We are privileged because the racism that our country was built on has made us believe that white skin is superior. We did not ask to be born white. However, our black brothers and sisters did not ask to be killed. White privilege means that as a white person I do not need to feel threatened by anyone because of my skin. This privilege does not discredit any of our own problems and struggles. But these problems are not because of our skin.
A co-conspirator is someone who fights against a system that helps them in order to fight for justice. With white skin, it puts us at an advantage against others in the world. It may seem nice, almost helpful, but it creates social injustice. As co-conspirators, we must fight against the corrupt system our country is in order to dismantle the injustices that plague it. This fight against racism is not simple. It does not end with a repost on Instagram. It does not end with this protest. It does not end until our country no longer stands on the racist history that our ancestors created.
To the white people of Verona, we cannot let our skin color divide us. We cannot pretend that just because we are white, we are not affected by what is going on. We must accept that we will never understand what it is like to be a target.
Instead of letting our differences divide us, we must accept them. We must see color. Black, lesbian feminist Audre Lorde said in her piece titled “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle,” that we cannot ignore color.
“Advocating the mere tolerance of difference between women is the grossest reformism. It is a total denial of the creative function of difference in our lives. Difference must be not merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic. Only then does the necessity for interdependency become unthreatening. Only within that interdependency of different strengths, acknowledged and equal, can the power to seek new ways of being in the world generate, as well as the courage and sustenance to act where there are no charters.”
We must acknowledge the history that comes with our race. The culture that comes with black skin and respect it. It is dire for us to become one in order to end the racist supreme that controls our country. But in order to be one, we must embrace the differences that create us and stop condemning people.
We cannot rely on the individuals who face racism to teach us how to change. We must allow ourselves to learn the history that is left out of school. We must educate ourselves in order to ally ourselves with our black community. An attack against one is an attack against all.
Julia DiGeronimo was one of the organizers of the Rally for Justice in Verona on June 13, 2020 that was held in support of Black Lives Matter. She delivered these remarks on the steps of Town Hall.
