defined by the violent actions of right extremists and white suprematists. What else could it be to it? Ignoring race and not talking about it, teaching our children to look past skin colors, and even liking or approaching somebody just because this person is African American … Could this be part of an ever deeper prejudice and racism at the heart of the leftish respectable society?

“There are people who consider themselves left, progressive and very critical, who have convinced themselves that the only way to get beyond race is to stop talking about race. By taking this stance, they align themselves with the post-racial liberals and self-styled colour-blind conservatives. Colour-blindness is a childish, stunted analysis of racism. It starts and ends at 'discriminating against a person because of the colour of their skin is bad', without any accounting for the ways structural power works in these exchanges. This definition of racism is often used to silence people of colour when we attempt to articulate the racism we face. When we point this out, we are accused of being racist against white people, and the avoidance of accountability continues."

The extract of this book, written by Reni Eddo-Lodge, which we can read in The Guardian, is enough to understand how not seeing race does little to dismantle racist structures or improve the lives of people of color. It also helps us understand what’s our part in the problem and what can we do to fix it now. There’s no need to say that structural racism and power games are there and are big, but it is important to try and find where’s our fingerprint and who we stepped over in the ladder that we climbed to get where we are.