Why We Can’t Just ‘Chill Out’ About Racism

March 23, 2015 / Alli Kirkham

You’re not imagining it. When people suggest that racism is over, they’re ignoring a lot of undeniable truths.

Here’s a comic that brings reality back into the conversation about race.

With Love,
The Editors at Everyday Feminism

Click for the Transcript

(Two white people are standing in front of a crowd of various races, though primarily consisting of Black people. Both of the white people are wearing clothes and accessories that are culturally appropriative, specifically of Native American cultures. The crowd of people to the right are holding signs and wearing shirts that say “I can’t breathe – RIP Eric Garner,” “#BlackLivesMatter,” “Asians 4 Black Lives,” and “Hands Up Don’t Shoot.”)

Person 1: What’s your deal? I don’t see race, just people. Chill!

Person 2: Don’t you know that racism is over? You’re just manufacturing outrage over imaginary offenses.

Person 3: (speaking in front of the crowd) No. I’m not imagining the Wage Gap, the Employment Gap, the Graduation Gap, or the Arrest Gap. I understand race and racism clearly, and I wish you would try to understand as well.

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Alli Kirkham is a Contributing Comic Artist for Everyday Feminism and blogger, cartoonist, and intersectional feminist. She is passionate about affirmative consent, sexual autonomy, and the destruction of gender roles, and through her cartoons is an advocate for chronically ill and mentally ill communities. Alli earned a BA in English Literature from Cal Poly Pomona in 2011 and uses it as an excuse to blog about books while swearing a lot. When she isn’t cartooning for Everyday Feminism or cursing at popular fiction, she posts cartoons and other silly things on her Tumblr.