When a person of color, especially if they’re black like me, affirms their support for causes such as queer liberation, feminism, animal rights, or socialism, I immediately feel that I can believe, with minimal doubt, that they’re truly convicted and principled in what they’re advocating for.
However, when a white person claims to support leftism, until my skepticism is proven wrong, I immediately assume they’re a dishonest and performative libshit. I then proceed to interact with them with hefty amounts of caution. If my assumptions are proven true, I’m never shocked.
My friend you fucking know why, it’s the same reason why I don’t trust self-proclaimed “progressive/leftist whites” until they prove themselves also, and it’s also the reason why I tend to go out of my way to prove myself early on too. Like, I have touched grass and I have been to predominantly white activist spaces, I have seen white bullshit and I have done white bullshit. I have learned through all practical experience not to trust whites for even a second, especially not those who refers to whites as a “”“we”“” or in any way identify with whiteness, as if “white” is an actual meaningful group identity rather than a fucking Indiana Jones sandbag of a “”“culture”“” whose continued existence is inherently destructive and antithetical to decolonization, anti-imperialism, Black liberation, and socialism.
You do not have to ask “why” you lack an ability to trust whites, you are in fact very wise to do so. It is not something you should feel guilty about, as if you’re being racist by “judging books by their covers”, it is in fact whites who are racist and it is on whites to prove themselves to you.