dagNotes: Possessive Whiteness
What is it about white people that makes them take talking about whiteness and white supremacy so personally that whenever I write a post about either, I get a note about how mean I am to white people?
This is what I call possessive whiteness. I witness it most often in social justice circles, in communities where white people believe their association with others absolves them from benefiting from and profiting from their whiteness. Not merely asbolves them, but prevents them, as if their poc friends form some sort of shield that makes them no longer white. (Reminds me of that scene in Invisible Man where we consider how a little black is added to the paint to make it white.) It’s a possessive whiteness because when whiteness becomes the issue, it’s the one thing about themselves they won’t betray. (See tumblr feminist community where it happens all the fucking time.)
I’m talking about ideology, power structures and racists. Not you, but about you.
Fact is, if you’re white and unwilling to betray your privileged whiteness, you need to wake up and think about what it means to passively accept a bargain with white power. “Not identifying as white” is being a white supremacist. If you’re white and refuse to admit and deny your privilege altogether, then you’re part of the problem. It’s that simple.
I’ll just leave this here. It’s relevant given what I’m seeing on my dash. And I’ll add:
White liberals (and libertarians, for that matter,) will always insist, “We’re all oppressed,” which is a way to say, no one is oppressed. After all, white power insists on personal responsibility and individuality. Whiteness is the reliance on community while denying its existence.
