Whiteness is a power source
It’s a category we don’t choose but emerge into
A label that separates as it was designed to do
and blinds many of us to the harm it does.
What does it mean to unplug ourselves from whiteness?
Is it possible for each of us on our own to do this
or undo this as it were?
Seems either we assume whiteness is simply The Reality
or we fear losing Power if we turn away from its legacy.
What I wonder most is not so much
how we choose our way out of whiteness
It’s instead the why of it that worries me
Business as usual is a comfortable route
and keeps our focus narrow on the day to day
We need the bigger picture
the one that shows us that you can’t just be anti racist
you can’t just pretend that white supremacy doesn’t apply to you
you can’t think you way out of whiteness
It’s history that’s grounded you in this
and history that’s been rewritten to make you believe
you are who you think you are.
Who would you be if you were not white?
Perhaps you could be just this body that
descended from ancestors carrying their storied history,
born out of a lineage that survived and thrived
by helping each other along the way.
You can be one among a community of others.
It can be community that holds you to the task
that keeps the ground from caving in
that allows the spreading of new growth
coming into the spring of whiteness undone.
Imagine being held in such a community
and remember this
so you can recognize it when it happens.