It is clear that witness is racialized, and black witness, as it was in slavery, is never seen as legitimate. Black witness is always perceived as unjustified rage. Blackness has no victims in white eyes and therefore has no right to bear witness to whiteness at all. Bearing witness to racial injustice is always perceived as a direct threat to white supremacy and is therefore an act of hostility that must be neutralized. One of BLM’s greatest contributions is to bear witness to the trauma black folk endure but that is often rendered invisible.
