I am not a leader in this movement.
There are people much smarter and much more qualified whose message is worth your attention. I have been listening to and learning from them.
- Check out this Anti-Racism Resource List that Glo (@glographics) put together
- Watch this video from Ivirlei Brookes (@ivirlei) about what white women who truly want to help can do
- Read Feminista Jones’ (@feministajones) book, Reclaiming Our Space: How Black Feminists Are Changing The World From The Tweets To The Streets
- Stream the documentary “13th” on Netflix which analyzes the prison-industrial complex and mass incarceration in the U.S.
- Sign up for Rachel Cargle’s (@rachel.cargle) free 30-day #DoTheWork course
- Watch Dr. Robin DiAngelo’s talk about white fragility (& read her book, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism)
If you haven’t already, I hope you will take the time to listen and learn from these expert voices.
As a follower, I am not and should not be the loudest voice.
But, as someone doing the messy work toward becoming an ally, I thought it was important to take a stand.
I think it’s important to, like Erica Courdae (@ericacourdae) said in this IGTV, add my voice to the collective battle cry.
This may be just a small corner of the internet, but it is MY small corner of the internet and I’m using it to say BLACK LIVES MATTER.
What People Get Wrong About Expats
There’s this misconception about expats that we don’t like the United States or care about what’s going on there.
After all, if either were the case, wouldn’t we be living there?
Last week, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the ensuing uprising, a friend of mine asked me if I was happy to be in Mexico and not the United States right now.
The short answer: no. Even though I’ve chosen to make a home for myself somewhere else, I still very much care about what happens in the United States.
The slightly longer answer…
The truth is, in the five years since I first moved abroad, I have thought more about what it means to be an American than I ever did in the previous 23 years that I lived there.
For me, moving abroad was like a nearsighted person holding a fuzzy picture at arm’s length to see it clearly.
Experiencing other countries and cultures as well as meeting and talking to people from around the world doesn’t just open your eyes to how other places operate.
It also opens your eyes to how your own country operates.
The Greatest Country on Earth(?)
Having come of age in the post-9/11 United States, I grew up surrounded by patriotic messaging.
We said the Pledge of Allegiance. We sang the National Anthem. We bought and wore every Fourth of July edition of Old Navy t-shirts.
Threaded through every civics, social studies and history class was the idea that “America is the greatest country on Earth.”
Everyone who was ~*lucky*~ enough to call the United States home was “Proud to be an American.”
Everyone, yes everyone, else wished they could say the same.
It wasn’t until I moved to Europe that I realized not everyone dreamed of living in the United States.
Sure, they liked our movies and our music. Lots of people had “drive Route 66” and “visit the Big Apple” on their bucket lists.
But, while living in Western Europe, I met very few people who agreed with my long-held belief that the United States is the greatest country on Earth.
You don’t have universal healthcare.
Where are your social programs?
Everyone has guns.
In Madrid, my au pair host dad laughed the first time I said los Estados Unidos.
“Really,” he said in Spanish. “You have to put ‘the’ in front of it?”
Never once in all my years traveling and living abroad have I heard someone (other than an American) say their country is the greatest in the world or that everyone wants to live there.
Even in places where people have universal health care and robust social programs, no one pretends like they have it all figured out.
That’s in stark contrast to the vibe I got growing up in the United States. What could “the Greatest Country in the World” possibly have to work on?
When you live in another country, you start to see your home country in a different light.
You start to question the system. Who was it designed to serve?
This is something a lot of young people and Americans, in general, have been asking themselves since the 2016 election but living abroad expedited the process for me.
The events and conversations of the past few weeks solidified half-formed, deeply uncomfortable thoughts that began forming when I moved abroad for the first time…
The United States was built on stolen land by stolen people.
It’s far from the only country that profited from such heinous transgressions, but it’s the one we’re talking about now.
Dating back to the very founding of the United States, white men put in place and fought to maintain a system with the explicit purpose of holding down Black people.
- Stream the documentary “13th” on Netflix which analyzes the prison-industrial complex and mass incarceration in the U.S.
Other minorities, women included, have gotten stuck in the proverbial net, but those were just bonuses for a system founded on a platform of white male supremacy.
At this point, I would be remiss not to say it’s a system I have personally benefited from.
That’s right: even a woman whose grandfather came to the United States from Mexico with next to nothing has reaped the benefits of white privilege.
Show Your Support & Donate
- Black Visions Collective
- A Minnesota-based organization that is fighting for the liberation of all Black people & empowering young leaders
- Campaign Zero
- Developed research-based policy solutions (#8CantWait initiative) to end police violence in the United States
- The Loveland Foundation
- Provides free therapy sessions to Black women and girls who frequently live in communities where there’s a “prevalent and ingrained stigma surrounding mental health”
Redefining “Proud to Be an American”
None of this is to say I am not proud to be an American.
In fact, living abroad and traveling has also made me MORE grateful for the country that issued my passport.
I am MORE protective of the rights I have as an American.
Where I once took free speech, free press and the right to protest for granted, travel has made me recognize them for the invaluable treasures they are and I will do anything in my power to ensure they are upheld.
So, yes, I am proud to be an American…
But, you can be proud to be from somewhere and still question it.
You can love your country and still want more from it.
I know the sacrifices my grandfather made to bring his family to the United States.
To honor his sacrifices, to honor his “dream of a better life,” I must do my part to create a better life for my fellow citizens today and the generations to come.
That starts with dismantling a system that denies Black people the unalienable rights that all Americans are promised: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Black Lives Matter.
As a country, we have made mistakes. We have allowed an oppressive system to remain intact.
We have turned a blind eye to racism and white supremacy because, quite frankly, the system was working in our favor.
If, like me, you consider yourself an empathetic, kind person, it’s uncomfortable to admit to years of ignorance, silence and inaction.
However, I refuse to let “Proud to be an American” mean I am too proud to admit to my mistakes.
If we are indeed the “Greatest Country on Earth,” we need to correct our mistakes.
To put it mildly, we have a lot of fucking work to do.
That work starts with supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
It starts with recognizing our own privilege and biases.
It starts with acknowledging the ways the current system (yup, the one founded on white supremacy) has benefited you and vowing to dismantle it.
It starts with adding our voices to the collective battle cry for justice.
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