10 Ways To Undermine Your Solidarity Efforts As A Non-Black Person Of Color

Are you a non-black person of color (NBPOC) looking to show solidarity with your black brothers and sisters? Maybe you've been attending #BlackLivesMatter protests. Maybe you're supporting the movement in other ways. Or, maybe you're an organizer looking to put together an event on anti-blackness in your community. If you're a NBPOC organizing events on anti-blackness and/or racism, here are some ways you might be undermining your solidarity efforts.

1. Your framing of the event is problematic

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Don't start out on the wrong foot by framing your event problematically. Make sure the title, description, and promotional imagery don't actually end up inadvertently strengthening anti-black narratives.

Don't:

Use exclusionary language (ex. listing out ethnic groups and leaving out African/Black)

Create false binaries (ex. "Black" OR "Muslim")

Use visuals without attribution

Use verbs that suggest you're "solving" the problem

Do:

Label the event as an exercise in challenging anti-blackness

State your intentions in the description

Solicit feedback on the title, images, and description

2. You don't cite your sources

fixedandfrailing / Via Flickr: 11435686@N03

Who created the hashtags you want to discuss? Are you quoting statements or using pictures without attribution? If you're going to build off the thought of those already involved in the movement, make sure you're not erasing their work. Include references or links to more reading so that people can go directly to the source.

3. Your event is structured to let people engage in navel-gazing

Jacob Bøtter / Via Flickr: jakecaptive

na·vel-gaz·ing (noun); self-indulgent or excessive contemplation of oneself or a single issue, at the expense of a wider view.

If you're hosting a conversation on colorism in your community, have you planned out how you will be discussing anti-blackness and racism too? If not, your participants will be discussing their relationship to the issue without contextualizing it in the broader framework.

4. Your event centers NBPOC

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Who is affected more directly by the acts that you're discussing? If the entire event consists of NBPOC tying things back to their feelings, their viewpoints, or their grievances, then you should reframe what your event is about.

No one's denying the need for NBPOC to have spaces for these kinds of activities. But maybe don't make a "challenging anti-blackness event" the forum for it? At the very least, designate a set time period for this activity and then schedule another to discuss the bigger picture and action steps.

5. You don't reach out to Black allies - in planning, at the event, or in reference

Mai Le / Via Flickr: maile

So you've decided to throw this great chai talk for South Asian activists. Have you consulted with any Black activists as to what topics they feel need to be addressed? Whose writings/thoughts are you taking your cues from? If Black friends were to come to the event, does the way you've structured your event result in an endless stream of microaggressions toward them?

Why aren't any Black individuals involved?

6. You haven't worked on your network

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If 'no one was available' to consult or attend your event, you need to step back and assess whether you've spent enough time creating meaningful connections with people in your community.

You should at least know someone who knows someone. Exercise due diligence.

7. The speakers talk on behalf of Black speakers, thinkers, and activists

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Holding anti-blackness workshops should not be a NBPOC's shortcut to appearing progressive or radical.

Don't bring in NBPOC speakers who:

Only recap what Black individuals have said

"Sum up" what they think are the most important points, while dismissing key topics

Speak on behalf of individuals who can very well speak for themselves

Do have organizers who:

Provide links to the existing work out there

Amplify the voices of those individuals your community shuts out

Use toolkits/guides prepared for these types of discussions

Invite people who are experts

Add something to the discussion to make it hit home

8. There's no action step section

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If your entire event is people one-upping each other as to "who has witnessed the most anti-black behavior the most often" without devoting any time to discussing how to challenge these actions, your participants are leaving without the skills necessary to make a change.

Being able to list off the multiple ways your community is anti-black without concrete action steps to counter anti-blackness is not helpful.

Develop strategies and methods for participants to counter racism and anti-blackness where they witness it. Discuss how best to confront and correct themselves and others. List out areas where people can do more to help support meaningful causes.

9. You can't name at least a dozen contemporary Black thought leaders

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Do you read the writings or follow the work of any Black intellectuals, leaders, and/or activists? Do you have trouble naming even a half dozen Black men or women that have shaped your thoughts on the world?

Are all of the people you look to for your knowledge on anti-blackness deceased?

If so, you need to work on learning first and speaking to your community second, lest you make a bad thing worse.

10. You alienate the Black people closest to you

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You've invited some Black activists, friends, and colleagues to your event. You're sharing the event on your social networks. If people start offering constructive or 'negative' feedback to you - whether in public or private - and your response is defensive, hostile, self-centered, or focused on tone-policing, you need to check yourself.

If you're committed to challenging anti-blackness, work first on being a good friend and ally to the Black people in your life, not on your loyalty to some abstract idea of Black-Arab, Black-Desi, Black-Latino, etc. solidarity.