Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor

by Layla F. Saad

Black men are often trapped in a one-dimensional imagining of what and who they are supposed to be.

stereotypes that arise from America’s violent history with African people have stripped Black men of their humanity.

A century later, this stereotype of the sexually aggressive Black man still lives on in the collective white psyche,

In the United States, there is of course a fraught and abusive relationship between Black men (and Black people) and the justice system. This is enabled in part by white people who are constantly calling the police on Black men (and Black people) for simply existing.

•Stereotyping Black men as sexually aggressive, violent, less intelligent, lazy, and criminal.

•Desiring intimate relationships with Black men to shock or surprise

•Assuming financially successful Black men are either athletes, entertainers, or drug dealers.

white supremacy is a system that is upheld by individuals who benefit from it. And it is up to each individual to pull out, confront, and own their part of the narrative that keeps the system running.

When Black men are unconsciously seen in these stereotyped ways, they are limited in both societal consciousness and practice in who and what they can be and where they can be.

a society that treated Black people and immigrants as if we were less intelligent, less civilized, and less worthy of accomplishment and success than everyone else.

Black children experience “adultification,” the experience of being seen and treated as though they are older than they actually are.

from the age of ten, Black boys are perceived as older and more likely to be guilty than their white peers and that police violence against them is more justified.

adults view Black girls as less innocent and more adult-like than their white peers, especially in the age range of five to fourteen.

With regard to the treatment of Black girls in the education system, the study suggests that “the perception of Black girls as less innocent may contribute to harsher punishment by educators and school resource officers.

may translate into fewer leadership and mentorship opportunities in schools.”

Black children are superhumanized as if they do not experience the same kind of pain, fear, and trauma as white children do and dehumanized as if they are not worthy of the same level of care and attention that white children are.

Black children are also often pitied in the white imagination, with white people wanting to “save” them,

•Pitying Black children. •Wanting to “save” Black children.

•Using Black children as props (e.g., traveling on mission trips to Africa to take pictures with African children).

•The adultification of Black children (treating them as older and less innocent than their white counterparts). •Overlooking Black children. •Expecting Black children to be stronger than their white counterparts. •Expecting Black children to be less intelligent than their white counterparts. •Using Black children to prove that you or your children are not racist by being ove...

From an early age, Black children are treated with less care and more suspicion than their white counterparts, meaning that, throughout their lives, Black people are treated as inferior and worthy of racism—both in thought and action.

Black children are not exempt from your anti-Blackness.

The enforcement of racist stereotypes in the media and in the collective subconscious is the way in which white supremacy continues to maintain nonwhite people as the “other,” the ones who should be feared, ridiculed, marginalized, criminalized, and dehumanized. Racist stereotypes within white supremacy emphasize again and again that those who are not “like us” are different and therefore a threat.

Racism is the coupling of prejudice with power, where the dominant racial group (which in a white supremacist society is people with white privilege) is able to dominate over all other racial groups and negatively affect those racial groups at all levels—personally, systemically, and institutionally.

a BIPOC

cannot be racist toward a white person. They do not have the power (which comes with white privilege) and the backing of a system of oppression (called white supremacy) to be able to turn that prejudice into domination and punishment in a way ...

Notice any desire to want to treat each group as one flattened group rather than different countries.

•Religions are not races. However, racial groups often experience religious prejudice and discrimination associated with certain racial groups, regardless of whether they observe that particular religion or even belong to that particular religion.

•Colorism is also very important to keep in mind. Darker-skinned people often experience more racism than lighter-skinned people.

•Just because a stereotype seems positive does not mean it is not harmful. Stereotypes rob people of their complex individuality and erase the impact that colonization has had on why some of these stereotypes have emerged.

Racist stereotypes continue to reinforce the idea that those who do not hold white privilege should not be given that privilege because they are other, inferior, and a threat to white civilization.

when coupled with the power you hold as someone with white privilege, these prejudices give you the ability to enforce white supremacy.

Uncovering your racist stereotypes will help you to see how you actively contribute to white supremacy by believing white supremacy’s lies about the inferiority of those who do not look like you.

By today, you have probably begun to realize that white supremacy is usually present in some form when you are interacting with someone who does not hold white privilege.

how do we define what culture is, how is it now formed, and who “owns” what?

Cultural appropriation can include the appropriation of another culture’s objects, motifs, symbols, rituals, artifacts, and other cultural elements.

In her book So You Want to Talk about Race, author Ijeoma Oluo broadly defines cultural appropriation as “the adoption or exploitation of another culture by a more dominant culture.”

When considering cultural appropriation in the context of white supremacy and BIPOC, it is clear to see that those who hold white privilege always belong to the dominant culture.

So when we consider history and the present day, it becomes clear that it is very hard to appreciate or exchange from a culture that your culture has historically oppressed and toward which you personally hold thoughts of superiority. The idea that you can appreciate rather than appropriate from a culture that you see as less than you is highly doubtful.

There are ways to appreciate other cultures that are respectful and honoring, and that begins with asking deeper questions like:

What is the history that exists between my culture and that culture? What are some of the subconscious negative stereotypes and racist beliefs I have toward people of that culture? What are ways that I can financially compensate people from the culture I am purchasing cultural elements from? In what ways am I supporting, protecting, and uplifting people from that culture in my community? Do I understand the historic significance and sacredness of this cultural element to that culture? Does something like this cultural element exist in my own culture? Why is it so important to me to partake in this cultural element at the risk of offending people from that culture? Are there ways for me to partake in this cultural element without financially benefiting from it in ways that people from that culture would not?

If I am financially benefiting, are there ways in which I can redirect some of that financial benefit toward the people of that culture? Knowing what I now know about me and white supremacy, how good does it feel to partake in this cultural element the way I ha...

•Fashion: the appropriation of cultural fashion styles, usually by white designers appropriating from BIPOC,

•Hair: the appropriation of traditionally African heritage hairstyles worn on non-Black people.

•Beauty: the appropriation of BIPOC physical attributes

•Spirituality: the appropriation of sacred BIPOC spiritual ceremonies, rituals, iconography, practices, and objects.

•Wellness: the appropriation of BIPOC traditional wellness practices and healing modalities.

•Music: the appropriation of Black music styles, often filtered through a white...

•Linguistic styles: the appropriation of AAVE by non-Black people.

the appropriation is accompanied by an erasure of the nondominant culture’s origin story of that practice, while the dominant culture is able to profit—