I feel that this essay grossly generalizes white radicals. Of course inherent racism and white privilege are a problem today; what the fuck else is new? But remember this: just like our system of white supremacy continues to oppress people of color (and women, and people of little to no monetary wealth, and people who choose to live outside the law, and children…I could go on all day listing groups of people who are oppressed), so it continues to subliminally instill racist and supremacist propaganda into the human subconscious, and this is true for all races, not just us privileged white folk.

Just like we’re all to blame for being a part of the system and at the same time not to blame because we’re ALL part of the system (even at varying degrees of evasion and escape), so we’re all to blame for allowing racism and privilege to continue. Just because I was “fortunate” enough to be born white doesn’t make it my sole responsibility to crush white privilege, nor would I have any idea how to go about doing that. It’s going to take a significant amount of teamwork and solidarity amongst people of different colors to accomplish that. Otherwise it’ll never happen.

I feel that you’re turning the hostility and exclusion you’ve experienced back on white people, and I can guarantee that’s going to get you nowhere. It’s not easy to do, but I’ve been doing this for years: don’t get mad and treat people how you’ve been treated; prove them wrong. If you feel excluded, go out of your way to make them feel INcluded. Turn the other cheek, passive resistance, all that good shit: teaching by example is the only way we’re going to accomplish anything. People used to pick on me so much in school, and I let it bother me and got pissed off and nothing ever changed. But when I continued to be nice and chill to people that fucked with me, I found over time (not overnight) that began to change, and I sensed quite a bit more respect coming my way.

Let me say another thing: people looking frightened just because they see a person of color walking their direction is a sad thing, but a common one. However, I’ve caught plenty of dirty or fearful looks from people just for a brand on my arm, some piercings, the clothes I wear, etc. I’ve had many people judge me as if I was a completely different race or species for talking openly of my radical ideals or for incessant swearing and the like. People can have a lot of different reasons for fearing someone they don’t know. But if we attack the causes of such fear and ignorance (namely, capitalistic hierarchy, and the elitism and supremacist attitudes it breeds) and educate people about the racial, socioeconomic, sexual, etc. divides that still exist (no matter how much monoculture seems to mimic “equality”), solidarity, tolerance, understanding, and harmony will be significantly more reachable.

Also, don’t rule out the possibility that marginalization of colored people by whites brings about feelings of exclusion and frustration which are not always logically acted upon. If I felt marginalized in a situation, I’m sure I would have a negative instinct to lash out and criticize and judge. But two wrongs don’t make a right. We have to be willing to fearlessly inventory our actions and our strengths and weaknesses, and certainly to admit fault whenever blame can be attributed to ourselves.

I’ll give you an example of how the oppressed can become oppressors: my friend was celebrating his friend’s birthday with her and another guy, and she wanted to go to a club. They went to the club, and the patrons that night turned out to be 100% black, as far as my (white) friend could tell. As soon as he got there he was stared at, given dirty looks, and talked down to. He said people tried to start fights with him all night. What those people should have done was make him feel welcome and attempt to dissolve the barriers between race (wouldn’t have been hard, my friend is as tolerant as a “privileged” white boy can be). Instead, they accentuated the divides by treating him the same way they feel white society has treated them.

This is the problem: our violent, competitive world pits us against each other and instead of attempting to defuse situations by reversing the flow of energy, we as humans frequently seek “punishment” or “justice” or revenge by inflicting the same or similar damage on the perpetrators. This will solve nothing, only send the cycle of oppression, exclusion, and violence into an endless spiral.

So let’s start coming up with ideas for removing our mental blocks and inherent supremacist notions and turn the other cheek when need be. Personally, I’ll bite the bullet and take a slap (or a few brass knucks) to the face any day, if it means the slightest possibility of fostering cooperation and harmony among a diverse group of people.

I mean, damn.

We anti-racist “POC” (what is that anyway? Isn’t “black good enough?”) need the “unenlightened white radical” so that our stances as anti-racists feel justified. In the same way, anarcha-feminists need the “Manarchist” so that they can identify the “unexpected evil growing in our safe circle”, when really, most of the time, people are being straight assholes.

I’ll admit it. I’m an asshole. I think APOC (specifically Philly) consists of a super-guilty circle of people who, after being surrounded by white people and their bullshit, can do nothing but complain about how they’re “not making up for their inherent racism”

Fuck it. I’m a black kid, and it’s fine. I’m sure I am oppressed in some way or other, but I don’t see the sense in exploiting the guilt of well-intentioned but obviously insular activists. Let ‘em figure it out!

I’m just done with going to all-white radical spaces and complaining about how it’s all white. I’d rather just hang out with my real friends of any color, even if they don’t call themselves “anarchist”.

-A.

My Latina friend was expelled from a meeting once because she looked too white. When will be the day when we can recognize common humanity with our brothers and sisters? Can’t we as people of color be at the forefront of this, or must we fall prey to the violent divisiveness that is wanted and expected of us in this broken world?

people reading this who have skin privilege: LISTEN! if we really want to work on our shit, we need to take criticism seriously and openly. we are less than chicken-shit and completely compromised if we do not.

“anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change. but our time is getting shorter…” – audre lorde

LISTEN TO ANGER. WE MUST NOT BE DEFENSIVE. IF WE ARE, THAT AMOUNTS TO BEING FULLY COMPLICIT in WHITE SUPREMACY. for real.

below here is a great source–a challenge to perpetrators of oppression, to “turn guilt into grief and anger, privilege into accountability, half-hearted apologies into action, complacency into resistance” (from the introduction).

–> Unsettling Ourselves: Reflections and Resources for Deconstructing Colonial Mentality (free download at): http://www.sendspace.com/file/jv4ohd

and every time i got defensive while reading, i put down the book and thought about why. READ IT. *especially you radicals who are serious about not being white supremacists.

“Anything smelling of an admission of fault is always layered under such a large heap of self-righteous bullshit that it reminds us, with you at least, an apology is never an apology at all.”

That’s fucking deep.

You wrote that you have no solutions to offer. It isn’t your responsibility to offer solutions to us, as you know. This is one of the things that bugs the shit out of me, when white progressives expect people of color to do their work for them. I know I did for some time, and had to have that beaten out of me. I hope its gone, but it’s a constant struggle to check myself. White supremacy is a tricky, deceitful motherfucker – it holds on, digs deep, hides in the cracks, and won’t let go. When it does come out, it’s disguised as something warm and fuzzy.

I appreciate you taking the time to write this letter, particularly because it is not fair to require you to inform us of our privilege. I try my best to acknowledge systems of power and agree that I have been spoon-fed white supremacy since birth but it is not as simple as being ready to break with our white privilege or not. I address issues of bigotry to the best of my ability when I see them, I try to take constructive criticism of my privileges to heart, and I really have no intentions of insulting or debilitating anyone. If there is more that I can do without flaunting a privilege that I do not think should exist then I will do what I can.

I know that I have more to learn and that is why I was drawn to reading your letter. But your writing is not speaking to progressive allies who are prepared to recognize that their privilege is a problem, you seem to be confronting people who are not ready to listen and outright expressing that you do not expect them to understand. While the majority of what you say is true, the argument is defeatist if everyone could be assumed to be these white progressives and radicals that you describe.

~ RJH

Right on. And to comment number 5: color ain’t just black and white, and APOC is a MOVEMENT, not just this website. AmeriKKKa is just 5% of the worlds population to boot.

You are 13 fucking percent of the U.S. population. Stop acting like because “White peeps iz errywhere” that means you get to play the game like you wuz fiddy fiddy. We’ll let you know when it’s your turn. Until then you can make believe with this dumpy little website.

this is a cultural assumption of whites. if you’re going to write something why don’t you apply those critiques to yourself dickwad. peace

there is no way this many people of color could embrace their colonization to the point of violence without the influence of some kind of govt. programmer being involved..

it is the maintenance of colonization, and unfortunately no one, no matter what “color” they are is exempt from being this stupid.

suckers.