Imagine seeing pain all around you, people suffering from various ailments, illnesses, horrible injuries. Imagine feeling deep empathy and concern, yet only offering a single Band-Aid. The Band-Aid was offered as though no more could be done, with the assumption that it would actually staunch the bleeding, calm the fever, mend the bones. Placing a Black Lives Matter sign in your yard and imagining yourself to be doing enough is similarly paltry. The inhumanity and pain of white supremacy is still festering throughout all our systems and communities, and weak displays of support simply aren’t enough to begin the healing.
It’s easy enough to spot myriad Black Lives Matter yard signs throughout Western Massachusetts, yet the true ally-ship and action are far less abundant. This is inexcusable. Whether you display a sign or not, it’s on all of us to put in the time, care, and effort to ensure that our all our Black, Indigenous, and People of Color friends and neighbors are respected, included in all levels of power, and safe from all forms of harm. We are lucky to live in a place with so many good, well-intentioned people, but actions must follow suit, otherwise intentionality is meaningless.
“History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Saying that Black Lives Matter means believing and listening to people of color. Being an ally and working for racial and social justice means respecting and heeding the demands of those are being actively harmed by our racist systems. The primary call to action is to recognize the urgent need for a radical new approach to public safety and community supports.
Our current policing systems are beyond reform, given that their very foundations are built upon and rely on the continuation of white supremacy. Instead of spending our precious dollars upholding violent systems, let’s continuously redirect funding into new, non-punitive, non-carceral approaches to community safety that respect and protect Black lives.
Defunding the police means instead investing in housing, education, health, and environmental justice. Defunding the police means investing in building healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities. Defunding the police means that we insist that our leaders promise and follow through on enhancing and protecting the self-determination of all Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
Together, let’s imagine a future that’s anti-violence, anti-carceral, anti-punitive, and anti-racist. Now is the time to move beyond hollow and performative displays that ultimately only allow white people to feel better about themselves. Investing in an actively anti-racist future will take far more than well-intentioned band-aids and meaningless lawn signs. Whether you consider yourself to be an ally or not, please reach within yourself to access the compassion and tenacity that’s required to truly work for healthy, sustainable, and equitable communities.
Chelsea Kline is a social justice advocate in western Massachusetts and a mother of three. She writes a monthly column for the Gazette.