“Your survival has never depended on your knowledge of white culture. In fact, it’s required your ignorance.”
Ijeoma Oluo
What is whiteness? If you are white, what do you think or feel about your whiteness? If someone generalizes about white people, how do you typically react?
How can this be, that People of Color know white folks better than we know ourselves?
White supremacy and white people are different, per john a. powell’s piece titled “Let’s not conflate white supremacy with white people.” He says:
“...we have to be clear about what white supremacy is and what it is not. Crucially, calling out white supremacy is not a dig against white people. There will be those who insist that to use the term is to attack all white people. They are wrong.
White supremacy is an ideology, a way of viewing the world. And while this ideology may be embraced by many people who are white, there is strong evidence to suggest that most do not. To challenge white supremacy is the right thing to do. All ideas that say one race or ethnic group is superior to another must be challenged.”
We white folks in the United States are taught that whiteness is the norm, to which everyone else is compared and strives. It's so much the norm that it's ubiquitousness may seem invisible. People of Color are not failed white people. Holding up whiteness as the norm is a primary tool of this dehumanization and blame.
“Until you can recognize that you are living a racialized life and you’re having racialized experiences every moment of every day, you can’t actually engage people of other races around the idea of justice,” Dow explains. “Until you get to the thing that’s primary, you can’t really attack racism.”
Whitney Dow - The Whiteness Project
The United States was designed on Black-white binary that enculturates us into a dystopian horror of Black dehumanization and criminalization. Whiteness did this– and it still does, friends. Anti-Blackness is baked into us, personally, interpersonally, organizationally, and systemically.
Race is a social construct, without biological basis. Despite any basis, it still has life and death consequences that whiteness perpetuates. White folks are not superior (need I even say that...yes) but the belief of superiority of white people internalized deeply.
Why was the concept of racial hierarchy created?
Why would the pattern of push back across the US be so violent, obvious, and coordinated after some justice is seen?
This pattern is so ingrained that it affects the way we respond to any questioning of the pattern itself. It can be so hard for white people to hear generalizations about whiteness. We white folks are enculturated to believe we are individuals, and that generalizations don’t affect us, that we are one of the good ones, the younger generation is so much better, so when all of the old racists die out we will be in a post-racial society.
Notice patterns of whiteness. Learn more about the phases of white consciousness (links below); they are incredibly illuminating to me. The process is not linear. Let's stay curious as we continue to better understand whiteness and how it continues to affect People of Color.
With love and truth, toward the goal of liberation, we can build a more racially just world. Understanding and decentering whiteness and white supremacy is integral to working to be anti-racist and fighting anti-Blackness.
Fellow leaders and learners, I wish you courage and resilience for the journey.
Peace to you,
Read the first part of this series here: Let's talk about whiteness - Part 1: Who are you, white person, to work for racial equity?
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