What do white people do?

How do we dismantle white supremacy when we benefit from it?

Members of my faith-based congregation have voted to accept the Eighth Principle of Unitarian Universalism, which is to “affirm and promote: journeying toward spiritual wholeness by working to build a diverse multicultural Beloved Community by our actions that accountably dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves and our institutions.” The key words here for me are “to dismantle racism and other oppressions in ourselves….”

Toward that end I’ve explored and compiled list of resources in an attempt to understand my own role in the maintenance of a culture of white supremacy, particularly within my workplace and local community. One of the lessons learned is that white people should not dominate social justice spaces but rather, we should make sure BIPOC voices are dominant in conversations and work to dismantle white supremacy culture.

Okay… I get that.

I also hear the voice of Reesma Menakem, the author of My Grandmother’s Hands, who calls on white people to “get their acts together” before they try to be helpful in social justice work. Here are a few quotes from him while being interviewed by Krista Tippets on a podcast titled Toward a Framework for Repair, aired July 9, 2020. Menakem says…

“…when white folks and allies say that they’re allies, and what can we do, and you think you’re being helpful; or what should I do now?, and you think you’re being helpful, there is such a brutality to your words that, many times, I can’t fool with white folks. I can’t be around you. I need you to leave me alone. I need you to not ask me what my opinion is of a Black man getting murdered with no regard.”

“…and they’re going to have to start really beginning to figure out how they build culture around abolishing white supremacy.

Anything other than that, for me, really is — and you’ve heard me say this before — really is performance art. It is not real. If you’re not going to be with other white bodies for three to 10 years, grinding on specifically about race and specifically about the things that show up when white bodies get together to build culture, then I can’t fool with you.

The idea that people can come up to me and ask me, what should I do?, when we have Google, is just crazy on its face.

… white folks have got to do this work themselves.”

NOTE: this is a powerful interview and it is worthwhile hearing these words in Reesma Menakem’s own voice. You can listen to the full interview here: On Being Podcast; July 9, 2020.

=================================================================

So what do well-meaning white people do?

Well, we can start by talking to other white people about the roots of white supremacy and the advantages white people have gained as members of a privileged group. This is especially true for cis-gendered white men. Like me….

Okay… so this is hard to hear… perhaps. Yes, we have all suffered from various forms of oppression and bigotry. Yes, we have worked hard to get where we are socially and economically. Yes, we have tried to be open, welcoming and non-judgmental of others who might look or speak differently. And yes…. yes… yes…. we have benefited from being white.

There… I said it.

White people like me have benefited from 400 years of geocide, land theft, and attempted erasure of the Native people who lived on this continent for thousands of years before our white, European ancestors arrived. White people benefited from 246 years of legal slavery, followed by another 100 years of Jim Crow laws, right up to today’s oppression of immigrants, queer and trans people, and any people of color.

“We the people” elected our current president, whether we voted for him personally or not. He and his policies of Christian nationalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy are our responsibility. The first step in repentance and repair is to acknowledge this responsibility and to own the fact that we have benefited. Unless we take this difficult, gut-wrenching, and necessary first step, our efforts to dismantle racism will be perceived largely as performance, as Reesma Menakem suggests.

Menakem calls for white people to join with “other white bodies for three to 10 years, grinding on specifically about race and specifically about the things that show up when white bodies get together to build culture…”

This won’t be easy…. are you ready?