Blue bracelets, safety pins, and white people who self-proclaim themselves as “safe”

While I understand that there might be good intent behind it, this blue bracelet campaign where white people are wearing blue bracelets to show they are “safe” to people of color, does not help much, if any.

The blue bracelets, without tangible and consistent anti-racist work are performative, and also announcing to the world they might be dangerous and unsafe in another way. For many, it’ll be a way to announce to the world “I am a good white person and absolved from any responsibility in anti-racist work.”

White people who self-proclaim themselves as “safe” likely see themselves as good, and innocent, (as so many media portrayals have depicted) and way too many in my experience do NOT handle it well when a person of color explains to them that they are doing anything racist or harmful, or unhelpful. Even if I sugarcoat as much as possible, it often devolves into them draining all energy from any critique, or explanation that they are harming me, or other people of color, into getting angry, crying, victimizing themselves, and characterizing what I’m saying as “attacking me” or “shaming me” while shifting the focus of the entire room, or private conversation, into convincing people they are good and innocent.

I wrote this as satire, but it’s sadly not that exaggerated. It’s not really a 28 minute read. I copied and pasted the same thing over and over again, except for the last line about calling the police. If you’re…