REBOOT: So, What are YOU Doing About White Supremacy?

Hello friends,

It’s time for the first reboot of 2025, and I feel that given the inauguration of #47 in the US, and the rise of far right rhetoric in many parts of the globe, it’s time for us to look at this question again. The article was originally published after yet another incident of violence against someone racialised as Black.

So, What are YOU Doing About White Supremacy?

“You can’t put a Band-Aid over an ocean of blood”. This quote jumped out at me in a recent Instagram reel. And it got me to thinking about how many more people have to die before we take down white supremacy once and for all.

White supremacy is a murderous beast. It has killed millions, maybe even billions at this point, including:

• Black people who were kidnapped and enslaved

• Indigenous people who were exterminated in multiple countries

• People in lands around the globe who were killed so white people could take their wealth

• People who died in the Holocaust (never forget that Hitler used the template of the American South, so this definitely counts - see Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste for more on this)

• All the people who have died at the hands of the police and young men with assault weapons

I’m sure there are many more.

White supremacy is still killing people. It can’t be a coincidence that the most recent incidents in the US have targeted the Black, Asian and Latine communities. [2025 update: this has continued, with hundreds murdered every year.]

Unless something changes, it will kill again. Getting guns out of everyone’s hands would be a good start. See this article by Gabrielle Stanley Blair which lays out the case.

But we need to go further, and people racialised as white - it’s really up to you, every single one of you. Because if the rest of us melanated people had had our way, or had been left in peace, we wouldn’t have had this centuries-long swathe of genocide and death. Plus, we’re tired…

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We’re tired of dying and we’re tired of getting blamed for being killed.

We’re tired of the lies about who and what’s responsible.

We’re tired of some 18-year-olds being boys and others being men when it comes time to allocate responsibility and punishment.

We’re tired of existing in a constant state of grief.

We’re tired of the trauma, the wounds reopened by each successive incident.

We’re tired of the gaslighting.

We’re tired of the expectation that Black women and Black people will save us all.

And we’re tired because by the time you read this, it’s likely someone else will have died at the hands of white supremacy.

White people, this is your mess!

As I said in a previous article, this is your inheritance and fixing it is your mandate. Since your ancestors grabbed most of the power, you’re the people who have the power to change the system. [2025: Though I truly believe in working in community, there’s no getting away from who holds systemic power. Just look at the first week of #47’s presidency to see how easily freedoms can be undone.]

That has to start TODAY. And know that it’s way past time for incremental changes. People are dying. Children are dying. Too many have died already. Too many have been traumatised forever.

So protest and organise. Make change where you are, and then keep making change at every governmental and organizational level - and in every office and everywhere you have even the slightest bit of influence - till this nonsense of white supremacy and this fiction of “race” ends.

Nothing less will do.

[2025 update: I’ve been thinking a lot of the moment we’re in now, not just in the US but globally. For people of the Global Majority and those with oppressed identity, it may not always be safe to be loud and vocal. This is where those with more personal privilege can step up to create safer environments and to make sure important messages reach the right ears. I don’t yet know what this will look like in every case, but I DO know that this work remains important.]

Thanks for reading,

Sharon

Note: poll feedback is private - if you’re happy to share your thoughts in public, then please also leave a comment.

I am an anti-racism educator and activist, the author of “I’m Tired of Racism”, and co-host of The Introvert Sisters podcast.

© Sharon Hurley Hall, 2022, 2025. All Rights Reserved. This newsletter is published on beehiiv (affiliate link).