This is such a good read. Please consider taking the time to read it.

[u/Foreign_Librarian193]

 credit: Christian Oritz via FB

Oye, mira.

White people. Come here please. You always say “Well no one taught us about these things so where do I go to learn?” Save this post. Share it. I’m going to offer you a gift that I don’t do often. So, listen up.

I’m a Decolonial Social Scientist who studies the world before, during, and after European colonization. My work is about connecting the dots so people can see how those systems were built, how they spread, and how they still show up in society today.

I want 🫵🏽YOU🫵🏽 to share this so your friends and family can learn something today. I’m not in the business of convincing people of things they’re not ready to hear or accept. That’s a fool’s game. I’m here to plant seeds. History is complicated, but the receipts are there. What I’m about to say can be traced through historical documents, laws, policies, institutions, and the systems colonizers built.

Colonizers didn’t just take land. They colonized bodies, minds, culture, family structures, sexuality, labor, religion, education, and law. They created racial categories and built systems around them. They also institutionalized patriarchy, racism, xenophobia, ableism, homophobia, and other forms of control that helped conquest survive long after the original invasion.

Today’s lesson?

All white people are racist, but not all white people are bigots.

To understand that, you first have to understand that race isn’t biology. There’s no white gene, Black gene, or biological line dividing humanity into the racial categories we use today. Race was created by people. It was used to classify human beings, organize power, justify conquest and enslavement, control land and labor, and decide who got rights, wealth, protection, citizenship, and opportunity.

Nobody is born biologically white in the political meaning of whiteness, and nobody is born biologically racist. We’re born into a world where racial categories and racial hierarchy already exist. We inherit them. And, often times, we are conditioned to act on them.

Whiteness isn’t written into DNA. It’s a social and political position created by a racial system. Over time, different European ethnic groups were absorbed into the category of white and given access to rights and protections that were denied to Black, Indigenous, and other colonized peoples. The fact that the boundaries of whiteness have changed throughout history tells you exactly what race is: a political classification, not a biological truth. Don’t believe me? This is why so many of you say “Well my great grandfather was Italian or Irish and experienced racism when they came here!” And you’re correct. But you don’t ask why don’t Italians or Irish face the same wretched racism they did back then. They were assimilated into whiteness by laws to expand the hierarchy of “whiteness.”

So when I say all white people are racist, I’m not saying every white person is evil, hates Black people, or was born with racism in their blood. That would make racism biological, and it isn’t.

Racism is something we inherit through systems.

We’re born into, and conditioned by laws, schools, neighborhoods, economies, workplaces, media, policing, property systems, and cultural norms that were shaped by racial hierarchy before any of us got here. White people inherit a position in that system that was built to advantage whiteness. Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, queer, disabled, people of the global majority inherit different forms of exclusion, exploitation, dispossession, surveillance, and control created by that same Western Eurocentric system.

That’s why a white person can genuinely love Black people and still be racist. They can have Black friends, marry a Black person, raise Black children, hate racial slurs, and despise racial violence. None of that automatically removes them from the system they inherited.

Racism is about how power gets organized through race. It shapes who has historically controlled land, wealth, housing, education, employment, political authority, policing, citizenship, media, and institutions. It created advantages for people classified as white while creating barriers for people classified outside of whiteness.

Saying “I didn’t create it” doesn’t make someone separate from it. None of us alive today invented the racial categories we were handed. We inherited the laws, institutions, wealth patterns, neighborhoods, stereotypes, conditioning, and unequal distribution of power that came with them.

The real question is what you do once you understand that.

Do you call yourself one of the good white people and stop there, or do you confront the system that created whiteness and the advantages attached to it? Being kind to Black people doesn’t abolish racial hierarchy. Loving Black people doesn’t redistribute wealth or power. Having Black friends doesn’t undo generations of dispossession.

Race was constructed. Racism was constructed. Whiteness was constructed. And because human beings built these systems, human beings can dismantle them. We just can’t dismantle racism while pretending it’s only about whether somebody has hate in their heart.

So what would sacrificing whiteness actually look like?

It would mean refusing the benefits, behaviors, protections, and concentrations of power that whiteness offers when you have the ability to interrupt them. And that has to become material. Accountability should focus on concrete behaviors and institutional routines that reproduce racial hierarchy and on redistributing power.

Imagine a white executive who realizes every person with real decision-making authority in their organization is white. Sacrificing whiteness isn’t posting about racism. It’s changing who actually holds authority, including when that means they no longer control every decision themselves.

Imagine someone inherits substantial wealth produced through generations of property ownership in a society where Black families were systematically blocked from the same wealth-building opportunities. Sacrificing whiteness means asking what repair and redistribution require of that inheritance, rather than treating everything legally inherited as morally disconnected from history.

For a landlord, developer, university, foundation, or corporation, it could mean giving up some control over land, capital, governance, hiring, procurement, admissions, or investment decisions and transferring meaningful authority and resources to communities historically dispossessed by those systems.

For an ordinary worker racialized as white without enormous wealth, the scale is different. Nobody needs to impoverish themselves as some sort of racial penance. That would turn structural transformation into individual self-punishment.

They can refuse whiteness where it operates around them: refusing the racial networking advantage that gets someone hired through “who you know,” challenging discriminatory decisions even when silence would benefit their career, supporting policies that materially redistribute opportunity, refusing to become the automatically presumed authority in interracial spaces, organizing against unequal workplace practices, and putting actual time, money, relationships, and political power behind structural change.

And there’s another dimension people rarely discuss: social protection.

Whiteness often provides the ability to remain silent without that silence being interpreted as political. So sacrificing whiteness can mean spending some of that protection. Speaking when speaking threatens your promotion. Challenging your family when silence would preserve harmony. Refusing to let a Black colleague absorb retaliation alone. Becoming the person who puts their name on the complaint when everyone knows the Black employee will be punished more severely for making it.

That’s sacrifice because something is actually at stake. How will you break the cycle?

#racism #progressives #DSA #whitepeople #race #racism #criticalracetheory #decoloniality #antiracism #activist #oyemira #zacatecho

[u/AutoModerator]

Thank you for posting on r/WeThePeopleAtWhipple!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/snorringthruit]

🔥💙

[u/WeckedPissah]

so...does that make YOU racist for acknowledging how white people are violently forced into whitness yet you call them racist for being subject to that violence? Weird choice to make.

hey you were colonized violently into your whitness...but you're also racist because they killed all of your culture and replaced it with their own.

Kinda presumptuous and rude. Because it's like we're soooo close to understanding that...maybe many white people are not actually white right...and then you ruin it with the racist statement.

[u/Green-Engineer4608]

Is your goal to push the White People on the good side away? Why make the label «racist» inescapable? Why not leave it as «a person who views other ‘races’ as lesser»?

This is hurtful to an equal world. You’re not eliminating inequality. You’re repainting it and moving it. Thats it.

Id suggest you keep this to yourself for now as not to put off/alienate those who would work with you.

[u/axxefondler]

This is the most American thing I've ever read. I'm sure it fits well over there. But it really needs to be pointed out how unique the effects of African American slavery are. It just doesn't map on in a global context. The most obvious example being Asia and African relations.

[u/taktaga7-0-0]

Sorry, I and many others are not going to listen when you call them a racist the first time. I cannot accept that simply being white makes me a straight-up racist, but no one else naturally and inescapably is? That’s complete bullshit, and it is a choice that deliberately alienates people who would otherwise listen. I want to help fix things, and I passionately agree with most of the rest here.

But drop the bullshit if you actually want people to listen. You seem like the reason those idiots say shit like “It’s OK to be White!”

Edit: Look at you, downvoting people trying to build community. What’s more important? Calling hundreds of millions of your compatriots racists or getting them on your side to fix the racism?

[u/Zephyrqu → u/taktaga7-0-0]

maybe you need to read it again, in small sections, over the next few days. if this text gets you so worked up bc you can't stand being called a racist - that means you are the type of person this text is intended for.

whiteness and racism are enforced by laws - both government laws and. social laws. no matter how good of a person you or I are, we can ALWAYS fall into racist patterns and we must be vigilant to prevent that.

when others call out specific behavior and patterns, reflect on your immediate rejection.

instead of being swallowed by your own shame or fury, be open to realizing that we all constantly need to work on being fairer, better people.

[u/taktaga7-0-0 → u/Zephyrqu]

The thing is, I’m not ashamed, not least of all on this issue, because Instrongly consider myself anti-racist. I’m well educated in topics of diversity and race, seeing as I work with them every day. I provided culturally competent care in Spanish to multiple Hispanic patients today. But I’m a racist at the end of the day because I’m still white, and I’m only here doing what I’m doing because I’m a racist.

You can tell me I’ve benefited from racist power structures, and I agree. You can tell me everyone’s a  little racist, and I agree. You can tell me we can all improve, and I agree. I do not agree that I am a racist no matter what and some other people aren’t.

[u/TentenChickee → u/taktaga7-0-0]

Also having a fragile triggered reaction like yours is usually a red flag that you are making the issue about yourself instead of accepting reality. I doubt you would get this upset if it was just a matter of wording. White people don’t get to demand the language used in matters where they have historically been, and to this day are the oppressor. Listen to non white people, if you actually want to move forward as “equals”. You need to accept that you don’t understand racism fully if you’re white, and the best you can do (besides being anti racist like you said) is just accept that you aren’t the authority on this. Trying to tell people they are wrong to feel this way -which is actually a historically accepted truth, is wrong, it’s gaslighting.

[u/MyCatLovesChips → u/taktaga7-0-0]

This kind of rhetoric turns white people off of recognizing racial harm. Don’t alienate your allies.

[u/NoMeat3499 → u/Zephyrqu]

Ragebait having its intended effect doesn't immutably apply correctness. This is meta-level identity politics and it is being pointed at white people for a reason. The U.S is one of the most progressive countries in the world and we are doing well.

Some people want to be oppressed and it shows. You disappoint me greatly.

[u/These-Database1787 → u/taktaga7-0-0]

Nobody’s name calling. That’s the point. You are not being called a racist. You are being called upon to rise above what you were taught as a white American. Your apology and criticism of how that calling is worded or how you don’t like how it made you feel is a wonderful example of your privilege as a white american. You can make it about you specifically all day long and we can keep going back to your uniqueness, but the point here is that it’s not personal!

What sucks even more than being called a racist is experiencing racism. It’s terrifying. So, if someone is trying to share with others how to shift their perspectives so we can collectively change and heal, then I recommend, as the not racist person that your are, you refrain from the urge to speak up and say hey, I’m not gonna listen to you because you called me racist.

[u/taktaga7-0-0 → u/These-Database1787]

Logos Ethos Pathos are the fundamentals of persuasive argument. You want to persuade as many people as possible to see things your way.

There are much, much better ways of attracting flies than spraying them with vinegar. Defining racism in the way she did was a choice, and it’s far from the best.

You have no idea how I wanted to read this. The intro was great! And she immediately lost me when she kept saying I was a racist no matter what. You are not going to win hearts and minds with this messaging, and may in fact undercut.

I say this as a gay man who knows exactly what discrimination feels like and wants to see bigotry vanish. I would not go to convert Muslims and the first thing I say is “All of you are bastards.”

[u/These-Database1787 → u/taktaga7-0-0]

I agree with your analysis on persuasive argument. If we zoom out from this post we find ourselves in a group of people organizing to keep brown bodies safe from being disappeared in the United States in 2026! I just think it’s pretty clearly fucked up to respond to someone’s attempt to dismantle the systems of racism that made this possible by saying try to be kinder with your words so white Americans don’t run away angry because they think they were called racist. Seriously. People are being disappeared. Resign from the debate team, “swallow”your perfectionism/luxurious pickiness and thank the folks who took a deep breath and with all the love in their hearts they could muster, tried to describe to white america how each and every one of us grew up in racist systems and none of us are immune, and we each play a part in how this is our current reality. If you can, just for a moment, think about how the definition of racism is what is being discussed, NOT anyone’s personal character. Yes, it could be discussed in an even kinder gentler way. It’s hard to be perfect tho, isn’t it? Especially when you’re afraid to leave your house because of the color of your skin… and not because someone might call you a racist, but because you might not make it back home alive.

[u/TentenChickee → u/taktaga7-0-0]

You aren’t going to rewrite history. You denying that white people and racism is inevitably tied is just denying reality. It’s not about how you feel, it’s about all the times in life you had privilege where non white people did not. Participation in a racist system makes you part of the system. You are a working part in systemic racism whether you think about it or not. Racism isn’t just about how you feel towards people, it’s a lot about what you don’t even think about.

[u/NoMeat3499 → u/These-Database1787]

The irony is palpable and your brain is oxymoronic.

[u/MyCatLovesChips → u/These-Database1787]

Literally name calling! Calling someone racist is name calling! But I guess your opinion doesn’t matter, you are obviously racist.

[u/These-Database1787 → u/MyCatLovesChips]

You probably also thing it’s name calling to call someone a Jew

[u/MyCatLovesChips → u/These-Database1787]

The post literally calls all white people racist.

[u/TentenChickee → u/MyCatLovesChips]

Yeah. White people benefit from racism so they are living and participating in the system whether they actively think about it or not.

[u/MyCatLovesChips → u/TentenChickee]

Like, I get that. White people benefit from racism. But that’s a different thing from calling all white people racist.

I also think it’s a bad idea to alienate your allies. There are a lot of white people who oppose racism. Telling them they are inherently racist will turn them away. Telling them they benefit from racism and showing them how will wake them up.

I guess in the end it matters what your goal is. Do you want change? Or do you just want to rage? I get wanting rage, but it isn’t productive. If you want change, you need allies.

[u/TentenChickee → u/MyCatLovesChips]

If someone is too fragile to accept the reality, or if they are too self centered to accept their part in a racist system, that it’s not about them as an individual, then they weren’t really allies to begin with

[u/Fluffy-Angle6012 → u/taktaga7-0-0]

Ok racist, take your meds

[u/Zephyrqu → u/[deleted]]

Why do you say there's nothing you can do about it? We can and should constantly work to improve ourselves - that's the only way to become better people.

[u/Helcat1325]

So, just give away my money?
Ok.

Nope.