Am I an Antiracist

AM I AN ANTI-RACIST?

BY: ANONYMOUS

Black Lives Matter protestors along Pennsylvania Avenue. Photo courtesy of NBC News.

Ialways thought I was doing enough. I never made racist comments. I always called out offensive jokes. I was always more than happy to say that “I’m antiracist.” And to an extent, I guess I was. Yet somehow, despite all the things I’d preach about needing to “call out racism,” a Black man being murdered “all the way” in Minnesota, just seemed out of my jurisdiction. What was I supposed to do? How was I supposed to feel? I felt so far removed from the situation that I grew complacent in my efforts to truly be anti-racist. The first time the name George Floyd was ever discussed with my friends was when it came to looting and rioting. No one, not even I, had bothered to bring it up previously, all in the name of “avoiding politics” and avoiding handling things “out of my control.” As our conversation honed in on the stores being trashed over the vile police brutality, something clicked: I had to do something about this; I couldn’t just let us continue to completely disregard the terrible flaws in our justice system, no matter how far removed I felt. It was a very deep and sudden realization that even if things felt beyond me, I needed to shoulder some responsibility and be anti-racist in all aspects, not just when racism stares me right in the face in the form of a blatant comment or joke. No matter how far or how extreme, as long as racism exists you have to fight it. Being truly anti-racist is a life-long battle against many different forms of bigotry or microaggressions, and it isn’t enough to simply “not be racist.”