5 Things White People Should Stop Saying Right Now

I'm a Black woman in Minneapolis and these phrases aren't helping

I am a Black woman who has lived in Minneapolis for about 9 years, and have been visiting family here for over 20 years. I’m also what I call ‘professionally Black”, meaning I study race and gender, and have worked in DEI for over a decade. As we approach nearly 60 days of the ICE occupation of the Twin Cities (AKA Operation Metro Surge), I have grown weary of hearing several phrases. Granted, I heard these things well before the siege, and have corrected people, but it just doesn’t seem to be getting through. Right now, as I navigate constant danger and support my community, these particular phrases have become even more egregious.

1. Any version of “this isn’t America” or “this isn’t who we are”. Babe. Take my hand. The country we now call the US was home to millions of Native people for perhaps thousands of years prior to colonization. While there are still plenty of Natives in the US, they have very little land and power in their own indigenous homeland. My ancestors and millions of others were kidnapped and brought here in chains. They were beaten, raped, and robbed of their identities and labor in order to create wealth for generations of colonizers. Both Native and Black people in this country continue to experience daily violence via the US government. That is to say nothing of the ongoing violence we inflict on other countries including but certainly not limited to Palestine, Cuba, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, etc. What we are experiencing right now might be called the imperial boomerang. This is absolutely America, this is what America does, and what many of its citizens have voted for. From the first moment Europeans landed here, violence and subjugation has been core to the American project. Let’s be honest about this country, its history, and its commitment to advancing violence everywhere.

2. “We are all immigrants” or “this nation was built by immigrants”. See above! Please stop erasing Black Americans and Native people. We either were already here or were forced to come to this land. Indigenous have tended to the land, water, and wildlife for generations, and Black people built many of the structures and our labor built the economy. Puerto Ricans, as citizens, are also not immigrants. It is deeply offensive. If your family had agency in their choice to be here, there is no shame. But that isn’t all of our story.

3. Any version of “ICE needs better training”. Jonathan Ross, who killed Renee Good, was a ten year vet of ICE and a firearms instructor. Charles Exum, who shot Miramar Martinez: a Border Patrol supervisor with 23 years service. The two federal immigration agents who murdered Alex Pretti, Jesus Ochoa and Raymundo Gutierrez joined their teams in 2014 and 2018 respectively. .Although the 47 days of training agents are currently getting is a joke, this isn’t an issue of needing more training of rules, since they are not abiding by (legal or moral) laws anyway. The entire concept is White supremacist, and needs to be abolished.

4. Calling for unity and peace, but not for justice. Just stop. People have a reason and a right to be angry, to protest, and to demand justice from their governments. You don’t get to police people’s feelings about seeing their neighbors be kidnapped, abused, and killed.

5. Focusing on “civil discourse”. Universities love this. Again, this is an issue of tone policing after people have watched their neighbors be murdered and their rights be trampled on. In comedy, there is a basic rule that says to “punch up, not down”. They are saying that the comedian, as a working class person, should be on the side of the powerless, the oppressed, the disenfranchised. The same rule applies here. You (yes you!) are working class and therefore vulnerable to the whims of the government/billionaire class. Speaking in soft tones and using polite language will not get us any closer to liberation. Instead of asking the marginalized to be “civil” while they are murdered, demand the powerful to treat the rest of us like humans. Additionally, let’s be honest, conversations over Earl Gray will not get help us get free. As Assata Shakur told us “nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.”

I know that people like to believe that their intent is what matters when it comes to words but it is actually impact that is important. Consider how these simple phrases may indicate your allegiance to White power and hegemony. Consider how they may (continue to) drive wedges between White and non-White communities. Consider how solidarity is so critical, yet so fragile. Consider your relationship to power and how marginalized people may already have some level of distrust because of that. We will win, but we will do so when we honor the breadth of each others’ identities and experiences.