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Writing For Change
A Black Renaissance Will Require Anti-Racist and Pro-Black Writing
Everyone has a role to play
When Ibram X. Kendi released How to Be an Antiracist, he set fire to white fragility. While many white people clutched their pearls, some welcomed a guide to antiracism. Historically, allies have often found themselves on the outside looking in of Black Liberation movements. Kendi’s book offered white people a theoretical lane in the movement towards racial equity. Angela Davis once said, “In a racist society, it is not enough to be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.”
While antiracism writing provides white people a path out of their sunken space, this ideology is only one-half of our equity Venn Diagram. So let’s explore the other side. Pro-Black writing focuses on exposing injustices and empowers the Black community.
Recent attention on the Tulsa Race Massacre shows that white Americans have historically considered Black power a threat. This is ironic since Black Greenwood residents hurt no one by creating churches, schools, or a movie theatre. Antiracist white people need to get comfortable with the Black power movement and learn why it is fundamentally different from the white power movement.
