"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling

"White Privilege" and "Racism" are not about name-calling.

I'm not shaming anyone - not in the sense you probably think I am.

I don't require anyone feel bad more than they already do (this is push back I get from conservatives especially - "you want to feel ashamed of your (country/race)!")

Naming racism is about naming racism - its reality - its effects - its interwoven nature - just as classism is.

You have been lied to your entire life to believe that "racism" means "racial bigotry."

That's not actually what racism means - and before we get into a long drawn out argument over word definitions - we're not going to agree on - just cut to the chase and agree that there is such a thing as systemic racism - and that - like classism - it is pervasive and doesn't need your conscious effort to remain in place and controlling our lives.

Taking responsibility for a thing is necessary.  It's about having heart, and growing up and becoming a mature person.

Denying responsibility because it "feels bad" (or you don't want to "feel ashamed") is about shirking responsibility - about remaining a small child and refusing to take on adult responsibility in life.

Americans are mostly stunted people.  They - white Americans in particular - are used to be molly coddled and catered to - so that they don't have to experience much that makes them feel uncomfortable and unsafe and unsure of themselves in the world.

That is not true for almost anyone else.

Asking white Americans to have to suffer some discomfort in order to understand that they are participating in a racist system - should not be an impassable obstacle for anyone who is genuinely interested in being an adult - a humanitarian - a genuine equal in all things - including in bearing the burdens of helping to fix the world.

Saying "whites are mostly racists" is exactly like saying "most whites are classists" - they didn't create the system - but they're a part of it - and it is not more or less pejorative except in their own minds - and only because they've been duped into identifying with racism and "whiteness" and hence feel a need to defend it ('cause they believe attacks on it are attacks on their identity).

That is what I've been trying to tell you:

>>> This is all about identity. <<<

People identify as White - not just their skin color - but all of the baggage that "White" carries with it - including "racism".

It's time for folks to let go of allowing "White" to include "tacit racism" and start to mean something else (or stop with separating into "White" at all - just be "People").

And that can't happen while folks remain staunchly opposed to realizing that these ideas are connected - and that this realization and recogning has to happen.

It's not just  a "political goal" - it's also a profound and necessary personal journey.

For me to treat a "black person" as my true equal - I have to understand how that I have been conditioned to think of myself as more - I'm "white" so I'm "safe" and I'm "respected" and "I'm the default in everything".

And that this awareness - this "whiteness" - forces me to think of "them" as less - even if I consciously avow "them" to be my equal.

It's not enough.

We have to look at the systems that are in place - and at the programming that is underneath our consciousness - that enables and continues this sick cycle.

I have to grow up.

You have to grow up.

We all do!

Or we are going to die as a species in misery and depravity.

Merely sidestepping racism in favor of "focusing on classism" means that racism remains in place for another generation - and any attempts we make to address economic issues will inevitably carry with them the foundation of racism should we fail to address them.

So - to actually move forward - we must jettison not only classism, but racism as well (and sexism!)

Equality demands True Equality - not "partial" equality - that's not equal - that's un equal.

There is no way around this but to own it wholly, and work with it as an interconnected piece that cannot be isolated neatly and some parts ignored in favor of other parts (that are less threatening to whites).

Culpability shouldn't be a sticking point

I see racism through the same prism that I see colonialism (aka globalism).

We cannot claim not to be colonialist. Just because we didn't set up this system of exploitation doesn't mean we're not participating in it every single day.

Just because we didn't create globalism doesn't mean we didn't - and aren't continuing to - profit by it.

And to the degree that we participate in, and worse, actively encourage such systems, we have some real, honest measure of culpability.

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I guess that for some folks they need to believe themselves to be pure victims. That they had no hand in anything and are not responsible for anything that has happened to them or to others in their lifetimes. They're pure white snow, unblemished, not-responsible.

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For me, I see that as a cop-out - a lie. You are responsible for everything you are and have done and will do, even as I know that nobody has pure choice and liberty to just unilaterally decide to go off the grid and not be racist and not benefit and not have a job...

Most of us have little to no control over our lives in any practical sense - i.e. we could choose not to participate should we be resigned to homelessness and begging...

But if we have kids or spouses or even aging parents or even self-love and wish to care for ourselves and minimize our own suffering - then we are beholden to participate in this nation's economy - which by definition makes us complicit participants in its colonialism, its racism, its imperialism, its patriarchy.

These things are inseparable.

That doesn't mean you get to do that and still claim zero responsibility. Not in my book!

Sure, I have compassion for you and the tough choices you face - just as I have self-compassion for the tough choices I face.

But I want to hold you accountable for what is real. For the degree to which you are making a choice - even if you refuse to see it, I cannot unsee it.

I hold myself accountable for the real choices I am making as well, even as I struggle with all of the implications.

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Many people, in my experience, look at all of this and decide either:

A) If I'm evil then fuck it all I don't have to worry about it because we're all evil so it's all meaningless and I can be without guilt as I take every advantage of others that I can to be selfish and ignore other's plight in life.

-or-

B) I am in no way responsible for any of this so you cannot hold me responsible for any of this whatsoever. So I am pure and not-a-racist and not-a-colonialist and not-a-capitalist and not-a-classist and not-a-sexist etc. I am truly blameless (yet I hold all of a certain group responsible and blame them for all evil things but only them).

Both of those positions are disingenuous.

I see it as

C) I am not an evil person by nature - almost nobody is - but I am - due to no fault inherent in me - born into a very mixed system full of its evils - that I have personally benefitted by - my parents benefitted and I - the opportunities I had - the resources I had - all derive from all of the history of exploitation and slavery and capitalism and colonialism and native genocide. But because I don't wish any of that on anyone - because I have the personal desire to be a better person - to do right by my brothers and sisters on planet Earth - because I wish to leave this place better than I found - I will hold myself accountable for my choices - I will offer myself and others compassion for our crazy fucked up situation - but I will not pretend that hard realities don't exist just to soothe my ego - so that I can claim innocence, nor will I cave to the evils of the world and become a willing enthusiastic narcissist myself.