“The uncomfortable reality of talking to my white friends about George Floyd:'
social media support and conversations, but what if the friends around you are refusing to acknowledge this? Here, Rebeka Prance explains to writer Megan Murray how it feels to realise it’s time to let go of the white friendships who continue to stay silent.changed something in me. The initial reaction from my black community was mass online grieving. There was visceral outrage that a man has been murdered in broad daylight, slowly, on film and it cut so deeply.
I believe our social media has the potential to reflect us, so I felt disappointed when I saw friends who, although are white themselves, are very integrated in black culture through their friendships, relationships and communities, either posting nothing at all or sharing an Instagram graphic specific to anti-racism followed by a picture of their baby or dog, and then not engaging with it further having seen their fellow white friends waking up to their responsibility.
That’s exactly what happened in this instance. The same two or three friends jumped in to respond but over the course of the day I heard almost nothing from that group. I could have almost taken that on the chin, but what really broke me is when another friend of colour decided to share her own story the following day, a memory of being teased at school for the colour of her skin, and the silence was reinstated. Now, if that story had been about being called fat or ugly as a little girl, I think everyone would have chimed in with empathy.
I don’t know exactly why some of my white friends have chosen to disengage with my pain at this time but I think that when you’ve had little exposure to other cultures, topics like Black Lives Matter can fill you full of fear. There can be a hesitancy in not feeling educated enough or looking stupid if you put your foot in it and say the wrong thing.
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