Parallels for Parallels by Clara Francesca
Full Article Featured On LinkedIn Account
“Parallels” are on my mind today… Strap in! I’m about to ramble…
There is a lot going on in the world and many will find “parallels” in what is going on, even when the experiences of that individual are not experiences of the other individuals or even remotely close to the collective at large.
The conversation about “intent” versus “impact” has been necessarily present, (especially for the #BlackLivesMatter movement). This (“intent” versus “impact”) alongside “parallels” makes me also consider “acknowledgement” versus “identifying”. I think seeing COVID-19 as a virus as “parallel” to a white person with (unknown or known) racism inside them as a virus IS a useful “parallel”. I think “identifying” as a survivor of trauma as a “parallel” to a Black person surviving racism and/or trauma is NOT a useful parallel; I think that is quite damaging, even cruel, especially when it is often an attempt for the white person to deflect and not to look at their inner “virus”.
I think it is the responsibility of all white people to “acknowledge” racism is a “virus”, and that “we” as white people cannot “identify” with BIPOC’s surviving this “global virus”. “We” should “acknowledge” racism. “We” do not need to “identify” with an experience we can never know, in fact, we shouldn’t “identify” with an experience we will never know, and hopefully if we succeed in the Black Lives Matter Movement, one day ‘in a galaxy far, far away…’ (hopefully not too far away) fewer people will know. “Acknowledging” this does not take anything away from that individual’s personal or communal trauma. This is a “concept” that is understood by most but I’m not sure if that clarity is fully being understood by many of us “whites”.
This “concept” [i.e. to be able to acknowledge that group bigotry exists whilst acknowledging that you are not part of the specific group that the bigots attack (although you might unfortunately be unknowingly or knowingly part of the bigots who attack the specific group)] as a “parallel” can be seen in the (formerly cis and very in favour of white) Women’s Rights Movements. The “parallel” is that… the Women’s Rights movement to fight for anti-sexism and gender equality was not taking away from individual male’s rights nor was it denying that males might also have been violated, but it was important that cis-males acknowledged that they were not part of this group bigotry and there was no way they could ever “identify” with that experience. The Women’s Rights movement was not proposing that men should be “trodden on” because cis-women had been trotted on in the past. Any cis-male who thought that is what was being said, was intentionally misleading and manipulating the movement. As a “parallel”, any white person who thinks that Black Lives Matter is taking away from any non-BIPOC trauma is intentionally misleading and manipulating the movement today. The “parallel” starts and ends with the understanding that if “you are not part of that group the bigots attack” you simply cannot know that experience. I cannot identify with the racism my friends have experienced. Acknowledging this does not take away any of my, or your or white collective groups personal or communities’ past-present-future traumas.
To be clear, that is the extent of the “parallel”. There is NO identification with any other movement to the Black Lives Matter Movement. An extreme example of what I mean by this would be if a cis-woman fighting for equal pay says she identifies with a Holocaust survivor. There is no way she can identify. Acknowledging that she cannot identify does not take her trauma away. But ignoring the impact of her identifying impact IS deeply insulting and dangerous, even cruel to the Holocaust survivor. This “parallel” can be extended… A child of a Holocaust survivour cannot identify with a Black person’s experience in 2020. I can only presume that for a child of a Holocaust survivour to identify with a Black person’s experience with racism in America in 2020 would be as offensive as a cis-woman fighting for equal pay saying she identifies with the ostracising that a Holocaust survivour experienced. Other cis-women might identify with other cis-women, other children of Holocaust surviours might identify with other children of Holocaust surviours, other displaced peoples might identify with other displaced peoples… And I acknowledge there is an element of a slippery slope that could grow from continuing with these “parallels”. But I do stand firmly that (considering the racism to our Black friends has been happening SO badly for SO long, I and other white people cannot identify) the sooner we relinquish our need to having to “one-up” each other on pain, the sooner we can get on with eradicating racism.
Just because we can’t (and shouldn’t) identify with that which we can never know, does not mean we cannot support raising the voices of those who are being attacked by bigots, it does not mean we cannot empathize, reflect, feel, educate, have compassion-for, do better, honour our similarities, champion our differences etc.
A myriad of “parallels” of how whites cannot “identify” with racism (however well-meaning their “intention” is) and why whites should “acknowledge” the impact of their “intentions” can be found in this image:
And a few more “parallels” can be examined here…
The Black Lives Matter Movement is NOT proposing that the trauma whites imposed on BIPOC should be imposed on whites. Plus NO-ONE is taking a white person’s trauma or tough life away from that white person’s narrative. How individuals navigate trauma is a very personal matter. I have had to learn the hard lesson of only being responsible for my own trauma and only being an aid to another healing their trauma if invited to participate. Trauma is a really complicated topic. There might be room to share stories and to learn from each other, there might be room to find similarities in one another but right now there is NO ROOM for white people to claim “identity” in BIPOC’s trauma, and IT IS OKAY if there never be any room for this in the future.
A “parallel” is that a cis-male cannot understand the individual and communal trauma of a cis-female; a white person cannot understand the individual and systemic trauma of our BIPOC neighbors. I feel ridiculous even needing to spell-out this “parallel”. It seems quite insulting that so many white cis-women need a white-feminist analogy to help them come to terms with their inner prejudice and racism when it comes to the Black Lives Matter Movement. But for those reading who might know someone who still doesn’t quite understand, I am hopeful that something in this article of my personal thoughts will resonate with them and afford them an opportunity to take a step in the direction for positive change.
I am imagining that I am watching lightning strike miles away from me in the dark open night sky by the Ocean. The sky is clear where I am but it must be raining miles in the distance for there to be that much of a storm. There are some apartments in my foreground. All the apartments have their lights turned off, except for one who is watching the television. I cannot see what they are watching but I can see the screen causing the reflection on their window which is what I receive. The screen transitions from bright TV light to dark blue TV light. I compare these two images in front of me; in the foreground is the TV, rumbling like lightning and in the background is the lightning playing like the colour changes of light of a TV. The lightning cannot identify as TV, the TV cannot identify as lightning. They are two completely different realities. They might have core elements, they might have similar effects on the viewers’ eyes, but they are not the same. A TV will never know what it is to be lightening and lightening will never know what it is to be a TV. They might have many parallels, poetically causing them to have similarities but they cannot identify as each other.
I am imagining that I am preparing for my next acting role. It is a role where I have to study birds and learn how they move. It is a role that was written just for me. I go to bird watch in a park. I watch, I learn, I have a good time. I get immersed in my thoughts as I embody the birds’ movements. Maybe I then notice someone violating the rules of the park, maybe they’re doing it right there in the birds’ space, maybe they are littering, and maybe I call them out on it. I am not worried about speaking up. I am not worried that speaking up for what is right might cause the police to be brought over and arrest me. I cannot identify with that.
I think I’m being asked to find the balance between facing hard human realities face-on whilst also remembering the reason that I want to face them is because of my affection for being in this life with the complexity that is existing alongside my friends, family, neighbors and strangers. How do I find this balance? How do I be useful in eradicating bigotism, racism, whilst also loving my fellow humans? A virus, like COVID-19 can be asymptomatic. A virus, like racism can be asymptomatic. A virus, like COVID-19 can show up given the right conditions. A virus, like racism can show up given the “right” conditions… Maybe the virus of racism shows up in the “right” conditions when I’m around my non-BIPOC friends? We’ve officially eradicated two viruses in the past. It would be wonderful if we could eradicate this virus of the mind now, racism.
I think this image below is useful for me to reflect and take action upon. It reminds me that I am constantly learning…
I am reminded of a play my parents took me to when I was in school… It was at The Melbourne Arts Centre in Australia called “Same, Same, but Different”.
If nothing in this article made sense, then I hope you can spend the time to watch this video: – see LinkedIn