PROVE IT!
The Acts arent Facts… do Policies even work? There at those of our racialized groups that feel most of the time that either they put up with the probable implication or inference of bias or they have to hope that there may be an explicit opportunity for them to be aggressed so they can prove it!
THE BURDEN OF PROOF
Clearly, the burden of proof is on the aggressed without plausibility. Who has time for this one racialized person or the other ‘one racialized person’? Where are the allies now, when they weren’t there to witness the more than uneasy exchange. In an environment when one may be at work or at a social event perhaps with family and/or acquaintances. At a social event, someone overhearing or passing by the moment assures you that ‘they’ didn’t mean it like that, or you misunderstood…come on lighten up?!? You now feel like a lite weight, you’ve lightened up soooo..much in your life. Where are the allies now? … Well, they have lives too and sometimes it seems, that amongst those that really care, there are very few that have the time to police the tentacles and intersections of implicit and explicit racial bias.
WILL THE REAL ALLIES PLEASE STAND UP
In 1965 Reverend James Reeb finished the march from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. Martin Luther King. After the March he went to have dinner, and when he left the restaurant he was murdered by white segregationists. He was bludgeoned to death. Three white men were tried for Reeb’s murder but were acquitted…set free. Dr. James Reeb was a white man. He never professed a deep unwavering commitment to the plight of black people. However, he marched at the cost of his own life. He didn’t answer the call of ally or held a Facebook group to tout the cause. He just knew that the discrimination and dehumanization of these people was wrong….TRIBUTE!
CAN I OFFER YOU A GLASS OF IMPLICIT RACIAL BIAS WITH A HINT OF EXPLICIT …???