Me and White Supremacy : Day 6 Journal Questions
I’m leading a group discussion circle on “Me and White Supremacy” by Layla F. Saad. I’m taking the journaling challenge daily throughout February even though I’m not white. If you happen to be white, why not take the challenge? If I can do it, you can do it too.
Day 6 Questions (from the text):
1. In what ways have you believed that you are exceptional, exempt, “one of the good ones,” or above the conditioning of white supremacy?
2. In what ways have you acted out of a sense of white exceptionalism when in racial conversations with BIPOC? (For example, when called out for unintentional racist behavior, have you tried to explain or demonstrate that you are “one of the good ones”?)
3. Reread the extract from Martin Luther King Jr.’s letter and think back on the topics we have covered so far in this book. How has your white exceptionalism prevented you from showing up in allyship to BIPOC?
4. Think back to your childhood. How did society (parents, schools, the media) teach you white exceptionalism?
5. If you are a parent, in what ways are you teaching your children white exceptionalism?
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racism
rac·ism ˈrā-ˌsi-zəm
noun
1: a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
also : behavior or attitudes that reflect and foster this belief
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In this chapter there is an excerpt from MLK Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. Here’s the whole thing.
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Kendi emphasizes that “racist” should be a descriptor of behavior, and not of people.
Meaning it isn’t one’s personhood or identity that should carry this descriptor, but one’s behavior. “Racist” is not something that we are. Rather racism is something we either perform or work against from one moment to the next.
When framed in this way, anyone has the potential to perform behavior that falls into the category of racism. Any one of us, regardless of ethnicity, color, or radicalized group, can exhibit and embody racism. The recent murder of Tyre Nichols by police is a prime example of this.
When I and others were protesting at Fred’s Breakfast, at least a dozen people who passed by swore up and down that the owners “weren’t racist” simply because they happened to be friends with them, ignoring the fact that these people staunchly defended their racist behavior for days, and had no intention of helping repair the damage that behavior caused to their community.
If you are cringing right now at these friends of the owners mentioned above, I want you to think hard and ask yourself — have you ever let racist behavior slide from a friend, romantic partner, family member, co-worker, classmate, community member, etc., because you otherwise knew them to be “a good person”?
I certainly have.
The paradoxical truth about being a “good” anything is that the definition of “good” demands that you spot your own weaknesses and strive for improvement. This is true with any endeavor, and antiracism is no exception — i.e., true “good” people are ones that can recognize the ways in which they may not be so “good”, and work to do better. Ideally this should be a lifelong process.
Therefore, I maintain that there is no such thing as “a good person”. There are no good people, only actions or inactions that are either helpful or harmful to an end. Read that again.
