I make clear that being passionate about racial justice does not require white people to become black.Posted in Excerpts/Quotes on 2016-03-23 18:03Z by Steven |
As the director of African-American Studies at the University of Montana for the last seven years, I tell my students each semester, “I want you to know that I know I’m white.” I make clear that being passionate about racial justice does not require white people to become black.
It requires those of us who are white to become more, not less, aware of our racial identity and all the power, privilege, and access it affords. Masking that identity, as [Rachel] Dolezal tried to do, changes nothing.
Only changing the institutional practices that give the benefit of the doubt to white people will create a world where racial passing no longer captures our attention.”
Tobin Shearer, “Reflections On Rachel Dolezal, White Privilege, And “America’s Headlong Progress”,” Reflections West, Montana Public Radio, March 9, 2016. http://mtpr.org/post/reflections-rachel-dolezal-white-privilege-and-americas-headlong-progress. http://cpa.ds.npr.org/kufm/audio/2016/03/RW-Shearer-Dubois-03-09-16_0.mp3 (00:01:54-00:02:44).
