Rachel, what a beautiful post. It is not easy to find words for what you are describing about the lines between white supremacy, whiteness, fair skin, etc. It seems like all of this can sometimes be downstream of a larger effort to consolidate power. Who is defined as white can and has adjusted over time (as it formerly did not include Italians, Germans, Jews, and more). These are complex inquiries, and I also find there is a lot of wisdom from people like Tyson Yunkaporta, the author of Sand Talk and a member of an Indigenous tribe from Australia:
“I find that ‘whiteness’ is no longer a useful term in my vocabulary. In my community, we use the words ‘black’ and ‘white’ every day as a convenient shorthand to describe relationships between occupiers and the occupied, but those terms are horribly inadequate for describing our reality today, particularly in multicultural and international contexts.
In a world where black African colonists are annexing the traditional lands of fair-skinned Nemadi hunters, where Celts struggle against English domination while Basques in Spain and Koryaks in Russia fight to retain their ancient lands and languages, where diasporic peoples of various skin tones have been making babies together for generations in every country, black and white is a limiting paradigm for understanding Indigenous experience.”
My ancestors and relatives in India have hard dark skin, but have and still do participate in the oppression of others who are "lower castes" and I continue to wrestle with my heritage as a "high-caste" Brahmin from India, even though such distinctions don't mean as much here in the United States except for in Indian / South Asian sub-cultures / communities here.
Wonderful and courageous writing. Thank you for sharing!
Teju! Thank you for this incredible response that offers another crucial angle on this complex, multi-dimensional topic. I totally agree that the conversation is ultimately one of power and identity/biology has been an unbelievably sophisticated way to weaponize power, whiteness being just one mechanism of many. Like Yunkaporta says, we are called to expand this conversation and recognize that being the victim of oppression does not make one immune from being an oppressor, that colorism or whiteness is not sufficient in containing the issue, that reducing this to those dynamics neglects so much that must be addressed if we are to free ourselves from hierarchy, dominance, colonialism, supremacy ideology, etc. Ultimately, I feel we are being called toward nondualism where we can hold the beauty and offering in each of our unique cultures and inheritances, compost the toxicity of subjugating anyone to violence through false ideations, and embrace diversity as supportive to the whole rather than viewing it as a threat. Identity is so curious to me. I wonder what we are meant to learn here and how we're called to evolve.
“Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.” - MLK Jr.
The work you are bringing into the world is so beautifully particular and absolutely needed. Thank you for this article and the depth of your language around what it means to reconnect and reclaim where we come from.
Beautiful
Thank you, Grace
Rachel, what a beautiful post. It is not easy to find words for what you are describing about the lines between white supremacy, whiteness, fair skin, etc. It seems like all of this can sometimes be downstream of a larger effort to consolidate power. Who is defined as white can and has adjusted over time (as it formerly did not include Italians, Germans, Jews, and more). These are complex inquiries, and I also find there is a lot of wisdom from people like Tyson Yunkaporta, the author of Sand Talk and a member of an Indigenous tribe from Australia:
“I find that ‘whiteness’ is no longer a useful term in my vocabulary. In my community, we use the words ‘black’ and ‘white’ every day as a convenient shorthand to describe relationships between occupiers and the occupied, but those terms are horribly inadequate for describing our reality today, particularly in multicultural and international contexts.
In a world where black African colonists are annexing the traditional lands of fair-skinned Nemadi hunters, where Celts struggle against English domination while Basques in Spain and Koryaks in Russia fight to retain their ancient lands and languages, where diasporic peoples of various skin tones have been making babies together for generations in every country, black and white is a limiting paradigm for understanding Indigenous experience.”
My ancestors and relatives in India have hard dark skin, but have and still do participate in the oppression of others who are "lower castes" and I continue to wrestle with my heritage as a "high-caste" Brahmin from India, even though such distinctions don't mean as much here in the United States except for in Indian / South Asian sub-cultures / communities here.
Wonderful and courageous writing. Thank you for sharing!
Teju! Thank you for this incredible response that offers another crucial angle on this complex, multi-dimensional topic. I totally agree that the conversation is ultimately one of power and identity/biology has been an unbelievably sophisticated way to weaponize power, whiteness being just one mechanism of many. Like Yunkaporta says, we are called to expand this conversation and recognize that being the victim of oppression does not make one immune from being an oppressor, that colorism or whiteness is not sufficient in containing the issue, that reducing this to those dynamics neglects so much that must be addressed if we are to free ourselves from hierarchy, dominance, colonialism, supremacy ideology, etc. Ultimately, I feel we are being called toward nondualism where we can hold the beauty and offering in each of our unique cultures and inheritances, compost the toxicity of subjugating anyone to violence through false ideations, and embrace diversity as supportive to the whole rather than viewing it as a threat. Identity is so curious to me. I wonder what we are meant to learn here and how we're called to evolve.
“Our unity is born of our common struggle for centuries, not only to rid ourselves of bondage, but to make oppression of any people by others an impossibility.” - MLK Jr.
The work you are bringing into the world is so beautifully particular and absolutely needed. Thank you for this article and the depth of your language around what it means to reconnect and reclaim where we come from.
Thank you beloved Tara! Your reflection and affirmation is a gift and an honor to receive.