white people have thin skin

There is a burgeoning new conversation about the nature of white supremacy, how to be an effective anti-racist, the meaning of the term “race traitor”, and a genuine asking of if it is possible for white people to escape whiteness in the world today.

I’m going to make several assumptions for the purpose of this post, that white supremacy exists, that white supremacy has been at the crux of the lefts impotence for the past 30 years, that white supremacy is a complex social/power structure, that white supremacy is not a personality trait, that white supremacy doesn’t have an on/off switch.

Over at Anarchist People Of Color’s website there is an article that, while approaching sectarian sniping, presents core ideas I’m sympathetic to. White privilege and white supremacy are fundamental parts of the ruling power structure. White people who think that white privilege can be left behind after going to some workshops, need to think some more (snarking aside the CWS workshops are vital, useful and important). Bring The Ruckus respond to APOC’s article with their own slide towards sniping, but also make many good points, it’s a good primer on Race Traitor Theory, which boils down to acting right. When a white person witnesses another white person abusing (or even using) the power vested in them by the complex social structure of white supremacy, it is always right to call it out for what it is, people who say they are concerned with social change have an obligation to act right.

What disturbs me the most about both of these articles is the self righteous tone. What is the real concern here, dismanteling white power or sounding like a know it all? This kind of self-referential writing and insider bickering has kept the good ideas of the left from spreading. Whether or not I’m fully satisfied with the development of Race Traitor Theory, it definitely brings a deeper understanding and higher level of conversation than today’s popular “reverse-racism” pabulum. It is an idea worth talking about and struggling over.

Socialists are often criticized for subordinating race to class. Today the left seems to conflate race and class (poor people/workers = people of color). This view doesn’t reflect reality; most workers, welfare recipients, and poor people in the US are white. If the left cannot find away to speak to those people, we will continue to lose. The advantage to a simple socialist world view is that it attempts to flatten oppression, this also doesn’t reflect reality, a black homeless vet is gonna get harassed more often than a white homeless vet even if every other fact is their lives are identical. However the socialist organizing model makes sense, if white workers can be brought into class consciousness, it doesn’t take much to expose white supremacy.

Yesterday Hard Knock Radio, interviewed Adam Mansbach author ofAngry Black White Boy. Mansbach, like me, is a white Hip-Hop fan. Unlike me he became an active participant in Hip-Hop, while I continued to smoke the punk rock and visit Hip-Hop for the Public Enemys and NWAs. Angry Black White Boy is a race novel in the tradition of Invisible Man, the twist is the protagonist is a white college freshman determined to be down, and show black people what Hip-Hop is all about. I think this book and Jeff Chang's recent Hip-Hop history will add crucial elements to the renewed wrestling with white supremacy. This conversation needs to continue, but it also needs to result in practice and that practice needs to be summed up and discussed. Rinse and repeat.