Whiteness pt2
The problem of how to get those at the bottom of the hierarchy to divest from whiteness is one that deserves attention. Antiracist solutions have utterly failed. Attempting to raise poor labeled white people’s awareness through privilege discourse does nothing but enrage labeled white people, pushing them further into the arms of fascists. Logically, it’s suspect. Telling people that they have societal advantages when they can’t afford to put headlights in their vehicle, while maybe technically true, is practically really stupid.
The notion of “white person” was invented by Virginia planters in the 16th century as a labor management strategy. In response to Bacon’s Rebellion, planters began grouping Europeans and non-Europeans into groups, calling Europeans white and paying them a “psychological wage” in WEB Dubois’s framing. Eventually these racial categories became institutionalized to a great degree because they were adopted by the scientists of the time, and ultimately, it is and has been the justification for colonialism until the present day.
The problem with antiracism is that it also relies on these categories and really doesn’t question them in any way. It just assumes they are eternal and theorizes how to deal with such categories instead of destroy or transform them. Transracial identity is met with scorn and identity categories are rigidly policed by fascists and antiracists alike. Indeed, antiracism and fascism are similar in that the depend on the existance of these categories for their purchase and power. Antiracism argues whiteness is eternal and bad, while fascism argues that whiteness is eternal and good.
The truth is that there is no such thing as a white person. People labeled white range from a Wall Street hedge fund manager to a South African Boer and everything imaginable in between. There are exactly zero cultural markers that so-called white people share. It is a random grouping of people who’ve been told that they are white to get them to buy into white supremacy. The fact is that there are no “white people.”
And simply, we should tell poor labeled whites that they’re not white at all; that they’re rednecks or hillbillies or Italians or Irish. Hell, the Italians and Irish were only relatively recently labeled white. We don’t need to be told to accept our privilege. We need to stop being white.