“You’re fighting for your humanity, not your ability to save me from your inhumanity.”@desireebstephens, TikTok creator
The Black creator was talking specifically to white people, when she used those words to wrap up her post about the work that needs to be done.
Starting the work doesn’t mean acting as a white savior, conversely it’s about white people salvaging our collective lost sense of humanity. Racist acculturation thrives in a pervasively stagnant collective state of de-humanizing others. Each white person has an obligation to deconstruct generations of this destructive influence on our care for others.
Starting the work doesn’t mean weaponizing our fragile whiteness by expecting help from Black people for solutions. Black people didn’t choose, build, and sustain our culture of dehumanizing and marginalizing others. The ultimate white privilege is to believe the oppressor should be helped by the oppressed – to hold their hand and walk them through white peoples’ work.
Starting the work is squarely on white people’s shoulders. Continuing the work is to re-acculturate to heal our humanity.
kathystoneware 