"How can I be a more effective witness to the hidden or under-acknowledged suffering of others?"
– Rhonda Magee
Most White people hang out with other White people – almost exclusively.
Most White people don't build genuine relationships with people of color. Most White people are not interested in the lived experiences of people "not like them."
Most White people interact with people of color only occasionally – and only superficially: restaurant servers, grocery clerks, etc.
Because of this segregated existence, most White people have no clue what the everyday reality is like for people of color.
But that doesn't stop most White people from providing analysis, advice, criticism, and all kinds of unsolicited, inaccurate, racist, and harmful commentary on how people of color should behave, talk, think, and generally live their lives.
Because most White people have shown time and time again that they have little genuine interest in the humanity of people of color, they are unable to understand, let alone empathize with, the suffering that people of color endure in the White supremacist system we all live in.
White people's lack of proximity to people of color makes bearing witness to their suffering essentially impossible.
And their privilege allows them to choose not to care.