White Supremacy In the Colorblind Age: A Circle (Jerk) of Misery

            

           If you’re into astrology at all you will know that the New Year coincided with a New Moon in Capricorn. Now, I’m no expert, but perhaps that confluence of events explains why this past year seemed so back loaded with chaotic events. This included the announcement by Ani DiFranco that she was holding a retreat at a former plantation. She recently canceled the event and you can read her facile apology here. The debacle included the silencing of Black feminists, white women pretending to be Black on the internet, not to mention Saul Williams accusing Black people of being too quick to anger. Williams, in the wake of DiFranco’s mea culpa, has since rescinded the comment.

            But it is 2014 and in the spirit of resolutions I would like to address the sentiment that was expressed by Williams. I too am sick and tired of being angry. But unfortunately for Black people in this country the anger will stop when and if the daily drain of white supremacy stops.  

            Part of what is so crazy making about modern-day amerikkkan racism is the fact that white people have been afforded rhetoric of neutrality. This means that the terms ‘human being’ and ‘white person’ have become synonymous. White people can claim to stand for the whole of humanity, while disavowing any experience that deviates from whiteness, labeling it ‘divisive.’

            This leads to what I call the circle (jerk) of misery. Because white people are so convinced that their ideas, experiences, etc. are racially neutral it becomes hard to call them out. This rhetoric of neutrality also empowers many white people to tell folx of color how they should or should not feel, which is, from what I can tell, what happened in the wake of the Ani DiFranco debacle. To make matters worse, many white folx are simply unaware of the systemic nature of racism. This refusal leads many folx of color to become angry. Specifically Black folx are already perceived as overly angry. Anger directed toward white folx who uphold white supremacy leads to allegations of reverse racism. Which is funny, because if those same white folx would have just listened in the first place a lot of stress could have been avoided on all sides.

            So this is the dilemma. How do you reason with someone who, by the unspoken racist norms of our society, does not have to listen to you?

            I don’t know. But what I do know is that I am tired of being angry. And that at a certain point confronting colorblind racists uses you up more than it actually solves anything. Despite all of the disingenuous talk of seeing beyond Black and white that colorblind racists such as DiFranco propose, the truth is that it is Black ancestors who were raped and brutalized on those plantations. Their ghosts still languish there. And let us not forget that modern-day incarnation of slavery, the prison industrial complex. Most of the folx populating our prisons look nothing like DiFranco or her supporters.

            This is why I propose that Black folx and folx of color learn to disengage. It’s hard when you’re daily bombarded by bullshit. But it’s time to move on to bigger and better things. Not that we shouldn’t concentrate on holding racists accountable. I’m very glad that DiFranco is cancelling the event. But we need a multi-tiered strategy if we are even going to achieve a semblance of racial justice. And I am no stranger to burn out. Part of the resilience of modern-day white supremacy is that you can argue about it until you are blue in the face, but it is so subtle that it will always be de rigueur. Which is why at some level we need to be strategic about which battles we choose to fight, when to shut out the bullshit and how to move forward. Now more than ever is a time to be creative and to use guile, secrecy. If there are white folx who don’t wanna hear the truth, then shit, do what Grandad from the Boondocks does and just don’t tell them. The ignorant will be undone by their ignorance. It is time that we fortify ourselves and find new ways to operate. I’m not exactly sure what this looks like yet, but I’m working on it.

            One of my New Year’s resolutions is to let go of the things that use me up rather than revitalize me. I am hoping that we can all redirect our energies in ways that are personally rejuvenating.

(Note: I realize that in this article I am forced into gross generalizations about Black and white folx. Unfortunately, given the nature of this article and the polarizing event that it describes, I had to use generalizations in order to get my point across).