If you’re a member of an oppressor class and you want to contribute to a movement to end that oppression, you have to first recognise your own investment in this system. You have to notice the fact that you are maintaining ignorance where you have opportunities to learn, that you are taking shortcuts that are not rightfully yours to take, that your own self-interest is superceding your desire to do good.



You have to recognise these things and you can’t flinch when you look at them. You can’t spiral into self-indulgent guiltfests that centre, yet again, your own feelings and experiences. You cannot be useful to a movement when you are refusing to fully confront in yourself the kinds of behaviours and attitudes that the movement exists to combat.



You cannot say you don’t notice certain things and you need someone of the oppressed class to guide you gently through recognising these things. You are not owed that extra work, especially on top of what you already thoughtlessly demand from people in oppressed classes. It is your job to seek out what has already been said, to make a concerted effort to notice things on your own, and to not demand absolution and comfort every time you feel guilty.



It is not the job of the oppressed classes to teach you to be a good person. As long as you demand that, as long as you expect to be spoonfed your moral growth, you are actively maintaining a system that leaches time, energy, power, etc., from oppressed people and transfers it to you.

