Characteristics of white supremacy and Christianity: either/or thinking, uniformity.

A thread:

(1)

Either/or thinking and uniformity is a characteristic of white supremacy*. The notion that you are with us or against us, agree or are wrong, you are either good or bad, is a weapon of white supremacy. There is no room for nuance, for different opinions, for compromise.
(2)

It teaches us to think in binaries, it demands linear thinking. In doing so it erases our complexities, our individuality.

This causes us to detach from ourselves, we are told what’s acceptable and what’s not, and we are asked to fit into those molds to belong...
(3)

to be right, to be well… so we have to learn to deny our own intuition, to betray our own selves, to not listen to our bodies, to our wisdom, so that we are safe inside the oppressive system, and so we can fit in.
(4)

Inside of white supremacy as a system, discrimination, abuse and harm are bad, but dominant identities are good (white, male, hetero, rich, cis, able bodied…), so they can’t be discriminating or doing harm, we must be misunderstanding**.
(5)

Everything dominant powerful identities do is excused, they get the benefit of the doubt, they are not seen for their individual actions, but as a monolith of goodness. Similarly, marginalized identities are bad, and when they call out discrimination, abuse,
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oppression, and harm, they are just misrepresenting and persecuting. Marginalized identities are also seen as a monolith of non-acceptable, not good people; all regardless of individual character.
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Uniformity in christianity shows up by reducing everyones identity to “child of God”, but not welcoming the nuances of who they are. It shows up in church cultures that encourage the emulating of the leaders and pastors,
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taking the verse “follow me as I follow Christ” to mean “do as I do.” It shows up when it seeks to police people’s language, dress code, behavior, and has strict rules of acceptability that demand you fit into the mold they’ve created.
(9)

It uplifts pastors and leaders as a model to follow, it asks for assimilation. People are discouraged from asking questions, or thinking on their own, they are just told what to think and what to believe, it doesn’t invite diversity of thought,
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but curates what people hear and see so they keep people in echo chamber that confirms their own biases. It discourages proximity from anybody and anything that doesn’t align with their acceptable, strict, arbitrary, boundaries.
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It’s mission trips and missionaries asking local peoples to adopt their ways and relationship with the divine, and demonizing everything that isn’t the missionaries’ faith and culture. It’s reducing all people to good if they are their version of christianity,
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or bad if they aren’t, w/out ever looking at their individual character.

Embracing individuality, and showing up as our full selves, expanding in the world, and being all that we are, w/out editing ourselves, censoring, or betraying ourselves, is resisting white supremacy.
(13)

*Dismantling Racism: A Workbook for Social Change Groups, by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun - https://www.showingupforracialjustice.org/white-supremacy-culture-characteristics.html
**White Fragility - good/bad paradigm - Robin DiAngelo

More characteristics here: https://twitter.com/joluehmann/status/1285357347997540352