‘Politics’ and ‘political’ seem like the dirtiest words in the book right now. Even dirtier perhaps than ‘racist.’ Everywhere I am seeing responses ‘we’re not a political organization’ in response to asking for a simple post on Black Lives Matter. Some organizations have even gone so far as to put out a statement about COVID-19 (a seemingly more and more politicized disease), but point blank refused to put out a human rights statement on Black Lives.
A few weeks back, I was listening to a live stream on Instagram from Biracial Unicorns, where they were discussing their exhaustion and their feelings as social media once again left BIPOC people to fight all alone. I commented on the livestream inquiring about light-skinned and white-passing biracial individuals. The response was, ‘You were born a political statement.’ It was in that moment that I again realized how positive my view of the word ‘political’ is compared to others. —maybe ‘positive’ isn’t the right word.
I’m going to be blunt here, as a white person proclaiming something as ‘too political’ is actively defending yourself from the responsibility and accountability that it takes to become anti-racist (this is a verb not a noun). The classical music world is overwhelmingly white and so the majority of statements from those in top board positions about BLM was simply that a statement was ‘too political’ OR ‘we can’t actually do anything, we’re just a musical organization.‘ Consider. Your. Whiteness. Consider. Your. Proximity. To. Whiteness.
Here’s how I know it is not detrimental to make a ‘political’ statement. I am a political statement. Walking, talking, breathing, existing, singing, preaching, empowering statement. I have made many a ‘political’ statement on my public pages by now, not because I HAD to, but because there is no such thing as a statement that is too ‘political,’ because statements are personal. Show up. Stand up. Do better. Let’s stop compartmentalizing our lives and determining that people are only allowed to comment on one type of thing. Free our words as we free our minds.