We find ourselves in a world where society is starting to move on. In which we teach pupils that we measure people on merit rather than innate traits they possess; This is the crux of the matter.

One of my favourite quotes from Audre Lorde (@CiteBlackWomen) is,

“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

As an equity activist, I believe this is the beginning, the middle and the end of it. You must stand up and be ready to be counted to all threats to our rights. You cannot fight for a single cause. I am for the destruction of the patriarchy; this means that I cannot support or stay quietly complicit in the face of white supremacy.

The obvious argument is that if you are from an oppressed group, you would not like your freedoms eroded. This argument is lazy; everyone involved already knows the hypocrisy involved. I will not waste your or my time with this rhetoric.

As this rhetoric damages all our causes. This rhetoric damages our cause. When we talk systemically, there is only the oppressed and the oppressors. Here we are not singling out people but the system. Supporting these structures, through your active voice or silence and complicity hold the whole thing up.

This rhetoric damages all our causes. This rhetoric damages our cause. When we talk systemically, there is only the oppressed and the oppressors. Here we are not singling out people but the system. Click To Tweet

The opposite is also exact if you support (or are complicit) the systemic oppression of any group. You support a system which propagates white supremacy, misogyny, etc. Yes, plenty of people will disagree with the last statement because their minds cannot contemplate that they are being described with *those* words.

If you deny that white privilege exists, engage in white solidarity, white saviour complex, state that calls for diversity (balance) should be ignored. You are not only promoting white supremacy; you are upholding the foundations of the system which oppresses everyone.

Choose who you are? 

Racist or Anti Racist (White Supremacist or Anti – White Supremacist)

Counter Antiblackness or Antiblackness

Misogynist or for Gender equity

Homophobic or Anti Homophobic

Ableist or Anti Ableism

Islamophobic or Anti Islamophobic

Etc.

There is no middle ground. The lines have drawn between freedom and oppression. I want to live in a world where there are ‘no outsiders’.

There is no middle ground. The lines have drawn between freedom and oppression. I want to live in a world where there are 'no outsiders'. Click To Tweet