Imagine you arrive at your local town hall for a meeting. In this meeting you will need to create very specific architectural and logistical plans for building three houses in your community. The meeting will last exactly one hour and contain 20 three-minute-long speaker slots. Out of the 100 people that show up to the meeting, roughly 20 of them are either architects or experienced homeowners. When starting the meeting the first question is: Given the limited speaker times, who should we let speak? Well, the answer is simple: If the meeting is going to be successful, then people who have experience in home building (i.e. experts) should talk. The experts should be given the time to speak because their experience and knowledge is valuable in creating an effective plan. This decision seems intuitive, right? Well, then why do we deny this logical conclusion when we talk about race and racial experiences in America? My fellow white people, I think it is time we had a talk.
Oftentimes when I hear my fellow white people talk about Black racial injustice, I hear them take offense to the idea that they should not speak. I often find that white people are angered by the idea that they should not be part of the dominant voice when it comes to improving the experience of Black people in America. I hear white people get angry when they are told not to instruct Black people on how to protest, handle their emotions, or “improve” their situation. Well white people, while your anger may be real, it isn’t logically justified. Why?
Well, first we must recognize that in a world with limited resources and social space, some people are more qualified than others to speak. Generally, we have to think of social interactions and space as finite resources. In society, we see there are only so many voices the media, lawmakers and people in general can hear and process. Therefore, we face economic decisions around who gets to speak. When we apply this concept to systemic racial injustice, it becomes evident that as a white-passing man, my emotions, thoughts, and feelings around racial issues are not as important as Black voices for the same reason why the home-building experts should be the ones speaking at the town hall meeting.
Simply put, the people best able to speak on the issues involved with Black injustice are Black. Black people face the discrimination that is being discussed. Black people have a common narrative and history of oppression that is vital in understanding the issue of racial injustice towards Black people. By living through this oppression and these shared experiences, by sharing this common history, Black people have a more dynamic and informed view of the Black racial injustices plaguing America than someone who is not Black. Black people contribute valuable data, perspectives and solutions that are grounded in reality. In general, we shouldn’t give the limited and valuable social space to people who are not qualified to speak. White people should be quiet when talking about racial injustice for the same reason why we silence an inexperienced community member when we need to discuss how to build a house. That is, society can’t waste its limited social space on an opinion which contributes nothing or is based in conjecture.
But someone might say: “Isn’t it racist to silence people just because they are white?” Well no, it isn’t. We have to think about racism through a functional perspective to fully understand why we have the idea of racism in the first place. Functionally, racism is defined as the systematic and institutional discrimination of a person or group of people due to their race, when their race holds no relevance. We functionally use the idea of racism to denote injustice and prejudice. This definition recognizes racial differences, but understands that discrimination arbitrarily based on those differences is wrong. It isn’t racist to tell white people to be quiet about Black racial injustice because white people aren’t qualified to speak about the Black experience and the emotions associated with living that oppression every day. White people cannot provide that dynamic and valuable data and perspective that will lead to getting a nuanced understanding of racial issues. Someone isn’t being prejudiced or unjust when they silence white people because race IS relevant in deciding who is most qualified to speak about Black oppression and experiences. You wouldn’t hire a prospective employee who has no experience building houses to build your home. This isn’t discrimination because their experience is relevant in deciding if you should hire them.
To apply this argument further, we must not only think of how qualified we are to speak on issues, but how our intentions and words actually translate into the social landscape. Essentially, this is a matter of intention vs. impact. While I truly believe that most white people don’t want to be racist, they end up being functionally racist. Their words combine with realities of the social systems of our society and become problematic. When a white person changes #blacklivesmatter to #alllivesmatter we can infer that their intention is to show that all lives are valuable regardless of race. The intention behind this is to lessen racism. However, when white people say #alllivesmatter, they move the discussion away from Black oppression, and unintentionally utilize their social capital (power) to allocate the limited social space to a discussion of the existence, morality and ethics of racism in the context of idealism, rather than the necessary discussion of how to navigate Black oppression and racial injustice that is grounded in the context of reality. This holds true for the #notallmen hashtag as well. It is obvious that all men aren’t rapists. However, when men say #notallmen, they unintentionally utilize their social capital (power) to drive the conversation away from gender inequality and rape culture, to a discussion about the existence, morality and ethics of sexism in a way that uses idealism to inform discussion, rather than recognizing that sexism and rape culture is a demonstrably proven reality, and moving forward to discuss concrete ways to fix it.
As white people (and agent groups in general) it’s imperative that we recognize the social realities of our society and our qualifications to speak if we are to ever truly rid society of racial and oppression in general.
Robert Schwarzhaupt is an LSA senior and a Trotter Multicultural Center programming board member.