Antiracism 101: So, You Just Found Our You're Racist-Day 14

Not All...

“white people are the worst. Every one of them voted for Trump, and will again this next election,” writes a frustrated Black Twitter user, who has experienced racism their whole life and stands to lose a lot more by a second Trump presidency than any white person will lose. What is our automatic response to this tweet when we see it? “I didn’t vote for Trump, I hate him! Not all white people are Trump voters, please don’t lump us all together…” Please, please, please, we have to move on from doing this. There are only two reasons we might do this, but they both result in the same thing. We do this either to assure the person who made a blanket statement that what they said is not the case, so they don’t need to feel upset anymore. Or, we say it to distance ourselves from the guilty ones. The result, either way, is white people further demanding our individuality, which as we have already discussed, is actually reinforcing white supremacy. It is active racism, and even if that is not our intent, it is the impact.

If a blanket statement does not apply to you, feel free to just move on from it without replying. Not all conversations need to include us.

“Not all” responses never come across as reassuring. They come across as demanding an exception. As if the person who made the blanket statement should respond with, “But not you, Jimmy/Belinda, you’re awesome. You’re one of the good ones.”

This is what I always tell people when I see a “not all” response: Make your actions your “not all.” Vote your not all. Love your not all. Protest your not all. Support Black businesses your not all. Show, don’t tell.

It’s a kneejerk response, and it will take being conscious about it to train yourself not to do it anymore, but it’s worth it. And while you’re at it, maybe take a moment to think why that person made a statement the way they did. Even if not all white people do something, enough of us do. Not all white people, but any white person, which is why we need to work on ourselves and each other.