When whitey dies people listen

Check here for background and context.

Brad Will was an anarchist journalist, he was murdered on the barricades in Oaxaca last week. On the day Brad was killed so were two other people: a teacher, Emilio Alonso Fabián, from the Los Loxicha region; and a neighborhood resident named Esteban López Zurita. The conflict in Oaxaca has been boiling for years and jumped up in the past five months. Predictably Brad's murder inspired a lot of action back in the states, most of which recognized Brad's role as a journalist and as such an observer of and interloper in the struggle. The vast majority of "movement" press (by "movement" press I mean everything left of Democracy Now!) covered this story well, parsing Brad's long history as an activist from the situation in Oaxaca, and using the personal angle presented by Brad's murder by state agents as a hook for interest in the long term fight in Oaxaca.

Almost as predictably there has been a backlash against the percieved lionizing, and in some cases even remembering or honoring Brad's life and work. You see Brad is white and american, and if there is something that the american left has always been good at it is a ass-backwards understanding of white privilege. If Brad was a frat boy who died at a donkey show in TJ, this would be easy to lay to rest. But Brad was a committed life long activist. So how do we define him? By what he choose to do with his life? Or by some accidents of birth? How do we address the privilege that he did enjoy? Was it something he used to expose the system that provided it? Or was it something he unconsciously ignored? And how do we use the conversations sparked by his murder? Do we castigate the "stupid white kids" who didn't know anything about Oaxaca before this? Do we rail against the system of power and privilege that gave Brad the ability to travel and be a witness and journalist?

One thing about white supremacy and white privilege is it's perniciousness, everyone is fucked up by it and most aren't consciously aware of it. When something like Brad's murder happens it is an opportunity to expose white power and white privilege. When whitey dies people notice. I don't think it is crass or exploitative to take advantage of that, it's pragmatic. Also to not call attention to Brad's death and Brad's life and Brad's work and Brad's struggle because Brad was/is white is just about the most misdirected confused conflation of the personal and the political that I can think of. It's almost as dumb as me refusing to go to college because I would be taking advantage of my privilege, I can guarantee you that no oppressed person got my vacancy at where ever it was I didn't go to college, I can also guarantee that the spot went to some soulless dot comer. Yes all the martyrs in Oaxaca (and everywhere else) deserve every bit of attention Brad is going to get, no Palestinian should have to live in Rachael's shadow either, and no tree in Judi's. But we are damaged by the world we have come into, we often don't see things until they happen to someone "like" us, and if Brad's death can get one latte sipping hipster to examine white privilege, to think about international solidarity, to realize that their ease and privilege is directly related to exploitation and extraction abroad and at home, then I'll happily show his work to them.

While I agree that challenging systemic white supremacy and white privilege is crucial, and resolving it's interpersonal damage is imperative, I think expecting inexperienced folks who's first exposure to the situation in Oaxaca is the state sponsored murder of an anarchist journalist who happens to be a white american to spontaneously understand that their sympathy and empathy for Brad should also be felt for everyone else on the ground in Oaxaca forgets what white supremacy does to white people, they don't have to think about it, it's the norm. Relationships and consciousness that can be built from people's gut empathy is where this kind of critical analysis can be useful. An approach of "he was a white guy, forget about him" is a bit cock-eyed. That approach ignores reality. In the grossest terms: reality is that white americans only pay attention to the deaths of white americans. To expect that to change without there being a countervailing norm (like one that honors all life, or a broad movement of international solidarity) forgets the work we have to do. We have to change peoples minds. I don't mean issue based arm twisting, I mean we have to change the way people think, the values they base their decisions on, their view of the world around them. Brad did that work, everyday as far as I can tell. And somebody better fucking say so.

If we don't recognize the exceptional path Brad took, we are saying there was nothing special about it. If we don't recognize the exceptional end of his life, we are saying there was no value in it. If we forget his contribution we are doing everything we can to undo it.