I have argued with myself about making this post for a while. I’ve been hinting at sort of coming at this topic in numerous posts (the ones about CCCC, ones about the police, some about game studies right now, etc.). I want to preface all of what I’m about to say with the fact that I’m mostly Cherokee (I have some white in me). Some Cherokee don’t appreciate me making that distinction, but they also won’t enroll me because my family fled relocation, so they can deal with my self-defining politics. I am writing this from the position of someone who isn’t marked visibly (unless you really know what to look for) but who has always been othered culturally.
When Obama won the Presidency, there was a widespread belief that we’d made major strides in terms of race relations in America.
We didn’t.
What the eight years of Obama showed us is that some people have moved forward, but some people– I’m afraid at times many more people– were entrenched in the past, in the old forms of institutional racism that we refuse to face as a society. These were the people outraged that McCain lost to a black man. These were the people who dreamed up the idea that Barry Obama was a Kenyan and a secret Muslim. These were the people who erased Obama’s white family. These were the people who installed Donald Trump and who celebrate their Confederate landmarks and rush to the defense of white cops who shoot black people.
It’s worse than it was in the 1990s.
I know that’s hard to hear. And realize that I know writing on my blog I’m preaching to the choir, essentially, since you’d have to get here on accident to not understand my point-of-view. I don’t spend time with people who are overtly and dangerously racist.
But as a person who studies race, who deals with being part of a group in America that was all but erased–who once were the only people on this land, I want to give you ten hard truths that, if you can accept them, will assist you in being a better person. I’m not going to use the term “ally.” It’s too loaded. And I’m not looking for sympathizers because this isn’t about sympathy. What I want to do is offer you some tips that will help you to see the world more clearly, will help you to understand the things that happen around you. I want to show you that it isn’t better. At all.
- If you’re white, you need to start from the understanding that you will never truly understand how racism is weaponized, at least not from the side of those who suffer. We– the othered– know that. We don’t expect you to understand. But it gets tiresome hearing about how you knew this person or you had a friend who was that person or you worked in this place or that place. You will always be white, and you will always be far safer, have far more advantage, because of it. And if you’re male and white, you will never, ever have to work as hard, suffer as much, or plan for survival like someone who is racially other. Don’t pretend you get it, because it’s really fucking insulting.
- You need to realize that white culture’s only real resources are money, power, and the willingness to consume other cultures. I know that many of you don’t realize why things like blackface and Indian mascots and white kids in baggy pants listening to Jay-Z and calling each other “My Nigga” is so bad. It’s because there’s no way for any of us to do the same thing to you. There’s no white motherland. There’s no rich tradition of white culture. White people take over lands and wage war. They explored because their food was bland and their slight variations in religion were intolerable. I’m not saying that white people NOW are bad people (some are, but most aren’t), but I’m saying that white culture is a plague of locusts that learned to remix as it ate. If that insults you, I do apologize, but you needed to hear it.
- There are a great number of good people–white and otherwise–who need to stop acting like they’re great people. Tossing plastic stuff in a recycling bin, shopping local, posting about social issues on your Facebook feed and eating at exotic ethnic hot spots doesn’t make you a social justice champion. If you want to make things better you have to be willing to put yourself at risk. Don’t ask someone who is suffering oppression to give you a merit badge because you corrected the person who said “Indian.” Do something. Like really do something.
- Learn from the best of your own. I remember back when Standing Rock was going bad, right before it went well for a second, before it went bad again. US Military veterans– white ones, old and in no condition to fight– went and stood between the current military/police and the protesters. Those are the best of you; don’t glorify people like John McCain who talk a big game but represent the arguably the most racist state in America. Look to those who are willing to give of themselves.
- Don’t throw up your hands and give up. We don’t, and you already have an advantage in the culture war to come. You’re white. White people will listen to you and value you. So don’t tell me how hard it is for you to deal with how things are going. Try being black in Missouri and Native anywhere. Try being Japanese American during World War II. Speed until you get pulled over and see if the cop pulls a gun on you. If you give up, you’re selfish.
- Don’t expect us— the ones who are othered– to stand for all of our kind. I get exhausted from this one. Yes, I understand indigenous culture. But not even in the same way as other indigenous scholars I’ve studied with. I don’t expect you to know the thoughts and motivations of every white person. Do me the same courtesy. Let me be me and not your token Indian.
- At the same time– get more token Indians, if that’s the only way to sell it to your colleagues. I will never forget hearing a Chicano scholar talk about the job market in academia and the fear that affirmative action would ruin the academy. The year I was on the market, there was one Cherokee scholar in my field. If I’d gotten the very best job available, I’d have taken one position out of play. And while I can’t prove this, I am absolutely certain that nepotism takes more than one job off the market every year. So if you see someone who represents difference, give them a serious thought. Make sure you’re not judging their abilities without understanding their culture. You need more of us. Badly.
- Quit assuming it will work out. It won’ work out if you don’t make it work out. Things can, and I think will, be okay after our national nightmare, but the stupid Bernie vs. Hillary arguments that are still happening among liberals is ridiculous. Hillary lost. If you love her as a feminist, here’s a high five. But let it, and her, go. And Bernie lost to Hillary, who lost. The enemy is Trump and the current administration. Forget the people who lost last time and unify behind someone we can get into office this time. I know the symbolism of a woman President would have been awesome, but having the first black President didn’t make anything better at all, so maybe, just maybe, you should think about supporting the white liberal dude who can get rid of the huge mess we have right now. It’s a sad reality, and it’s not what I should ideally be saying (I want to push for Corey Booker or one of the Castro brothers), but you have to start being realistic. Hillary’s book asked (or stated) “what happened,” and the answer is liberal America took a dump all over the process of choosing a leader. Do better, or shut up with your coffee house hipster arguments about which candidate is better. Your words aren’t as valuable as your actions, and we seemed to only get one of the two last election cycle.
- Stop letting fear control you. Fear of others. Fear of the system. Fear that you don’t have enough money or a good enough job. Because if any of those things put you in danger, it’s because of the way society works right now. And if you’re white, all the people of color have to get blasted first. Conservatism and racism win if you give in to fear.
- Quit thinking that colleges are the cradle of liberal thought. In my experience, it’s been the opposite. I’ve met more active conservatives in my time in the academy than active liberals. That’s not to say I haven’t met a number of great liberal thinkers and people who work to bring change, but there’s far more conservatism in the academy than you think. The same is true of the “liberal” media. Stop letting the far right of the political spectrum trick you into thinking that there are liberal strongholds where there aren’t. Realize that liberal thought is in danger. Work to preserve it.]
I wake up every day and try to do my best, but I am haunted by a talk I had with my mother years ago. We were both exasperated over the shape of things, and she told me “you know, you wake up every day and think the people who are in charge know what they’re doing, but they don’t.”
It’s true.
As the graphic novel asks, who watches the watchmen?
We better, or we’re going to lose sight of everything.
Know your enemy.