Dear “Woke” White People

This is an extremely difficult and vulnerable post. I need your help. I’ve been moved by the events surrounding George Floyd, Chris Cooper, and so many others to reflect deeply on my experiences as someone who can sometimes pass as white and abled, but am neither. I am Hispanic with a profound hearing loss.

Many of you may be feeling frustrated at not knowing how to show up for black people and POC, or at being told it’s not enough, or that you’re doing it wrong. To you, I want to say I understand and that this is the fight — if you’re feeling uncomfortable, you’re in the fight. Keep going.

Reading books on racism by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) authors, donating to causes, and speaking out online are all good starts. But for many of you that are deeply ensconced in liberal white communities far from BIPOC, there is something else you can do that has a more immediate and tangible impact: engage with your liberal white friends critically about the subtle ways that racism and supremacy thrives even in your “woke” white circles.

So let’s talk about racism and supremacy in “woke” white circles:

Let’s talk about how even “woke” white people may excuse the police or another white person for a “misunderstanding” when they hassle their deaf friend for being drunk in public because of his speech patterns or their Latinx friend for being belligerent because of his outspoken manner.

Let’s talk about how centuries of unchecked white women’s tears embolden the Amy Coopers of the world and why so many male-presenting BIPOC fear them.

Let’s talk about how for all the talk of intersectionality, when values conflict, even “woke” white people will most often default to the hierarchy — whiteness above all.

Let’s talk about how self-proclaimed “woke” white people can do doubly the damage when they wield privilege *and* the stalwart conviction that they carry more wisdom and less bias than others.

Let’s talk about how white-led social cliques can gossip about, create false narratives, and ostracize BIPOC in absentia while letting their white friends off for gross ethical violations and worse.

Let’s talk about how unconscious racism, ableism and ignorance within a “woke” white culture can lead to scapegoating those that are different under the guise of being more civilized or enlightened — colonialism at its best.

Let’s talk about how avoidance and cancel culture can be a form of white privilege and power when it’s directed at disenfranchised populations or individuals.

Let’s talk about how the most privileged and powerful voices in some liberal subcultures are not always the patriarchy but white women, white feminist men, and white queer folks who wield it no differently by reifying authoritarian power structures rather than creating a more compassionate, just, and equitable value system.

Let’s talk about how gentrification is often driven by affluent white people who profess a love for diversity and bemoan the displacement of traditionally BIPOC neighborhoods while accelerating it.

Let’s talk about how many white liberals source social power from how “woke” they are, and how quickly they feel threatened and take down anyone, BIPOC or otherwise, who call them out on it.

Let’s talk about virtue signaling and why so many liberal white people are outspoken in support of BLM and police reform, yet have very little to say when their own friends or white community leaders justify institutionalized abuse outside the canon of “woke” white cultural awareness and attention.

As a POC with a disability, I have experienced all of these things not at the hands of conservatives or state institutions, but from “woke” white people.

I will continue to show up for BLM and to protest for real change on our cultural and institutional structures that perpetuate violence against black people. That is the priority. But I am also speaking up against permissiveness, excuses, and social power structures within liberal white circles that seed a greater culture of racism, hate and divisiveness. Will you join me? If you are a white person, I invite you to get involved. I *ask* you to get involved by sharing this to your white spaces and engaging with your liberal white friends compassionately but resolutely about ways in which they may have unwittingly participated in racist and supremacist behaviors like the ones listed here.

That is doing the work. And we need your help.

*Endnote: “Woke” is a term that has been appropriated by white people from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE). I use it here intentionally to draw attention to its history, use and misuse.