Confessions of a Race Writer

"It is to inherit the struggles of millions of people, not because you were elected to do so, not because you struggle in identical ways, but because you share a bond that is literally skin-deep. And so, to be a race writer is to be tempted to perform "blackness." To mine your life only for the moments in which you were mistreated or overlooked or wronged. To edit your humanity for fear of tarnishing your victimhood."

"To be a race writer is to be a fraud. It is, as Olúfémi Táíwò put it, "to be given authority regardless of what you do or do not know, or what you have or have not experienced." It is to risk playing this part so convincingly that you begin to believe it. And yet, by any reasonable definition, to be a race writer is to be privileged."

"It is to have escaped the impoverished schools that leave 85% of their Black eighth-graders functionally illiterate. It is to not be among the 31% of Black households that don't have reliable access to the internet. It is to have the ability and the opportunity to say something valuable about these people. To be one of the few people, of any colour, with the power to make their voice heard."

Race writers occupy contradictory positions: they are granted authority to represent racial struggles without sharing identical experiences. They may feel compelled to perform 'blackness', mining personal life for moments of mistreatment and editing themselves to preserve a victim identity. Many race writers also hold significant privilege: they have escaped impoverished schools that produce widespread illiteracy and are not among households lacking reliable internet. That privilege provides the ability and platform to speak about marginalized communities, creating tension between representation, authenticity, and the responsibility of speaking for others.

Read at Medium