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A problem we--and by we I mean white people who consider ourselves well-meaning--have is that we believe other white people are racist/antisemitic/hateful because they're ignorant. Because they just *don't know better*
And this isn't necessarily true
And this isn't necessarily true
"If we just expose them to the horrors of slavery then they'd understand! If we just made them speak to a Holocaust survivor, they'd understand! If we just had them speak to a victim of queer violence they'd...."
No. Not only is this naive, it's also racist in its own way
No. Not only is this naive, it's also racist in its own way
Because we white people are demanding labor from Black people, Indigenous people, Jewish people (and white cis hets are demanding labor from queer ppl)--we're demanding ppl who have already suffered to potentially *suffer more* at the hands of Camp Auschwitz dudes
We're treating human beings like teaching tools, who exist only to "save poor white people who are just poisoned by their ignorance."
We're prioritizing white comfort over non-white pain. Again. Because believing ignorance is the sole cause of hate prioritizes white comfort
We're prioritizing white comfort over non-white pain. Again. Because believing ignorance is the sole cause of hate prioritizes white comfort
Ignorance is something we can believe in that doesn't require a system of white supremacy. Ignorance is an individual matter. Ignorance doesn't depend on systemic hatred but the much more passive act of *not knowing*
Ignorance allows white people to just keep on going
Ignorance allows white people to just keep on going
Look I can't get into too much of this for lots of reasons but I knew one of the people who stormed the Capitol. I didn't know them super well but I knew them enough & they were fairly well-traveled, they'd lived in diverse communities, worked in diverse workplaces
Hell this person probably attended all those corporate diversity workshops we think are enough.
This person, for all their many flaws, was not ignorant.
This person, for all their many flaws, was not ignorant.
They had Black friends, if you want to really pull out the cliches.
And yet they were there anyway. Because in the end, nothing was more important to them than embracing their whiteness and finding ways to blame everyone else for every bad thing that ever happened to them
And yet they were there anyway. Because in the end, nothing was more important to them than embracing their whiteness and finding ways to blame everyone else for every bad thing that ever happened to them
I've been thinking about this person lately. I knew them about a decade ago, before Trump. And when I knew them, they were certainly right-leaning but they were a centrist more than anything.
Ignorance didn't force them to embrace Trumpism.
Ignorance didn't force them to embrace Trumpism.
If you had this person talk to a Holocaust survivor they'd either play-act empathy or they'd call the whole thing false--that the survivor was an actor, that it was all a psy-op imposed by the deep state. They'd fit the experience in to the world view they'd actively embraced
We white ppl find it easy to think of the ppl who stormed the Capitol as either redneck rubes from some imaginary rural America or basement-dwelling trolls who barely register as human or ignorant lost lambs we must [force non-white folks] to lead back into the fold
Even after four years of Trump we still want to believe his supporters are capable of being "saved"
And sure, restorative justice performed by people who know what they're doing might reach some of them. I won't deny that.
But not all. Not most.
And sure, restorative justice performed by people who know what they're doing might reach some of them. I won't deny that.
But not all. Not most.
The people who stormed the Capitol are just like us "well-meaning" white people. They were motivated by white supremacy, by the white supremacist fear that they are "losing" somehow and must "take back" what belongs to white people.
Whiteness is what pushed them.
Not ignorance
Whiteness is what pushed them.
Not ignorance
Until we recognize that whiteness is at fault, until we stop passing the buck and forcing labor from non-white people, until we recognize this movement as active and not passive ignorance, it will never get any better.
The ppl who stormed the Capitol knew what they were doing
The ppl who stormed the Capitol knew what they were doing
Now the rest of us whites have to realize it.
