Just want to redirect all the compliments this morning about the radio show appearance – it is a huge honor and part of my life’s calling to be a white voice for black liberation. It is also ALWAYS my honor to have a bunch of beautiful black brothers and sisters who correct me when I’m wrong or misunderstand something and teach me out of love. It is because of all of these family and those lessons that I am at all effective in this work.
A lot of white folks approach me as though allyship is some kind of superpower, and I’m here to tell you it’s not. I grew up just as privileged around just as many problematic, racist white folks (including some in my own family). I have been very blessed to be welcomed into spaces of all cultures. I work to be love when I am in these spaces so that when I do inevitably misstep on some white privilege it is my action that is questioned and not my intention.
I have failed a lot. I have been called out. I still get called out. Constantly. In fact I got called out last week at an action because I did some thoughtless straight, white, male shit in a black space. There is no magic dance you do that makes you into the perfect ally, and creator knows I’m far from it. The key as I have found it is to remove the ego and channel love.
While I am glad I inspire you, please take me off of any pedestal as I still have as much or more to learn about allyship in action than anyone white in America. And please stop asking me about what the next steps are or talking to me about strategy. I will continue to tell you the same thing every time. The movement locally is in the some of the most loving, revolutionary hands I’ve ever seen. I’m trying to shut up and listen to our city’s incredible black leadership and so should you.
Black Lives Matter Sacramento.
Hella love. And hella thanks to all the people who have taken time, invested energy, loved me, and taught me what I know.
#BlackLivesMatter
#BlackLivesInspire
#BlackLivesBeautify
#BlackLivesTeach
—andru defeye
Flommist Andru Defeye is the Guerrilla Poet Laureate of Sacramento. Copyright © 2018 Andru Defeye. Top photo by Cody Drabble/Capital Public Radio; march photo by Jackson Brandan.
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