Last week Lauryn Hill sparked a conversation on racism [click here if you missed that] and this week Lauryn clarifies some of her remarks...
Ms. Hill writes on her Tumblr page,
On Racism could not be a judgment of all white people, unless all white people suffer from the same pathological condition. This is a discussion of that particular pathology* and the institutional violence that it bore, still in existence today. To suggest that the progress of a few means that the institution is fixed, is unrealistic. And I am by no means insinuating that black people are the only victims of oppression. But my experiences are my experiences, and so I speak about what I know.
If you have experiences of oppression, and need the catharsis, talk about them, write them down, express them, exorcise them. Don’t dare tell me, however, that I don’t have a right to speak my mind, or presume to know my story in totality, because you watched a few videos or read a couple of articles.
It doesn’t escape me that many whites fleeing the oppression of feudal Europe ended up in the Americas.
Unfortunately, Americans chose to perpetuate the trauma that they had experienced by victimizing others through the institution of slavery and a great number of other abuses. It is this tragic cycle of oppression that still needs to be broken and healed!
-MLH
