The battle is and always has been a battle for the hearts and minds of white people in this country. The fight against racism is our issue. It’s not something that we’re called on to help people of color with. We need to become involved with it as if our lives depended on it because really, in truth, they do.

—Ann Braden 1924–2006), white civil rights activist and journalist

NINE

A Clarion Call for Collective Action to Combat Black Fatigue

The Black Lives Matter protests sparked by George Floyd’s murder in May 2020 started a new movement for racial justice. Floyd’s murder was the boiling point for centuries of injustices that I have highlighted throughout the book.

An opposite of suffering from fatigue is being “indefatigable,” meaning relentless, tireless, unwavering, dogged, assiduous, or unstoppable. I think those describers are apt to characterize white supremacist systems. However, Black and white people and non-Black people of color who are allies and power brokers in this new movement to dismantle racism are just as dogged and relentless. The resounding message from the Black Lives Matter protesters after the George Floyd killing was, “We are tired and we want change now.”

We do not want more band-aids in the form of programs designed to “fix” Black people. Black people are not the problem. Racist systems need to be dismantled. Removing confederate statues, eliminating racially stereotyped branding, renaming buildings, and legislating Juneteenth as a national holiday are symbolic but will not necessarily change systems.

We need white people to acknowledge their complicity in perpetuating white supremacy and own their responsibility to dismantle it. White people have been active in combating racism throughout history, such as those who fought to end slavery. William Lloyd Garrison, John Brown, and Harriet Beecher Stowe are a few of the more well-known white abolitionists. Today people like Chris Crass,¹ a white antiracist organizer and author of several books, including Towards the “Other America”: Anti-racist Resources for White People Taking Action for Black Lives Matter,² work to end white supremacy. He was a part of the original group that launched the national network Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ).³ SURJ, with chapters throughout the country, is composed of individuals and groups of white activists who recognize their responsibility in undermining white supremacy. SURJ trains white people how to own their responsibility through active participation in delegitimizing racist institutions. Its programs include training on organizing, the nature of activism, how to hold conversations with skeptics, and understanding the intertwining nature of white supremacy. Many white people joined Black protesters during the Black Lives Matter rebellions in 2020.

What Should White People Do?

1. Address America’s “original sin” of slavery.⁴ While there have been congressional attempts to call for a formal apology for slavery as well as reparations, the bills have never passed. We should take a page from South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission that assigned accountability for apartheid. An apology is not so much about making the wronged party feel better as it is about accountability. The United States has apologized to other wronged groups, such as the Japanese internees during World War II, and paid reparations. Why does this apparently simple but very meaningful act for Black Americans seem to be too much to fathom?

   The wealth gap that I outlined in chapter 3 cannot be corrected with individual responsibility. We cannot catch up through hard work. The intergenerational loss of wealth directly caused by slavery and continued by postslavery racism needs to be corrected with reparations. I believe the US government owes lost wages and damages to the descendants of slaves to begin to level the playing field.⁵ Georgetown and Princeton Universities are attempting to rectify the fact that the sale of slaves enhanced their endowments by establishing reparation funds to provide scholarships to descendants of slaves.⁶ The apology should be easy, and if there were a real interest in addressing racism, reparations would be understood as a major part of the healing and reconciliation process. Without reparations, the socioeconomic disparities will continue.

   There are at least 10 major corporations that profited from the slave trade. These companies should offer reparations by at the very least acknowledging their participation, investing in Black-owned businesses, and ensuring equity in their workforce representation.⁷

2. Interrogate and change systems instead of adding more programs to fix Black people. Many companies made commitments to address racism at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement sparked by George Floyd’s death in 2020. They pledged millions of philanthropic dollars to civil rights and social justice organizations, set aggressive representation goals, pledged money to help small Black-owned businesses, declared Juneteenth a holiday, and strengthened their zero-tolerance policies. Is this simply performative activism, just on the surface, meant to increase the organization’s social capital or is there a real desire for systemic change?

   Too many hurriedly issued these commitments without considering a longer-term, more systemic approach. For many of the Black employees we spoke with during our listening and healing sessions, there was skepticism about the sincerity or the ability of their company to make good on these promises. The commitments were approved by the CEO and developed most often by their inner circle, which is, by and large, white. Perhaps they consulted with their internal diversity leaders, but several told me that was not the case. Perhaps they consulted with one or two external Black leaders. Corporate leaders admitted their sublime ignorance about racial issues. However, in my view, they continued to make decisions about the path forward without the requisite knowledge. A copycat response ensued, with most companies pledging similar actions, almost as if no company wanted to be “one-upped” in the new social justice movement.

   What can companies do to change systems? Do not stand on the social justice sidelines.

   • Start with the criminal justice system. Support the recommendations to the UN special rapporteur highlighted in chapter 7.
   • Get involved in reforming police departments. Take a stand on police brutality. Educate your employees.
   • Ensure that all public schools have the resources they need to provide a quality education. Technology companies, ensure that every child in every school district has a computer. Telecommunications companies, eliminate the digital divide.
   • Lobby for equitable, not equal, K–12 school funding. School district funding is often determined, in part, by the local tax base.⁸
   • Banks, change your practices of refusing a disproportionate number of Black people loans by enacting equitable rather than “equal” requirements. Require that loan officers understand the historical, systemic lack of access to capital that Black people face.
   • Buy goods and services from Black-owned businesses.
   • Internally, conduct cultural audits to uncover disparate outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC), disaggregating the results for each identity group (Black, Black women, Black men, etc.). For example, investigate disproportionality in performance ratings and voluntary and involuntary terminations. Conduct a “reverse engineering” process to backtrack and determine where in the system the inequities are occurring. Black people report feeling isolated, ignored, undervalued, and on guard. Hold leaders accountable for creating inclusive cultures that really include everyone. Listen to and incorporate Black people’s recommendations. Reevaluate the role of the traditional gatekeepers like those in Legal and HR. These functions often intentionally or unintentionally minimize or attempt to placate Black people. Develop new ways of thinking about the legal risks associated with more transparency. To authentically address racism, legal risk-aversion tactics may need to be changed.
   • Corporate America, discontinue striving to get on lists of “diversity best” this and that based on unspoken “pay to play” criteria. Companies pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to increase the chances of being on the “best company for diversity” list. Reallocate those dollars to improving the internal culture for BIPOC and supporting organizations dedicated to eradicating racism.
3. Acknowledge white supremacy and become antiracist. First, if an organization is truly antiracist, it will acknowledge its complicity in perpetuating racist systems.

   In chapter 2, I shared the difference between a nonracist and an antiracist, the former being someone who declares that they are not racist and the latter being someone who is actively involved in dismantling racism. Ibram X. Kendi says in his book How to Be an Antiracist⁹ that when we choose to be antiracist, we are conscious about race and racism and take actions to end racial inequities, such as supporting and voting for policies that create racial equity.

   Being antiracist is different for white people and people of color. For white people, being antiracist evolves with their racial identity development.¹⁰ They must acknowledge and understand their privilege, work to change their internalized racism, and interrupt racism when they see it. For people of color, it means recognizing how race and racism have been internalized.

   The Ben & Jerry’s ice cream brand provides a good example of an organization taking on white supremacy. In a statement made after George Floyd’s murder, the company said that Floyd’s death was a result of “inhumane police brutality that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. What happened to George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning.”¹¹ Organizations that are serious about changing systems will need to start using antiracist language and embrace social justice approaches in their strategies.

   Many white people joined the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 as allies. It seemed as though there was a sudden mass awakening to the fact that racism is real in America. While we certainly need allies in the cause, we need allies who are knowledgeable of the issues, can empathize, and know how to support.

   The guidelines for allyship in figure 9.1 are important. Allies can join and actively engage in organizations like SURJ.

4. Become power brokers. Committed allies are needed. However, allies are not always in a position of power to change systems. At the interpersonal level, allies can support BIPOC by taking on the struggles as their own, speaking up, and doing their own work. Power brokers, by definition, deliberately affect the distribution of political or economic power by exerting influence. As I mentioned in the introduction, at the height of the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020, we witnessed power brokers quickly making decisions to defund police departments, ban chokeholds and the use of tear gas, and update use-of-force rules. A 22-year-old Black woman convinced the Merriam-Webster dictionary to change the definition of “racism” to include the structural component. Power brokers hold the key to systemic change.
5. Stop using “discomfort” as an excuse for not having meaningful conversations about race. I regularly hear that we do not talk about race because it is uncomfortable. Discomfort is a part of what Robin DiAngelo defines as white fragility. It is uncomfortable because of a lack of knowledge about racism. It is uncomfortable because the very mention of the word conjures up the good-bad binary. For some, if we do not talk about it, we do not have to address it. For others, the intense emotional response the word elicits renders them speechless. We must talk about racism to dismantle it.

Figure 9.1. The Do’s and Don’ts of Allyship . . .
Source: The Winters Group based on data in “Guide to Allyship” by Amélie Lamont.¹²

What Should Black People Do?

1. Use your voice. It seems that there is now more willingness to listen to the daily inequities that we face in “living while Black.” Understand and speak to the structural issues and their domino-effect impact. For example, underfunded schools and schools with staff who perpetuate deficiency stereotypes feeds the prison pipeline, the dismantling of Black family structure, and disproportionate unemployment rates.
2. Stay vigilant. Educate yourself on the issues, lobby for change and vote.
3. Reject the expectation of being a “teacher.” Using your voice does not mean that you should be expected to serve as white people’s history books. Unapologetically tell white people to do their own work, if you do not want to serve in that role.
4. Reframe deficit narratives. As Black people, we should frame narratives to shift the blame to white supremacy for the inequities and violence against us. For example, rather than explaining that Black people are exhausted, state that racism is exhausting. Or rather than stating that Black people are disproportionately denied loans, note that banks discriminate against Black people in lending. Here are some examples:
5. If you are Black in a position of power and influence, use your power to advance BIPOC. Too often Black leaders assimilate, fearing losing their own status if they support other Black people.
6. Take good care. Engage in self-care, as highlighted in chapter 4. Reject oppressive norms and systems that compromise sense of self. The ideology of white supremacy and systems of racism are real in the workplace and world. Build your capacity to name the systems rather than internalizing them.

What Can Black and White People Do Together?

This is a moment in history where we have the opportunity for real change. It will not be easy and will take commitment and action from enough people who can turn the tide. It must involve learning, unlearning, and relearning because the systems of racism are so very entrenched in the fabric of society. If Black and White people are to work together we will need to:

• Dialogue. Learn cross-race dialogue skill as outlined in my books Inclusive Conversations and We Can’t Talk About That at Work. Ensure that our cross-racial conversations are grounded in principles of equity. This means that the voices of the marginalized that have not been heard are amplified and given more priority.
• Acknowledge that our lived experiences are very different and learn to practice reciprocal empathy. Empathy is only possible when there is a shared understanding.
• Create a shared decolonized model of how to dismantle structural racism. Focus on the systems of oppression rather than programmatic solutions.
• Collaborate in earnest to understand how elements of racist systems interrelate. Interrogate together the interlocking elements that contribute to racism. There are too many silos today not working on the bigger systems issues. Grassroots organizations need to be invited into corporate and government spaces to work together on equity-centered solutions.
• Hold power brokers accountable by identifying specific accountability measures and transparent practices and goals that support racial equity and justice. Those with power can change policies and practices that disadvantage Black people. They are discoverable, identifiable, and fixable if we have the will to do the work.