This is categorically untrue.

Being white is a race. How can you have no experience with racism when you are one? Being born into the perceived dominant or superior race doesn’t mean you have no experience. It means your experience is opposite that from someone born into the perceived submissive or inferior race.

For white people, that means their experience tends to break along a few lines… and it’s not always easy recognizing or dealing with these confluences. In fact, it’s often a meat grinder. It does not lessen the suffering of POC to say that. It does not mean that my troubles are more important or take priority or that it’s the job of POC to take care of it.

The fact is, I get good ideas, alternate points of view, cultural education, etc., from POC. It’s been very important in my life but it’s not everything. I also learn from white people. There are plenty of white people out there who have good insights on racism. Some of them were the most heinous of racists who saw the light, so to speak.

Maybe some are saying the same thing as a POC, but if they’re saying it in a language I can understand, guess which one hits the mark?

They also carry the perspective of someone who’s been through that meat grinder of unpacking racism as a white person and it’s inevitable fallouts in often less judgemental ways. That’s not nothing. It’s important too.

I won’t make judgements on whether or not POC can’t learn anything from white people about racism. I leave that to individuals. For myself, I believe we can all learn from each other. I intend to learn from as many different kinds of people as possible.