john a. powell "[T]he fear of...the racial black other is not just about the loss of a job, the decline in property values, or other material privileges, but the very loss of the self. Of course, what I am suggesting here is that the self that is being so violently protected is itself the problem." --john a. powell, "Dreaming of a Self Beyond Whiteness and Isolation"
"You rape our women and you’re taking over our country."
The White terrorist who murdered nine innocent people massacred in Charleston, SC on June 17, 2015, justified his actions with this statement, which reveals nothing about his victims, but much about the murderer himself.
The White terrorist who murdered nine innocent people massacred in Charleston, SC on June 17, 2015, justified his actions with this statement, which reveals nothing about his victims, but much about the murderer himself.
I was born into this body in a certain place and time. Based on what people in my time and place see, they tell me who they think I should be through words and the way they treat me. And one of the things the world sees me as, is White.
In America, White people like me have created a cultural belief that we can “save” Black people by teaching them how to become what is often called "productive members of society."
Underneath this belief (which you can see operating at various levels in schools, non-profits, and government agencies across the country) is the idea that Blackness is some sort of disease to be cured by Whiteness. (Coincidentally, check out the banner images from the Twitter account of the person who got the @risksomething handle before I did!)
But Blackness doesn't exist.
Blackness, along with Whiteness, is a deliberate invention. Race has no biological foundation. It was made up by ruling-class European Americans who wanted to figure out ways to divide poor European-Americans and poor African-Americans from coming together and rebelling against the ruling class.
The invention of Blackness allowed us to justify African enslavement and retain the loyalty of poor European-Americans.
Black people only became Black when White people looked at them.
If there is a disease associated with Blackness, it’s in our White eyes and how they perceive Blackness. The ocular disease that we call racism shows up in White people with three powerful symptoms.
As a White person infected with a full-blown case of racism, I used to operate under the unconscious assumption that I was a sort of “race doctor,” capable of diagnosing and treating people of color’s race problems. I thought that I was an objective, neutral observer of the disease of race.
In America, White people like me have created a cultural belief that we can “save” Black people by teaching them how to become what is often called "productive members of society."
Underneath this belief (which you can see operating at various levels in schools, non-profits, and government agencies across the country) is the idea that Blackness is some sort of disease to be cured by Whiteness. (Coincidentally, check out the banner images from the Twitter account of the person who got the @risksomething handle before I did!)
But Blackness doesn't exist.
Blackness, along with Whiteness, is a deliberate invention. Race has no biological foundation. It was made up by ruling-class European Americans who wanted to figure out ways to divide poor European-Americans and poor African-Americans from coming together and rebelling against the ruling class.
The invention of Blackness allowed us to justify African enslavement and retain the loyalty of poor European-Americans.
Black people only became Black when White people looked at them.
If there is a disease associated with Blackness, it’s in our White eyes and how they perceive Blackness. The ocular disease that we call racism shows up in White people with three powerful symptoms.
- We have incredible difficulty seeing people of color as their true, complex, individual selves, as opposed to the racial caricatures we are taught. In isolation, this symptom would be treatable. We would simply have to be taught to compensate for our malfunction, like someone with a broken leg learns how to walk with crutches. However, the second symptom of racism is...
- Blindness to our own blindness. White people are trained to be unable to see that we bear the disease of racism. Most White people are aware that racism exists, but we desperately want to believe that it’s always somewhere else, instead of in the air we breathe and the thoughts we think. This is what makes racism so hard to treat in White people--we can’t seek treatment if the disease itself prevents us from understanding that we bear the disease (a condition known as anosognosia). Which leads to the third symptom...
- Racism convinces us that not only are we not blind when it comes to race, we are in fact race experts. This perspective (believing the opposite of what is true) is, to put it diplomatically, infuriating to everyone else.
As a White person infected with a full-blown case of racism, I used to operate under the unconscious assumption that I was a sort of “race doctor,” capable of diagnosing and treating people of color’s race problems. I thought that I was an objective, neutral observer of the disease of race.
This complex dynamic of racism in White people reminds me of reaction videos, a genre of video where Person A watches a video, while Person B films Person A’s face during the film viewing. The video Person A is watching is usually disturbing and so their reaction is usually comical.
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When I think I’m diagnosing Black people to help treat their Blackness, it's like I'm the target of a reaction video. I believe that I am the doctor, observing the patient, but in fact, I am the patient, unknowingly self-diagnosing. I’m actually making myself a case study for what racism does to White eyes.
So when I say, “Why is this Black person doing/saying that?”
I’d be better served to ask, “What does my discomfort/judgment/anger at what this Black person is doing show about my disease?”
And when I offer suggestions, such as, “Black people should do X instead of doing Y.”
I’ll make more progress to help Black people by asking myself, “Why is my disease telling me I know what’s best for Black people when I have no idea what it’s like to be Black?”
So when I say, “Why is this Black person doing/saying that?”
I’d be better served to ask, “What does my discomfort/judgment/anger at what this Black person is doing show about my disease?”
And when I offer suggestions, such as, “Black people should do X instead of doing Y.”
I’ll make more progress to help Black people by asking myself, “Why is my disease telling me I know what’s best for Black people when I have no idea what it’s like to be Black?”
Of course, there are also Black people who look at White people and have judgments about what we do and say as well. The crucial difference is that when Black people judge me on my Whiteness, they don’t have access to institutional power to keep me out or limit my opportunities.
Yet collective White judgments about Black people have vast power over the lives of those people--through our systems of legislation, policing, housing, and more. When diseased White eyes look at Trayvon or Eric or Aiyana or Mike in their Blackness and see them as animals and/or criminals, they end up not only dead, but indicted for their own murders while their killers walk free--forgiven and justified by our American institutions.
So as a White person seeking to be part of the long arc of racial justice in America, I must commit to making sure I'm paying closer attention to my racial "reaction video" than I am to the behavior of people of color. How do I feel in racially-charged situations? How does my disease respond?
Yet collective White judgments about Black people have vast power over the lives of those people--through our systems of legislation, policing, housing, and more. When diseased White eyes look at Trayvon or Eric or Aiyana or Mike in their Blackness and see them as animals and/or criminals, they end up not only dead, but indicted for their own murders while their killers walk free--forgiven and justified by our American institutions.
So as a White person seeking to be part of the long arc of racial justice in America, I must commit to making sure I'm paying closer attention to my racial "reaction video" than I am to the behavior of people of color. How do I feel in racially-charged situations? How does my disease respond?
When the St. Louis Rams come onto the field with their hands up in honor of Mike Brown, instead of focusing on what that display shows about Blackness, what does my reaction show about my Whiteness?
When Black people in Baltimore take to the streets by the thousands, is the indignation I feel about property damage at CVS proportional to the indignation I feel about police officers arresting and murdering an innocent Black man? What do I fear will happen if protesters are protesting in what I see as the “wrong” way?
As a White person, I am needed in the movement for Black lives. One of the most valuable contributions I can make is gaining control of my Whiteness for the first time. By mustering the courage to look in the mirror and diagnose myself, I take control over my body and my mind, which I now see have never been mine alone, but unknowingly shared with a silent, vicious host.
As a White person, I am needed in the movement for Black lives. One of the most valuable contributions I can make is gaining control of my Whiteness for the first time. By mustering the courage to look in the mirror and diagnose myself, I take control over my body and my mind, which I now see have never been mine alone, but unknowingly shared with a silent, vicious host.
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