White Not White
I’m not going to win any hearts with this one, but it was on my mind. First of all, let’s remove the notion that being considered white on a social level is an insult or an attack, ok? What do I mean by “on a social level?” I mean how you experience the world when you move through public and / or impersonal social spaces. This is about how are you perceived before you are known.
Since whiteness is a social construct created by white people to distinguish between the haves (“white” people) and the have-nots (non-white people) determined by “white” phenotypical presentation, how about we stop suggesting that having a black or brown grandparent or great great great grandparent when you move through the world as white-passing means you aren’t socially “white?”
Whiteness in today’s society isn’t a percentage of black or brown blood, it’s whether or not society determines you can receive and benefit from white privilege. If the world sees you and treats you as white, socially and systematically… you’re white, while on a personal and intimate level you very much are not. That doesn’t take away from your personal identity and familial connections, it doesn’t change your ancestry and your experience as a person of color. It doesn’t change you, it is a recognition that you carry the features that, in this hateful and biased world we live in, distinguish you from those of us who are unambiguously black or brown in this world. You’re not “white,” but you experience whiteness. This is it’s own kind of alienation and oppression, but it is a wholly different experience, one that is manifests more in emotional and mental violence than active potential physical and social violence based on your racial presentation. You would not have been Sandra Bland, Alton Sterling, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Aiyana Jones, John Crawford, Rekia Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Korryn Gaines, and on and on and on.
This isn’t me or anyone else gatekeeping your race, telling you what you are or are not, white-supremacy does that. I’m here to be clear about this frustrating and sad reality.
I don’t have the authority to either give or take your identity away, to rob you of your blackness or brown-ness, the racist society we live in does. It lives and breathes by drawing a line in the sand between worthy of respect and not worthy of respect. And yes, there are intersections to consider with this: sexual orientation, gender, disability, etc. that can and will unfairly marginalize you, and that is real and important as well. I can’t imagine living in this racial limbo is any kind of fun, and it cannot be easy or feel good. Hearing, “you’re white” must cut like a razor when your identity is very much anything but. It is surely deeply painful, and for that, I am sorry. I am sorry for everyone who suffers on account of white-supremacy.
You are black, but white-supremacy has decided to treat you as white. You are brown, but white supremacy has decided that as long as it can overlook it, it will leave you alone. You are still just as black or brown as you are down to your bones, but the society we live in has stripped you of that. For every store employee who likes to follow black folks around the shop, but ignores you, for every time you spoke up and had your opinion heard and respected when a black or brown voice did not, white supremacy has stolen your identity from you.
Don’t kill the messenger, kill the system.
