BLACK LIVES MATTER

No one needs to hear my take on this—

White Europeans started this mess.

Listen to the millions of Black and Brown people

Voicing their opinions on social media, on the streets (not just Americans, all nationalities)

Before you listen to me.

Listen and Amplify.

And if that’s not enough

For my fellow whites

Who are looking for someone else to listen to:

Listen to Kimberly Jones,

Listen to Cornel West,

Listen to Angela Davis,

Listen to Baldwin or Malcolm X,

Listen to them all on YouTube

And see who else pops up in your recommendations

Then listen to them.

Listen to Black radicals

Before you listen to white liberals

Or white leftists—And watch Black films on racism before you watch white ones.

Watch 13th and I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO before you watch

White liberal Oscar bait like Green Book,

(Which has nothing more to offer than white saviours and platitudes)

And if that’s not enough

For my fellow whites,

Who are looking for theory and analysis

On the bloody and horrific struggle

Against White Supremacy,

Read W.E. B. Dubois,

Read James Baldwin,

Read Angela Davis,

Read Toni Morrison,

Read Franz Fanon,

Read Audre Lorde,

Read Lorraine Hansberry,

Read Akala,

Read many more Black radicals I don’t know about

Because I am not an expert,

Because you should listen to Black and Brown people

To learn what to read on the Black experience

Before you listen to me.

And if that’s not enough

For my fellow whites,

And there are still some who insist I say something myself

Here you go:

Fuck White Supremacy

Fuck the Police—Yes, even in Europe.

Yes, even in Belgium.

Even in ‘civilised Europe’

We have unjust policing,

We have police brutality,

We have racial profiling,

We have systemic racism

And we should do something about it.

Fuck Leopold II, may every last statue of his

Be torn down and put in a museum

Of colonialist history

And its horrors.

And Fuck Zwarte Piet,

Ja, mijn Belgische & Nederlandse vrienden,

Tis een racistische karikatuur.

Als het roet is, waarom dan de dikke lippen

En de afros?

Calm your tits. Het hele feest hoeft niet weg,

Maar als we niet willen zijn

Zoals de blanke Amerikanen

Die wanhopig klingen aan elke laatste racistische traditie,

Om hun racisme toch nog te kunnen uit drukken

Moeten we toch kunnen beter doen,

Zodat roet

Ook echt roet is

En geen enkele Zwart kind of volwassene

Zich nog vernederd moet voelen

Door een racistische karikatuur op een kinderfeest.

In the words of Angela Davis,

‘In a racist society,

It is not enough to be non-racist,

We must be antiracist.’