The White Anti-Racist is an Oxymoron

[una_vela]

An Open Letter to "White Anti-Racists"
By Kil Ja KimI received an annoying e-mail about white people and their struggle to do anti-racist work. I keep reading and hearing white people talk about their struggle to do anti-racist organizing, and frankly it gets on my nerves. So I am writing this open letter to white people who engage in any

Comments

[ladygawain]

This was a really powerful essay, thank you for sharing it. It articulates so much of what I've been thinking about lately and failing to articulate myself. Particularly about the structural nature of 'whiteness'. No, it's not just a skin color to whoever said it out there. And while it'd be nice to reduce it to that, it's just not that easy.

And don’t assume that when I see how grateful non-white people are to you for being there, for being a “good white” person that this doesn’t hurt me. And don’t assume that when non-white people chastise me because I think your presence is unnecessary that it does not hurt me. And don’t assume that when I see you attach yourself to the “sensible” non-white person who condones your behavior that this does not infuriate me. Because all of these things remind me of how powerless non-white people are in relation to white people. All of these gestures that you do reminds me of how grateful we are supposed to be towards you because you actually (or supposedly) care about what is happening to us.This

[azetburcaptain]

Biologically, yes it is a skin colour. Unfortunately, it cannot be so simple as biology/appearances.

[meganbmoore]

For some reason, your comment reminds me of something someone once said to me regarding Indian movies (specifically, Bollywood) and how people talked about most Hollywood movies featuring mostly white casts, and the fact that white people were rarely anything more than extras. It took me a bit to figure out why that bugged me because it was technically true. Then I realized "dude, why would they want to make movies about the people who oppressed and subjugated them for years?" wasn't exactly the same as "let's have 90% of our media tokenize and sideline all the people we used to like to create laws to keep from having equal rights and benefits as us." I'm not a believer in collective guilt of the "you are guilty of your ancestor's sins" variety, but I am definitely a believer in remaining aware of the past (and present) and how it affects attitudes. And you can still strongly see the colonialism in the movies, where the plots are often based on western literature and Hollywood movies, and in how the actresses' looks will change

[ladygawain]

Interesting point you've brought up. I definitely agree on not believing in the collective guilt of your ancestors but awareness of the past and the present, and how these power dynamics affect every area of our lives --- even areas where we'd like to think we have a certain autonomy e.g. our bodies, is so necessary.

[flumes]

Oh my god I love this article but I'm genuinely perplexed by these replies.

[astragalizo]

MTE

[fishphile]

Exactly. When I saw 88 comments (back when I was peeking in for the first time) I knew shit had hit the fan. It's especially noticeable when the blog/article is from a PoC perspective, which is troubling but not surprising.

[amazingname]

Wow. Just...wow.

[flumes]

are you objecting or

[amazingname]

Yeah I am. Not to the content of the comment, or the content of the post.

I have an issue with the tone and specific language used in this post. It is downright hostile. But whatever. I'll back out of this discussion now.

[madeline_may]

Any article that makes me think hard about my own privilege is a good article indeed. Thanks for linking, OP.

[reservoir]

This whole thing is a great read but this part is excellent, imo:

Now back to my point that white anti-racism is an oxymoron. Whiteness is a social and political construct rooted in white supremacy. Drawing from the work of Frank Wilderson, I understand white supremacy as a structure and system of beliefs rooted in European and US imperialism in which certain racialized bodies (non-white) are selected for premature negation whether through cultural, physical, psychological genocide, containment or other forms of social death. White supremacy is at the heart of the US social system and civil society. In short, white supremacy is not just a series of practices or privilege, but a larger social structure and system of domination that overly-values and rewards those who are racialized as white. The rest of us are constructed as undeserving to be considered human, although there is significant variation within non-white populations of how our bodies are encoded, treated and (de)valued.

[fornikate]

the best part, imo