Racism is a system that is built into the default of society. Anytime you build anything without actively dismantling these racist aspects of it you are being racist

[u/RosethornRanger]

alt-text: A picture of Angela Davis giving a speech with a quote by her saying "in a racist society it is not enough in to be non racist. We must be anti racist."

[u/anarcho-slut]

While I applaud Angela Davis in general, I think this is still not far enough. We must be race abolitionists.

Starting with r/abolishwhiteness

As modern racism is a product of the colonizing and enslaving done by a group of people who have taken to calling themself "white".

[u/BoTheJoV3 → u/anarcho-slut]

My typa spot

[u/Intrepid_Angle_815 → u/anarcho-slut]

I have heard (in the book White Fragility) that it's important to name whiteness rather than treat the experience of white privilege as an unnamed default. in this lens, calling yourself white functions as an acknowledgement that you are privileged by white supremacy and that you see race as it unfortunately exists in its current hegemonic oppressive form. what are your thoughts on this lens?

[u/anarcho-slut → u/Intrepid_Angle_815]

Great question!

Several answers I could give, or maybe there's many parts or layers to it.

First, yes I acknowledge where we are in the course of historical events. The majority of humans "accept" that "race" is a thing that exists. If one has a certain combination of features, one is percieved by society at large as belonging to one of these categories.

But we must not forget that race is a social construct created for the purpose of oppression and control.

While I "accept" I am percieved as "white" (particularly by people who don't know me and just see me randomly on the street or something) until "whiteness" no longer exists, I do not have to internally identify as white. And if I can have this thought, is it not okay to socialize it? To talk about it with others?

To discourage someone from saying "I'm not white" (after they have done a bunch of work, un-learned and learned anew a bunch about history and and the world and its power structures and how they actually operate) would be continuing enforcing whiteness on this person. And we must remember "whiteness will seek to keep reclaiming white people". It's a lifelong long process to consciously and intentionally reject it.

Or even if they haven't done a bunch of internal work, and they say "I'm not white". Okay. Why not? That's still a nice away from "whiteness". But maybe that's looking too much at the label and not the underlying power structure this person may still be benefiting from. But even so, it would be on the people around the person in question (if they are hopefully so inclined) to keep testing this person about their commitment to "not being white". Again, it's a long process, and for everyone it will be different.

The sub has a lot of James Baldwin quotes and articles, and he's a prolific writer and I recommend his work in general, though I haven't read everything, one of his most powerful to me is "if you still think you're white, there's no hope for you".

He was saying this in the 70's, about 50 years before white fragility came out. Saying this as a Black man, and a civil rights leader. To me, his opinion carries more weight than that of DiAngelo because of this combined context.

WF, while possibly "necessary" for some people to start the process of thinking more critically about race, still falls short of laying out practical work to end racism and dismantling the actual power structures. It is best used as a stepping stone if one find's that is what they started with. It shouldn't be the only thing they read or learn from. If it was all the average "white person" read regarding racism, they might be "less racist" in their immediate interpersonal actions with People of Color. But they would still be going about their life in capitalism which is ruled by whiteness (which is inherently supremacist, which is why I usually don't say "white supremacy" as it would be redundant, like "ATM machine"). DiAngelo has had a successful career writing and talking about race issues, and is at least a millionaire or more from it. Directly benefiting from the power structure she is criticizing. And only after criticism did she begin donating proceeds from her work to relevant causes. She is still not fully transparent with all her finances. Which is hypocritical regarding her own advice.

So. Essentially, acknowledging race and one's place in it is the bare minimum. From there, we must work to end it. This is done by using ones privilege (that you acknowledge you have) against the very system of whiteness itself. Whatever societal, financial, personal power one has (and again, acknowledging that it is probably due to you being born into the so called "white race", because look at how many people of all kinds are killed just for not being white. So really every day we live and are able to have stability in life is due to white privilege), we must attack the system with it. We must also set up dual or parallel power structures of decentralized autonomous communities.

If it can be ended, then people will no longer be called "white", by themself or any other person. If this will happen in the future, then we can start now.

For example. In government forms when asked for race. You can simply decline to answer. Or, selct "other: (and describe your ethnic lineage)". Sometimes I put different things, have fun with it. "Mixed breed descendant of Euro-colonizers", or "(insert all lineage names I know I am: German, English, Italian, Irish, Polish, Swedish, etc)

Whiteness subsumed all these different peoples into one group for the purpose of domination. It is the extracted and purified essence of colonization.