Body cams. In our struggle to dismantle racism, I think every white person should wear a body cam.
If every white person wore a body cam, he/she/they could review the footage every night and learn something. White people could note what it was like to drive while white, shop while white, go running while white, go bird watching while white, jaywalk while white, interact with the police while white, fall asleep in a drive-through at a fast food place while white, and so on.
Reviewing the footage each evening (this would be time-consuming, I know), white people (like me) could ask ourselves: was I bothered, followed, harassed, called names, pulled over, or bullied? Were the police called, was I handcuffed, tased, hit, pulled from my car, spread-eagle next to my car, or shot?
Many white people sincerely long to be strong and active anti-racist accomplices, but do not know what to do. A good place to start might be analyzing one’s own life. Wearing a body cam would give white people the opportunity to review their day and see the ease with which we move through the world, interact with police, walk through the woods looking at birds, loiter, go into convenience stores, shop at the mall, speed down I-91, get a warning instead of a ticket, jaywalk, go for a run, and more. Maybe, by reviewing the footage each evening, white people could see the privileges that are hard to detect when you are living them every moment.
For some white people, asking them to notice privilege is like asking fish to notice the water. What water?
Not only would the body cam provide white people the tedious but useful opportunity to review their day, but it might also inspire some reflection on the opportunities missed to engage in anti-racism activity.
If a white person went to church, did they speak up about the images of Jesus that make him look more Swedish than Semitic? Did the white person ask questions at a library when the children’s books on display only show white kids on the covers? Did the white person note that all mannequins in the store windows are white? Did the white person speak up when a comment by another white person revealed veiled racism? Did the white person ask to speak to a supervisor, manager, or bank president and have a white person come forward? Did the white person attend a meeting, note that everyone present was white and wonder out loud how different the discussions and decisions might be if the group was diverse? Did the white person serve on an all-white search committee, hear a person of color referred to as “not a good fit, not a team player,” and object?
White people wearing body cams could serve two valuable purposes: to help us (white people) observe and reflect on our lives as white people — the unencumbered way we move through the world. And it would also help us note missed opportunities when we could have spoken up, made a change, challenged an assumption, not been silent, not been complicit, and not quietly understood the coded language white people sometimes use to speak to one another.
Body cams on white people could help us become bolder in combating racism, quicker with our responses to what we see, and more able to detect racism by omission by observing who is not present, and therefore what perspectives are missing from the discussion. Body cams might also help us, white people, note how often we set the agenda, talk and dominate in meetings, finish the sentences of people of color, over-identify with people of color inappropriately, and defend our own positions. Spotting those tendencies would be useful.
White people who wear body cams could meet in little groups, like support groups, to discuss what they/we are learning, what we have noted, and what we can do. We could listen to one another, push one another, share observations, and make pledges to be more aware, active, verbal, and smart about privilege, unearned advantage, and our ease of movement and physical safety.
White people, I’m in. I think wearing a body cam would be intrusive, bulky, and annoying and viewing the footage would be tiresome. It would also be eye-opening, useful, jarring, and potentially helpful as we struggle to see more, do more, say more, care more, understand more, and act more. I am in favor of any tool or strategy that helps white people get it. We need to get it. In new ways. Like most white people, I need to get it — deeply, powerfully, and in new ways.
Body cams on white people: making the invisible, visible. It’s a good start.
The Rev. Dr. Andrea Ayvazian of Northampton is an associate pastor at Alden Baptist Church in Springfield. She is also the founder and director of the Sojourner Truth School for Social Change Leadership, which offers free movement-building classes from Greenfield to Springfield.