There are two videos that recently helped shake me out of my complacency about race in America; they illustrate two different approaches to awareness. Both are from talented writers and creators. Only one is voiced by Bob the Tomato but we’ll get to that in a sec.
Anyone interested in learning about racism should watch them. I know, I know, the first one is 17 minutes long. You can handle it, I promise.
These videos were important to me for their contrast. Phil Vischer (creator of Veggie Tales, that’s the voice!) sits at his office desk and has put hours of research and graphic design into the information he wants to present to white people who may not know these basic facts about Black history.
Author and activist Kimberly Jones, on the other hand, was working with a filmmaker friend in Atlanta during the initial George Floyd protests when her friend asked for an impromptu personal reflection on what she was seeing and feeling.
We need the comfortable, earnest, calm Phil Vischers in this world to present the facts to his fellow white people. But eventually we’ve got to be willing to sit with Kimberly Jones in her grief. It’s so uncomfortable. She’s given us the gift of her unfiltered, unedited response to current tragedy, to a legacy of tragedy and terror that is personally hers. Kimberly and her people own the moment right now; we must listen.
Phil wants you to care. Kimberly wants you to understand.
Both want you to act.
But you can’t act until you learn. So find a book, podcast, or video series and sit with it (more suggestions coming next post.) You may weep, you may feel devastated; but you won’t be sorry you gave it your time.
As James Baldwin says: Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.
Resources:
Reflect – How did you feel during and after Phil’s video? Kimberly’s? What do you assume about Phil from his video – that he’s educated, wealthy, an authority on his subject? Did Kimberly’s video bring up any biased thoughts for you? Did you judge her as hysterical, rage-y, unpolished…? I am ashamed to admit that I did, in the first few minutes of this video. If so, look for more of these reactions to Black people in your daily life.
Listen – Kimberly Jones discusses the idea in her video that Black people want basic equality, not an advantage, with Trevor Noah on The Daily Social Distancing Show
Learn – The Seeing White podcast by Scene on Radio explores how whiteness was created, law by law, step by step, by light skinned people who founded the American nation. Law, history, science, personal narratives and conversations – this panoramic show was the first major step I took in educating myself about the history of race and whiteness. “The innovations that built American slavery are inseparable from the construction of Whiteness as we know it today.” – Episode 3, Made in America
Houses image credit: Phil Vischer via YouTube
Read more in this series: Good White People
