conversation rundown with m.b.
12 Sep 2017this is a weird thing but it’s essentially a transcription of a convo that happened on 11 sept 2017 in copley square sitting in the sun with our bare feet in the fountain water. it’s mostly intended for me to have something to look back at when i want to expand on these thoughts later. they probably don’t make much sense to anyone else. &shrug;
whiteness and anti-blackness are linked. end one, end the other (i think).
whiteness is at its core separation (see claudia rankine’s work on whiteness) and that separate allows domination and destruction of other. whiteness is based in fear and has as its three responses, destruction, assimilation, or aversion.
but a pluralist or at least multicultural society would value difference.
but in order to be valued in a culture that values difference, you must have something to bring. whiteness, because it is empty and an oppositional identity (was only created to oppose or make possible not giving rights & resources to certain people),it has nothing to bring. so the fear is from not having anything to bring to the table.
white people need to find their roots (which are not white) and realize that it is they bring to the table.
and discovering where you came from isn’t the same as choosing and moving in a new direction. but forward does require knowing where you came from or else you are doomed to repeat history and pattern and cycle.
so really what does that mean? white folks need to deconstruct their own whiteness by finding out what land they come from. that is where their connection to actual culture (not the “culture” that is the void of whiteness) will come from. and land and culture are intimately connected (see quote below).
how might a group of white folks deconstruct their whiteness? i think if people currently believing themselves white met in small groups for the purpose of supporting each other’s interrogation of their pasts, they could hold each other while they discover that their whiteness is only void but that they do have actual connections to actual people from actual land(s). in this work, they could form bonds strong enough to hold each other as they destroy their white identities and realize, resurface, and reconnect with the heritage of people in their lineages who are connected to land.
in reality, we are so mixed these days that many of us in the u.s. come from more places than we could ever visit and also from places that are no longer real. again, looking backwards isn’t to go backwards; it’s to know from who, where, and when you came to inform how you decide where you’re going.
phew! i feel like i was just channeling something. anyway, gtg shower.
words / writing / post-processing
401w / ??min / 8min