I may never be able to find the right words to express my emotions and my thoughts, because I’m still trying to figure it all out.
What happened to George Floyd is horrifying and appalling. I can’t imagine the hopelessness and the desperation that he went through moments before his passing.
Before him, there were Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, and many more. But racial injustice does not only happen in the States. In Toronto, people protested against police involvement in the death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, which till this day we still don’t know what exactly happened after Regis walked into her apartment accompanied by the police officers involved.
What I’m feeling is complicated. I was, and still am shocked, by the heartlessness and brutality of these police officers. What is also infuriating is that injustice like this happens on a regular basis. By now we should all know that this is not just about “a few bad apples”. It is a systemic issue, racism runs so deep in our society that change (if any) occurs slowly, and it’s something that is so easy to turn a blind eye to when it doesn’t affect us personally. I applaud the people who are protesting for what is right.
I also feel shame, for not doing more in the past, for not educating myself enough to understand how racism is sustained in our society, for not comprehending its prevalence.
I have so much learning to do.
In the past few weeks, I slowly come to realize what it means to be black, not just in North America, but all around the world. I realized that it’s something that we won’t fully understand until we live in their skin. Just think about how we normally feel around the police. Do we feel safe running to a cop for help? If the answer is yes, then we don’t know what they are going through.
And to blatantly say, “I don’t see colour. All lives matter”, is just a way to minimize their hardships and suffering. It is our attempt to dodge the discomfort of having difficult conversations that are needed to foster social change.
In the past, I tend to stay silent, because I don’t feel that I have much to contribute. I don’t know much about their culture, their experiences, who am I to share my opinion, and to say anything worth saying? But we’ve come to this point where silence is equivalent to agreement. It’s not enough to not be racist, because not doing anything means that we are allowing racial injustice to linger.
Previously, people try to be politically correct. “I don’t see colour” was the PC thing to say. But at the same time, maintaining this artificial peace, this status quo, is just a way to prolong the systemic issue. It’s sweeping racial injustice under the rug.
There is so much work to be done, and it’s not just white people’s responsibility. Asians and other ethnic minorities are not immune to being racist. Having black friends or black co-workers does not necessarily mean that we don’t have to reflect on how we might be contributing to systemic racism. The infographic below helps us figure out where we are in terms of our journey of becoming an anti-racist, and how we can further our growth. I believe this graph was created by Dr. Andrew M. Ibrahim, MD, MSc (Surgery Redesign):
Where are you in your journey of becoming an anti-racist? There is so much reflection and change that has to be done in order for us to move forward as a society.
If you are feeling overwhelmed in terms of what you can do and where you can go for resources about systemic racism, as well as its development in the past decades, here are some book recommendations:
How To Be An Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi
So You Want To Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
Me And White Supremacy - Layla F. Saad
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism - Robin DiAngelo
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Reni Eddo-Lodge
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness - Michelle Alexander
The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America - Richard Rothstein
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America - Ibram X. Kendi
If you have more book recommendations, feel free to leave a comment below or drop me a message here.
In the mean time, let’s do our part and continue to educate ourselves. Now is the time to rectify our past mistakes.