Amandla Stenberg Instagram – I feel heavy like lead today, and I must admit that I carry a certain guilt around the exhaustion I feel. I want to be energized and engaged but there’s a certain fatigue that manifests from doing the same thing over and over again and receiving the same results. My resolve becomes fragile and more susceptible to hopelessness. However, in scrolling through my feed it’s invigorating to see this conversation take a different turn and see that what’s being centered is how imperative it is for white people to be real allies. I’m feeling pretty exhausted by white people who are not willing to do real self evaluative work. I notice there’s a tendency for white people to differentiate themselves from “racists” as if racism is something you unequivocally do or don’t participate in when in reality it’s a structure and spectrum that we all exist within. To be an ally in my eyes requires active participation in recognizing the systems that dictate our reality, unlearning internalized notions and then devoting yourself to active counterbalancing to the anti black systems in place. Educating yourself without expectation from people of color to provide those resources for you is a foundational and basic step- implementing that education is step two of hopefully a lifelong quest. What is the work you do to mediate your privilege? This work applies to white people and to anybody who benefits from the anti black status quo, including myself. What active work are we doing to counter anti-blackness on a day to day basis? Interpersonally? What personal reparations are you choosing to pay? It frustrates me that this concept even gets interpreted by white people as radical. Often times I’ve noticed that when white people are challenged to evaluate if their way of being accommodates the history of racism they feel it’s not “fair.” How can you look at this timeline and not recognize that the implications of slavery are real and present? We are facing the repercussions of hundreds of years of global anti-blackness. How can you witness the concrete evidence of that anti-blackness every time a black person is killed by a white police officer and not see how (continued in comments)