But anyway, I want to do a short thread on white tears & white distress as I am taking a break from emails, something which has been on my mind for a while.

I am concerned overall with the way we’re engaging with anti-racism and the emotions this work triggers. And the denigration of distress, pain, helplessness when it comes to white folks. Or white feelings.

This is where I stand right now...white feelings have been weaponised. I have myself experienced this. Plenty of folks have written about white tears. It’s a social phenomenon. It must be combatted. Accusations of bullying, aggression & the like abound against black/brown women.

Been there, so not here to argue it does not exist. Been there! Still occasionally happens to me, I just name this when it happens, I have named it as recently as last month. Not accepting this role/script without calling it out.

My concern is because we all know this happened the nuances are completely lost. Where anyone distressed by racism is treated as though their distress is illigitimate because they are white. This to me is a problem.

I feel uncomfortable when I see this. And so I am going to try to say why. First disclaimer, no person of colour has the responsibility to coddle & centre white distress. Feel free to ignore it. But I would say ignore it at your own risk.