Thoughts while reading some discussions about racism

Antiracism: Not for the faint of heart

I see some discussion here about the hazards of working with white allies. This is very unfamiliar territory to me. I have a vague idea of what that means, but if it's what I'm imagining, then I have very little experience with it. As far as I know I've never been involved in the kinds of activism that use white allies. That isn't at all what I've ever tried to be or wanted to be, and even if I did, I wouldn't know where to start.

I have seen firsthand some of the things I see people complaining about here, in myself and in others.

I keep thinking of Angela Davis's book Women, Race and Class.

As I see it, no amount of discussion, by itself, can bring someone who doesn't live under a non-white race label, to see what people are up against who do, and how people living under a white label benefit from that and help perpetuate it. I don't see that awakening happening without certain kinds of experiences.

I can see how tempting it might be to just exclude "white people" altogether from collective efforts to end oppression and/or counteract its effects. I can see that it might even be a good idea, some of the time, in some circumstances. It might not be possible for anyone living under a white label to avoid ruining everything if we're allowed to go wherever we want to, whenever we want to. I imagine it would needlessly impede progress to exclude all of us altogether, all the time, from what other people are doing.

Now I'm thinking of Davis's book again, and Sojourner Truth's "Ain't I a woman?" speech.