This video is intended for people of color who are not Black. A few days ago I posted a video about
anti-Black racism and allyship and I've heard back from a number of you about the point that I
touched on as it relates to having people of color who are not Black step up more in this moment to
help interrupt anti-Black racism. And in this video - because I've heard from so many of you
about this - I want to dig deeper on this concept. So and I share this with you as someone who
self-identifies as being Brown as a South Asian person and as a Punjabi person in particular who
lives in Canada so as a Punjabi Canadian. So first of all let me start off by defining what is white
supremacy so that we all have an understanding of it and we're not lost in confusion. White
supremacy is not entirely about the KKK and white hoods and white supremacists as we know
it to be based on the media - although that is important too. White supremacy is the ideology
or the belief that white people and whiteness is better - more deserving, more belonging,
more competent, - insert whatever other positive adjectives you can - than belonging to a community
that is of color or indigenous. And white supremacy not only lives in systems, structures,
practices, procedures that manifest across all echelons of our society but white supremacy also
lives actually in our minds and in our bodies. We actually hold the belief all of us globally
that white people are better than people of color and indigenous people. And one of the byproducts
or manifestations of white supremacy that is so important in this moment is that it's not just
white people who hold this belief but we too as people of color and indigenous people have come
to believe and hold this ideology in our minds and bodies. And one of the reasons why this is so
troubling is because it serves white supremacy to have us as people of color and indigenous people
believe that white people are better because it ends up upholding the system and structures and
more practices of white supremacy. As long as we too believe it we are able to uphold this belief
and ideology. Now why is this message important in this moment? Because in our efforts to combat to
disrupt dismantle anti-Black racism we need people of color who are not Black to identify and accept
that we too engage in racism directed towards Black people. That in fact for many communities
of color that are not Black, anti-Black racism is alive and well. It's not just happening in
white communities. We know that white people engage in white supremacy, this is true. But
for so many people of color who are not Black I often will hear, "Well I'm not racist because I'm
Brown" or "I'm not racist because I'm a person of color" and it's like that is not true. As I just
mentioned we too have internalized the belief that color people are not as worthy as white people but
not just that in our global society because of white supremacy there is a racial ethnocultural
hierarchy or ladder where it's stratifies people tied back to race and ethnoculture and it is a
globally held belief that Black people and indigenous peoples are at the bottom of this
racial ethnocultural hierarchy which means that as people of color who come from communities where we
are not Black we - based on social stratification - are here and Black people and indigenous people
are down here. And many times when we see intragroup and intergroup racism this is
what it ends up looking like and why in fact it happens. But if we are truly going to disrupt and
dismantle anti-Black racism in this moment it is critical as members of communities of color
that are not Black that we acknowledge this, we recognize this and we work very hard to interrupt
anti-Black racism within our own communities. In fact I've been hearing a little bit about the,
"Well what about the other communities of color that are also experiencing racism? What about anti
Asian racism right now or anti indigenous racism?" and more and I hear you, but this is not the time
for the oppression Olympics. This is the time to put a spotlight on the multiple examples that we
have in our society globally around how white supremacy and racism has a particularly adverse
impact on people who are Black. And in fact on every data point measurement that you can point
to whether it be housing, employment, health care, justice and more we know that people who
are Black have experienced disproportionately adverse impacts. And so in this moment more now
than ever before I call upon you those of you who come from communities of color that are not Black
to step up to use your voice to use your power and privilege to interrupt anti-Black racism.
We cannot continue to rely on people from Black communities to do the very hard work of
combatting white supremacy and racism and then sit back allow the hard work to take place and
then be the ones who benefit from the hard work and efforts because that is exactly what happens
when we for example from South Asian communities sit silently by and watch our Black brothers and
sisters step up and do the hard work of fighting racism and we do not join them. We allow them to
do the hard work and because of white supremacy racism and colorism we then benefit from their
efforts and they don't. That has to stop. So I call upon you to use your voice your power
your privilege and so much more your allyship to step up in this moment because we must do this.