Why YOU should make white people Uncomfortable (Anti-Racist Rituals)

(pssst. This article is aimed at the melanated population, but everyone should read)

I think several times a year, once a month at least, you should do something that makes white people uncomfortable.

No, the focus of this activity isn’t really about antagonizing white people.

The point is to intentionally reject non-black perceptions on black bodies and black joy, and to do things your ancestors either couldn’t or wouldn’t due to the potential negative consequences from racist white folks.

At its simplest, Culture is just a mix of collective traditions and preferences.

So some of the things we in the black diaspora call “white people shit” is either just stuff your parents were told not to do by your grandparents, who were fighting Segregation, or stuff they never saw black people do, because we were gate-kept from those experiences. There were simple pleasures they missed out on in life only because it would have affected the comfort of white people- which historically would have been a very, very, bad decision.

Today as we fight against material and systemic injustices, it’s important on a personal level to reclaim these joys for ourselves. If we don’t, non-black people will continue to perpetuate false reasons for our low participation in activities like the oh-so-tired: “Black people can’t swim.”

When the truth is we were not allowed in most public swimming pools, so fewer of us could pass down the knowledge and experience of enjoying the sport, keeping swimming from being a larger part of our culture. 

For me, reclamation has been walking in the majority white neighborhoods near my house.

At first, I was on high alert.

I was wary of every porch light.

Looking over my shoulder at every car.

If I saw a person walking my way on the sidewalk a block ahead, I’d cross the street.

But as I walked, and did so regularly, the fear that I had faded, and I began to thoroughly enjoy looking at the beauty of the houses and the neighborhood. 

Moreover, I began to have a transformative boldness.

No matter how skittish the white woman jogging towards me was, I simply held my pace, kept my smile, and sometimes even ventured a friendly “How you doing?”

To break down barriers and our personal fears, We need black people in spaces where we haven’t been.

And the crazy thing is, white people need to see this too!

The “learned discomfort” some of them have is literally just low proximity to non-white people. 

The same way systemic racism has impacted black traditions, white flight and monolithic “bubble” communities have affected white people’s culture.

This is why doing something so simple  like walking in a neighborhood can have both personal and far reaching effects to reconcile our communities.

If you want to break generational curses, start being uncomfortable, and start being okay with making people uncomfortable.

Nothing ever changes by staying the same.