I wonder when we will put the two together– race and racism. Theirs is a partnership; the two go hand- in- hand as you cannot have one without the other. In fact, one cannot function without the other.
Racism is not the problem. Racism is the way that the system of race works. Racism is the employee; race is the boss, calling the shots and doing the hiring.
For white privilege and the burden of being colored other than white to exist, there has to be a belief in the social construct of race, a faith that purports that the social coloring of our skin determines value, voice and visibility. Race is not about identity but ideology. Race is not concerned about people but power and who controls it. This system is not rooted in customer satisfaction.
Instead, race creates socially colored people for capitalistic and hierarchical purposes. Race places whiteness first and pays it more. Whiteness is a privilege; it is not earned. It is given because of our agreement with race and the illusion of socially colored people. Whiteness is a shared benefit, given to some and kept from others. It is quite a hand out.
This is what got the system going. This is what has made America a social power: the systematic uplift of one group by holding down another, success built on the death of Africans, African Americans and those who are indigenous to what is now the United States. It is a social drowning, taking the breath of one group in order to keep the other alive and even to give more life to the other. Now, fully alive, there is no question why some communities are in better health than others. And yet, there is still a seeming lack of understanding as to why African Americans got upset when they heard the words of Eric Garner and believed him: “I can’t breathe.”
But, without socially colored people, the system would shut down, cease the exist. We are its power button. Consequently, if we reject the social colors of race, it becomes useless and meaningless.
If we are to deny the privileges of whiteness and the oppressions of other social colors, then we must rid ourselves of the race system. We must stop handing out and accepting social colors. We should not speak of ourselves in social colors and then complain about how the racial identity corrupts our sense of self and compromises our relationships with other cultural groups. In order to get out of the race system, we must rid ourselves of its work. We must quit race altogether. It is our selves that must destruct.
In 5… 4… 3… 2…