One of the
most annoying obstacles to overcoming structural racism is that even talking
about it makes white people feel uncomfortable. They feel accused of being
personally racist, they want to point out that their own lives aren't easy, and
they may feel vaguely threatened. Even now, with this simple paragraph written
by a white person (me), some readers are probably thinking "Not all white
people!", which is a pretty clear sign of missing the point.
I think it
is pretty well demonstrated by two things.
Yes, the
event has now been canceled, but the fact that the team would even announce it
and think it was a good idea two days after the Charleston shooting is kind of mind-boggling,
except for something else I saw.
It was a
meme image, and I can't find a link for it, but linking to it would be kind of
disgusting anyway. It asked...
How come
Black pride
= ok
Mexican
pride = ok
Asian pride
= ok
Muslim
pride = ok
White pride
= Racist?
I have some
thoughts.
Actually, my
first thought was something like, Really? You're posting that now, a day after
white pride murdered nine black people? In a church?
I don't
think the people posting it are drawing the line directly. Probably because of
the shooting, when people are horrified by the racism, and maybe decrying
ignorant, hateful white people, then there is a feeling of defensiveness, and
being beleaguered, and then it's "Why can't I feel pride?"
Well, you
can. You can feel proud of your accomplishments and you can take an interest in
your heritage and all of those things, but there are some specific things about
"white" pride that are important to know.
"Whiteness"
was not really a thing until about the last four hundred years. Before that it
was more a matter of where you were from. You could be Dutch or French or
Ethiopian or Japanese - the Armenians I have met have great cultural pride -
but that was more a matter of location and language and government. It doesn't
mean that the world was singing in perfect harmony, but it wasn't about skin
color.
Once the
American colonists started importing African slaves, and they were keeping them
as slaves, not as indentured servants, and they were talking about freedom and
liberty and all men being created equal, there started being complications, and
the simple solution was to make black people count for less. Treating them as
subhuman was very profitable, but wait; there's more!
If the black
race is inferior, then they can become distasteful to the poor whites, who
might otherwise find out that they have a lot of common. Then, instead of
working together for equality for everyone, the poor whites will feel good
about their superiority and then cling to it desperately, even when it's
against their own best interests.
Once that's
in place, racial superiority becomes super convenient when dealing with the
First Nations people, and later when you have Asian immigrants coming to build
the railroad. The anti-blackness at the root can be useful too, in that the
brown people may feel good about their superiority to the black people, and
more easily accept their inferiority to the white people. The benefits just
don't stop! At least, they don't stop for the rich people who exploit them, because
really, being on one of the higher low rungs in this sort of hierarchy isn't
exactly living large.
So the
legacy of "whiteness" is the legacy of having slaves to do your work,
but then deciding that race is lazy. When slavery is abolished it is then using
corrupt officers and false charges to make them prisoners who do forced labor.
It means lynching people who are financially successful and saying it is
because they're rapists. It means burning down black areas that are doing well,
and redlining, and using drug policy for persecution.
The legacy
of whiteness is deliberately slaughtering bison because they are an important
food source - nearly driving a species and a people into extinction - because
the constant treaty breaking and small-pox in the blankets isn't enough. It is
a legacy that starts in America but with the spirit of colonialism
spreads to other continents, so that even in Africa anti-blackness can be a thing. That
is nothing to be proud of.
And because
it has been such an ugly legacy, constantly devaluing other people, telling
them that they are ugly and stupid, and inferior, that's where you get the
other prides - as a reaction, and an attempt to reclaim what was stolen.
Pan-Africanism
is new. There started to be some thoughts of it as a reaction to slavery, and
then modern Pan-Africanism starts in the 1960's. It may not be a coincidence
that it coincides with the American Civil Rights Movement. There are starting
to be more efforts to unite various aboriginal peoples, but again, that's
fairly new.
Unfortunately,
as much as we can see the inherent falseness now, the legacy is rooted in
pretty deeply. Uprooting it will take some work, and it will take open
communication, where white people can accept that the legacy of whiteness is
sordid and not take it as a personal indictment.
We'll get
more into that next week, but for now, on a personal note, by all means explore
your heritage. Enjoy it, and know that there will be issues with it too.
I am half
Italian. I love my Italian family, and I feel parts of the culture in me. Italy has a bad track record for picking
sides in World Wars. I'm not going to take that personally.
A lot of
our family history is tied to Austria's constant attempts to take over Northern Italy. If you're Austrian, don't feel bad
about that - you as a person never invaded me - you can feel good about Mozart
and waltzes and The Sound of Music. Every country will have its good and
bad things, including America.
And you
shouldn't be ashamed of being white. "White pride" though, is
something else, and that's something we need to be honest about.
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