Things That Make White People Uncomfortable

by Michael Bennett

At this point, I think if you’re being silent, you’re making a choice and taking a side.

Just because people don’t eat what you eat, just because they’re not from where you’re from, just because they don’t pray to the same god you pray to, just because they don’t love who you love doesn’t mean they should be treated like they are less than human.

There’s an expression, “A horse by committee is a hippopotamus,” but I thought we ended up with a pretty cool hippopotamus.

The vets said they understood all that; they just wished we didn’t disrespect the flag. I told them we did not disrespect the flag—we’re trying to honor what the flag is supposed to represent.

I hear people say, “I’m an Aggie!” or “I’m a Georgia Bulldog.” Fine, but are you still a Bulldog when it comes to the lives of the people under the helmet? Are you a Bulldog when the teenagers you cheered for don’t make it in the pros? When they’re running through glass just to feel alive?

Also, fuck Gronkowski.

last year, when the former mayor of New Orleans, a white dude, announced he was going to tear down the statues of slave catchers and racists. He was brave enough to say, “I’m not going to have monuments that are a slap in the face to two-thirds of the city’s population.”

Maybe we are so divided by tribe that we’re taught that caring for someone outside our assigned category is the ultimate sin, yet I would argue that it’s the ultimate expression of being part of the human family. You grow and come to understand that there’s so much more to this world than just your bubble. You learn that we can’t organize along the same lines that keep us divided.

marked. I think we get attacked for standing up for others precisely because doing so opens an avenue for change, and change threatens the status quo and those in positions of power.

Central to this intersectional practice is collaboration. Collaboration is how a message has the potential to catch on like wildfire. You can’t build the Statue of Liberty by yourself. You need legions of people who want to build it with you. You need sisters and brothers willing to carry the bricks and the cement. You need everyone to offer up their special skills. You have to ask, “Do we all believe in this goal? If so, then who knows how to design? Who knows how to hammer? Who knows how to spread the word?”