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Aren’t I more than anti-racist?
Black writers deserve more attention towards pieces outside of anti-racism.
The irony of this piece is that I’m starting it off by asking readers to be more anti-racist by allowing Black writers to grow outside of this topic. However, I’m doing this because I’ve noticed a troubling trend with my Medium pieces. The ones that do the best are focused on anti-racist topics. I don’t have a problem with that per say, but it becomes frustrating to watch as readers, particularly White ones, only seem to read our pieces when it pertains to how THEY can be better. Aren’t Black writers more than anti-racism? Do we not offer perspectives on other topics such as healthcare, technology, and politics? Why is it that for our works to shine the brightest they have to be written through the perspective of anti-racism and how White people can do more?
I started on Medium wanting to write about healthcare. My first piece focused on diabetes stereotypes because I felt passionate about the topic. Yet, no one seemed to care for the piece. To this day, it has 20 views. I didn’t have a piece blow up until I wrote about how White people can be allies. Being a White Ally became my first taste of success on Medium and I wanted to replicate that. I proceeded to write about code-switching and being privileged the month after and both pieces…
