It’s been far too long since I’ve posted about white privilege and racism.
But last week a content creator I follow, chatted with on Instagram over the past few years and have come to care about, shared in their stories about racial abuse their suffered on one of their boosted posts.
This is not OK.
I always struggle to know what to say, how to say and when to say anything about racism. As a white western, middle class woman, I’m privileged beyond almost every demographic.
Having written a book about breastfeeding and now predominantly working in the climate space, two areas in which people can have very strong feelings and opinions, I have had my fair share of online attacks, some leaving me in uncontrollable, gulpy tears, with my whole body shaking. But I have never had any attacks made on me about my skin colour. And it’s almost certain I never will.
As white people we need to recognise that however hard our lives might be at any one time, our skin colour doesn’t add an additional layer of struggle, hurt or discrimination. This is what is meant by our white privilege.
Not only did this content creator (and her children) have to suffer this horrific and traumatic racism, but then she had the additional labour (both time and emotional) of educating us on the ways in which this abuse could have and should have been prevented. She shouldn’t have to do this. No-one should.
There are easy to use tools already in place that brands can use, even retro-actively to protect content creators on boosted posts. Some of the tools Ola highlighted that already exist and should already be being used:
- Custom blocklists: Slurs, hate speech, racist terms, brands have these lists already
- Comment moderation settings for boosted ads
- Keyword filters, advanced filters, strong profanity filters
- Audience refinement: Excluding high-risk demographics, extremist interests, political audiences, and cheap-reach troll pockets
- Meta's brand safety & suitability controls: Inventory filters, content exclusions, publisher block lists, used for brand ads, rarely used for creator ads
The automatic, understandable reaction is to say to the racism her family experienced: “that’s so shocking, how awful, I can’t believe people say things like that, I’m sorry that that’s happened to you” and yes, none of it is OK.
But, especially as a white person, simply saying we’re sorry and doing nothing else is such a hollow gesture and may add (unintentionally) to the trauma already experienced. And being shocked highlights just how much we don’t understand the day to day lived experience of Black, Asian or minority ethnic people.
Most (almost all) of us want true equality. But I feel that before we can successfully do this, we need to admit to ourselves what Black, Asian and global majority people have known, experience daily and tell us again and again, that white privilege and racism are sadly very real.
In her book ‘White Fragility’ Robin DiAngelo reminds us that racism isn’t simply restricted to bigotry and hate crimes. It pervades through every facet of our lives. It has shaped our history, our institutions and it shapes our experiences of every day. white people often feel defensive about the term racism, but how can we not be racist when it’s the world in which we grew up?
Uju Asika writes: “The spoken-word poet Guante famously described white supremacy as the water, not the shark. In other words, it’s not just the skinhead with swastika tattoos or the men in the hoods burning crosses on a front lawn. It’s the environment that surrounds us, that we bathe in, drink and even pee in. It affects everybody in one way or another. Yet, like water, it can appear neutral, transparent. Almost as if it’s not there.”
We must unlearn our upbringing (however liberal); and relearn the lived reality of our Black, Asian and global majority friends, family, neighbours and colleagues. We must get out of our comfort zones and try to become better allies. We need to weave protection and safeguarding into our everyday lives, interactions and work practices.
In Ola’s own words:
“If only white creators get to be boosted safely that isn’t inclusion. That’s segregation. Representation should never require trauma. Safeguarding is your responsibility.
Black creators have been navigating this privately for years, bracing ourselves every time a campaign gets boosted, preparing for the racism we know is coming but this conversation needs to be public now.”
I don’t have a neat, succinct round-up, conclusion. I don’t have an answer of everything we should and could be doing. But I know it shouldn’t be nothing. So, I’m reading, listening, learning, trying to strike the balance of speaking up, shutting up and amplifying, continuing to broaden my social circles both online and in person. And just keep trying to be better, and create a better, safer world.
Elena x
Some extra thoughts for us to digest, reflect on, and then embed into how we engage with the world...
Plus a non-comprenhensive incomplete list of books and films to help with the (un)learning...
