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It happens to white people too, so not racism... [1]
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Date: 2025-04-09
One of the phrases that often pops up when discussing racism is “it’s not racist because happens to white people too”, let’s talk about that.
In one of my earlier articles, I asked a question based on the comment “Police shoot white people too, you don’t see us taking to the streets”… I asked, “why don’t you?” So far no one has answered that question and it’s not the first time I’ve asked it. I’ll give you a hint, the instances where police have shot someone white, unjustly… are rare and when they do happen you do not need to protest because you assume (correctly) the police in question will be held accountable!
It is not that things only happen to Black folks, it is that when it happens to you, it is a once in a blue moon thing, and it is usually addressed fairly. The very lack of protest on your part is indicative of privileged status, you do not protest for you are not being targeted.
And before you take offense at the word privilege, learn its meaning, it simply acknowledges that you are treated with respect and dignity, afforded doubt, that you can live without certain fears, that trust is automatically afforded to you, it is not about your attitude, it is about how you are treated, humanely.
Yes, most things that happen to Black people, happen also to white people, but while in your cases its rare, it is so common with us we had to include “the talk” and “say their name” in our culture. That’s what makes it racist, the frequency of occurrences. The knowledge that we will be followed in stores, that if we are pulled over for something as simple as expired tags or an air freshener there’s a good chance of being shot, the fact that our kids cannot do things your kids do like peeing behind a car, for even an 8-year-old was handcuffed and arrested.
The problem is that you keep comparing your “experiences” with ours and they are just not comparable, what happens to you once in a while is a daily occurrence in our life, for almost every single one of us. You can go your whole lives without being pulled over, or meeting a cop, almost every one of us has a story. That’s the racism.
And that applies to every aspect of our lives, we are fired for things you do on the daily at work, our children’s grades are lowered for the same mistakes yours make, there’s no difference in height in an afro and a beehive, but guess which one got you fired? Unless doing something really dangerous your children are not arrested, ours have the cops called on them for selling lemonade, arrested for peeing. Longer prison sentences. More arrest for minor violations. More innocents arrested on flimsy or manufactured evidence. We are 13% of the population with almost 80% incarceration rate in your jails and also 62% of your exoneration rates.
You can pretend not to see these differences, but you know they exists and you know it’s racism.
#ThePoet
Muriel Vieux – April 9th, 2025, ©All rights reserved
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