The best of the FT Weekend Festival 2020

Claudia Rankine: 'Silence, segregation and inaction is no longer possible'

Name: Claudia Rankine: 'Silence, segregation and inaction is no longer possible'
Uploaded: 2020-09-18T12:36:34.400Z
Duration: 1 min 13 s
Channel: Financial Times
Description: Poet Claudia Rankine talks to FT arts editor Jan Dalley about her new book

In an interview at the FT Weekend Festival 2020, the award-winning US poet discusses her new book, Just Us, which addresses whiteness, white privilege and normalising uncomfortable conversations. Watch more at ftweekendfestival.com

September 18, 2020

Transcript

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Understanding is never enough. It really is about action. It's about each moment. I think for white people the question becomes, am I in an anti-racist position now, and then am I doing what is anti-racist now?

So how many times I have seen white people just allow other people to be racist in a situation, to say something, and not step in? And I sit and I wait to hear, is somebody going to say something? Nobody says anything. Is the policy going to change? The policy doesn't change.

So I think what is being asked for at this juncture, this moment, is that we understand that this silence, the segregation of people, the polite inaction is no longer possible if we're committed to social equity.