“If we want white supremacy to be over, white people would have to give up the power/privilege.”
In the wake of the recent deaths of Terrence Crutcher and Keith Lamont Scott at the hands of police, RnB singer Kelela has taken to Instagram to air her views on how non-POC should position themselves in order to help dismantle engrained racism and white privilege. “Tired of white people telling me what I should and shouldn’t feel.” She begins. “People who are not black need to be listening (not talking or making suggestions) right now.” She goes on to suggest that white people can be supportive of black issues in other ways, for example, by asking their close black friends how they can help, researching white privilege and by using their inherited experiences of whiteness to start discourse with other white people.
Later Kelela lays out the notion of white privilege in simple terms saying, “Giving your opinion at the onset of a conversation with a black person is rooted in the notion that we (black folks) aren’t able to analyze and deconstruct our realities – that we haven’t thought long and hard about how to address racism.” And ends by stating that white people will need to relinquish their inherent privilege before they can be a part of the change, “If we want white supremacy to be over, white people would have to give up the power/privilege.” She writes, “We’re gonna have a hard time being friends if you’re not willing to use and then relinquish the benefits you’ve inherited.”
See Kelela’s Instagram posts in full below.
