By Jenn M. Jackson
11 May 2020
Teen Vogue Speak On It
_**Speak On It**_ is a Teen Vogue column by Jenn M. Jackson, whose queer Black feminist perspective explores how today's social and political life is influenced by generations of racial and gender (dis)order. In this article, she examines how the lack of response to the repeated killings of unarmed Black people stems from a deep fear of dealing with racism head-on.
As the world continues to unpack the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the horror of this moment is a reminder of some of the ugliest aspects of our society, offering a chance to ask how we can end the racist system that has made killings like this all too familiar. Now, as before, the difference between being non-racist and anti-racist remains vital.
On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed by vigilante George Zimmerman while walking back to his father's fiancee's home in the city of Sanford, Florida. Trayvon was leaving a local convenience store carrying Skittles and an iced tea with him when Zimmerman followed him through the neighborhood. In a 911 emergency call placed that night, Zimmerman referred to Trayvon as "suspicious" before confronting and killing him.
I've never looked at hoodies or Skittles the same way since that day.
That was eight years ago. Sadly, racism and violence against Black people in the United States remains heartbreakingly similar nearly a decade later.
News broke last week that 25-year-old Arbery was killed under eerily familiar circumstances as Trayvon. Arbery was shot and killed on February 23 in Brunswick, Georgia. He was jogging in his own neighborhood when 64-year-old Gregory McMichael and his 34-year-old son, Travis, grabbed two guns, got in their truck, and pursued Arbery. After a brief confrontation, McMichaels and his son shot Arbery several times, killing him. Local authorities did not arrest the McMichaels until May 7, after footage of the killing went viral. Both men have been charged with murder and aggravated assault, according to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Both Trayvon and Arbery were on what should've been unassuming trips through familiar streets. They were both running away from their armed assailants before they were killed. Both killings set off a wave of pain and mourning online as people try to raise awareness about their deaths and the grisly details break their hearts.
In both instances, it took this kind of public outcry to pressure local officials into making an arrest. It took a lot of publicity, including activists creating an online petition calling for his arrest, before Zimmerman was charged and taken into custody in April 2012. Then, he submitted himself to police on June 3 that year, after being released on bond. Martin and Arbery were killed in neighborhoods they frequented or lived in. Neither of them were strangers there. Yet, because of the color of their skin, armed assailants deemed them criminal, dangerous, and out of place. And, when they were killed, the officials meant to bring their killers to justice at first did nothing. No arrests. No big press releases. No disruptions to the status quo.
That's what happens in a racist society that sees the killings of Black people as par for the course.
Unfortunately, as these killings persist, many white Americans remain silent. Rather than engaging in behaviors that disrupt the anti-Blackness facing Black Americans seemingly continuously mourning the loss of Black lives, they disengage from "race-related" issues altogether.
It was freedom fighter Angela Y. Davis who said, "In a racist society it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist." And, there are important differences between non-racism and anti-racism. To be non-racist is to simply abstain from participation in racist beliefs or actions. It is the decision not to participate in racist ideas about others. That's it. It has no social component. No manifestation within one's social networks. It's a laissez-faire political attitude on race that might prevent further harm, but does nothing to repair existing damage.
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To be anti-racist is to actively work toward the eradication of racism wherever it exists. Anti-racism requires intention and disruption. Anti-racist work is not done quietly nor is it performed only once. Anti-racist work is more than Facebook posts and Twitter threads. Being anti-racist is about putting one's self at personal risk so that the risk for Black people is reduced.
Being anti-racist frequently requires discomfort. While a non-racist person might be uncomfortable at a family dinner where racist invective is being spewed, an anti-racist person has to embrace the discomfort of standing up to racist family members. Those of us targeted by racism today already live uncomfortable lives, and I don't see enough comfort in a society that simply stops being racist unless it also destroys its racist elements.
In a truly anti-racist society, Trayvon and Arbery would still be here. But, even in the society we live in, it shouldn't take mass outcry from Black organizers and activists around the globe to force investigators to pursue their killers. Instead, white Americans should invest their time in concrete ways to fight racism every day so that these killings are no longer the norm.
First, white people have to name racism when it happens. On May 8, Taylor Swift tweeted, "I'm absolutely devastated and horrified by the senseless, cold blooded, racially motivated killing of Ahmaud Arbery. #JusticeForAhmaud." While perhaps well-intentioned, Swift's tweet commits one of the hallmark mistakes of failing to be anti-racist. The killing of Arbery was not "racially motivated." Nor was it, as people so often refer to such incidents, race-related, racial, racially tinged, or race-adjacent. It was racist.
Arbery's killing was another example of how our society upholds anti-Blackness and white supremacy. By continuing to substitute in watered-down language for the words "racist," and "racism," many white Americans only lessen accountability on those people who harm Black Americans. In the process, they also put the burden on Black people to do the work of identifying racism when it happens.
Second, white people have to actually take measurable actions toward building Black futures and fighting against systemic racism. Listen to, support, and fund organizations that have long identified policing and mass incarceration as threats to Black life. A good example is National Bail Out, a Black-led abolitionist organization dedicated to ending mass incarceration. Another example is Black Youth Project 100, a chapter-based national organization working toward the liberation of all Black people.
White people should also help pass policy to defund police organizations and reroute those dollars toward initiatives that directly sustain Black life. For example, anti-racist organizers in Seattle helped to redirect funds from police toward education and affordable housing in 2017. These are just a few ways to engage in anti-racist work.
Being non-racist will not change anything. In fact, it will only make matters worse. On the other hand, being anti-racist can save Black lives and build Black futures. And, there's no better time to truly commit to doing anti-racist work than now.
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