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

The second week of the challenge focuses on anti-Blackness, racial stereotypes, and cultural appropriation, with a focus on color blindness, anti-Blackness against black women and men, and anti-Blackness against children. Building on the first week’s work of understanding how whiteness provides benefits and privilege under white supremacy, this week shifts its focus to how racism against BIPOC can appear.

Saad shares a warning with participants to not share their journaling and reflections this week with BIPOC, who may find the content particularly upsetting or triggering. Rather than sharing with BIPOC, participants should consider how their own conscious awareness of these ideas can be used to better understand white supremacy’s reach. She also suggests that bi- or multi-racial participants be especially careful with this week’s work, which will be much more emotional and difficult than the previous week.

Day 8 begins by defining race-based “color blindness”—a white person’s declaration they cannot see color and race, and by extension they do not treat people differently because of their race. Saad cites her confusion as a kid when hearing white parents tell white children not to say out loud that she was Black, noting that it is often white children that are taught not to point out racial differences.

She discusses the danger of this line of thinking:

…by simply acting as if the social construct of race has no actual consequences…you teach your children to not see race too, you can create a new generation of people who will not do anything racist or benefit from racism (78-79).

While racial “color blindness” as a philosophy seems compassionate on its surface, it does not address how and why racist behaviors and systems persist, often moving the weight of addressing racism to BIPOC who are told to not only see and experience these differences, but also to articulate them. In other words, pretending that race does not exist—or that they do not see it—allows participants to pretend their white privilege does not exist, which means they are not complicit in white supremacy.

Color blindness can render invisible the struggles of BIPOC, and often comes across as a refusal to acknowledge who that person really is. It also acts as a form of gaslighting, causing BIPOC to expend energy wondering if an experience was intentionally racist or not. Finally, it allows white people not to look and critically assess their own whiteness and the privilege it affords them. The day’s journal entries ask participants to reckon with what color blind messages were taught to them as they were growing up, how they feel when BIPOC discuss race and racism, owning up to harm caused by pretending not to see color, and how they have tried to not view their own whiteness in the past.

Saad takes a quick break from the challenge to prepare the participant for Days 9-11, in order to define anti-Blackness as prejudice and discrimination—specifically against Black people. Because participants are moving on from the foundational aspects of white supremacy, this part of the work will be especially difficult and heartbreaking. She encourages participants to lean into this: “Antiracism work that does not break the heart open cannot move people toward meaningful change” (85). In addition, although three days will focus on considering discrimination against Black women, men, and children, she advises that participants also consider how they may have caused harm against LGBTQIA+ and gender nonconforming people as well.

On Day 9, Saad begins by describing discrimination against Black women. Using actress Viola Davis as an example, Saad discusses how Black women are often seen as either dehumanized or “superhuman,” and rarely ever treated with the same levels of nuance or complexity as white women. By portraying black women as racist stereotypes like the “Mammy, Jezebel, Sapphire, and Strong Black Woman” (88), it is not only dehumanizing but can create exaggerated caricatures—particularly for those with darker black skin.

This is dangerous, especially in relation to U.S.’s black maternal health crisis where Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy complications than white women. The invisibility of black women’s pain, or the refusal to take it seriously, is witnessed throughout the medical profession, leading to deeply disturbing differences in medical care they receive.

Moya Bailey coined a term for this form of anti-Blackness: “misogynoir,” meant to describe the intersection of Black racism and sexism experience by Black women. Examples of misogynoir include insulting stereotypes of Black women as subservient, sassy, angry, or strong; lack of representation across industries and in mainstream media; expectations of Black women to do emotional labor for white women in antiracist work; white appropriation of Black women’s hair and fashion styles which were grounds for discrimination; perpetuating the myth that Black women are not as good mothers; being unfamiliar with Black women to overcome any discomfort; and more. All of these are ways white supremacy renders Black women inferior, adding the additional oppression of sexism in addition to the weight of racism. This day’s questions focus on naming national racist stereotypes for Black women; describing relationships with, and stereotypes believed, about Black women in the past; the participant’s relationship to colorist; how the participant has tone policed or used their own white fragility against Black women; and more.

Moving into Day 10, Saad shifts the conversation to anti-Blackness and Black men, beginning with an anecdote about her father. As a child, she and her siblings could not believe their father was a sea captain because he did not look like the ones they saw in the media. As an adult, she realizes she said and believed these things because she’d only ever see white men as captains—an important and respected profession with few Black men. This provided a model for Saad and her siblings of Black people in leadership.

Many societies trap Black men into being represented in problematic and stereotypical ways. Movies like the American film Birth of a Nation in 1915 gave rise not only to blackface (a derogatory practice in which white performers adorn themselves with black or brown paint and pretend to be a Black person for a performance, typically amplifying racist stereotypes), but representations of Black men as less intelligent and more sexually aggressive than their white counterparts have remained in the collective unconscious of white people.

Cruel treatment at the hands of the U.S. justice system has also served to highlight and perpetuate fear of black men. This resounds in cases like the 1990s case of Central Park Five in which five young black boys were charged with sexual assault crimes they did not commit, forcing them to serve jail time. But Black men’s sexuality is both feared and fetishized at the same time. Black men are also seen as stereotypes in plot devices on screen, including the “magical negro”—typically a black man with psychic or mystical powers who helps the white protagonist along their journey.

Anti-Blackness against Black men may result in stereotyping them as violent, lazy, overly sexualized, or stupid; a white woman wanting a relationship with a Black man for shock value; devaluing the work of wealthy Black men by saying their wealth is due to athletics or drug dealing; and using Black men’s approval or love as an indicator of being cool. All these actions can lead to perpetuating the stereotype that Black men are “savages” and a threat to society—a colonial idea particularly dangerous for Black men. By not allowing Black men to be multidimensional and human, white people use them for their own narrative storytelling, rather than allowing Black men to create their own stories for themselves. This day’s questions focus on naming national racist stereotypes for Black men; describing relationships with, and stereotypes believed, about Black men in the past; the participant’s relationship to colorist ideologies; how the participant has tone policed or used their own white fragility against Black men; how the participant has fetishized Black men; and more.

Day 11 delves into how anti-Blackness is used against Black children. Again, Saad uses her own childhood as a jumping off point, citing her mother’s desire to see her children excel no matter the cost. As an adult, Saad can now see from where the pressure her mother put on her children came: They were Black, Muslim, and immigrants in a society that was white-dominated. If her children were high achievers, they had a better chance of succeeding and being safe.

This is linked to “adultification,” when white people presume Black children are somehow “older” than they truly are. They are viewed as more mature than they appear, more adult-like, and less innocent than their white counterparts—a problem recently highlighted by instances of unfair racial discipline in schools, as well as American police brutality against young Black boys as seen in the murders of Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin. Dangerous and unfair adultification is due to projections on the part of white people:

Anti-Blackness and the adultification of Black children results in Black children not being treated as children but rather as the adult Black people they will grow up to be in the white imagination. 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 (102).

This adultification can also be flipped and used as objectification: Black children are often viewed as objects of pity in need of a white savior.

Anti-Blackness shows up in the desire of a white person to give birth to or adopt a Black child; using Black children while traveling abroad as photo “props”; treating Black children as older or less innocent than their white counterparts; pitying or wishing to “save” a Black child; tokenizing Black children by pushing white children to become friends with them to prove the family as a whole is not racist; and more. These actions matter because they will eventually set the stage for the world these Black children will enter as adults, making clear the unfair discrimination they will face. This day’s questions focus on naming national racist stereotypes for Black children; describing relationships with, and stereotypes believed, about Black children in the past; your relationship to colorist ideologies; how the participant has tone policed or used their own white fragility against Black children; what antiracist work the participant has tried to do or instill within their white children; and more.

For Day 12, Saad discusses racist stereotypes. While Days 9-11 focused specifically on anti-Blackness, this day open discussions not only about Black derogatory stereotypes, but other stereotypes against BIPOC and other marginalized groups. Saad clarifies the difference between prejudice and racism: Prejudice is the act of pre-judging, but racism is the fusion of pre-judging along with racial power. Because of this power dynamic, BIPOC may have prejudice against white people, but they cannot be racist in the way that white people, wielding the potency of white supremacy, are.

However, this does not mean that all other non-white groups are equally oppressed or subject to prejudice. Saad explains:

The reason why I specifically chose to cover anti-Blackness separately from Indigenous people and POC is because Black people also experience anti-Blackness from these groups. However, just because Indigenous people and non-Black POC can hold anti-Blackness feelings does not mean they do not have their own fraught and abusive experiences with white supremacy (108).

In other words, non-Black marginalized groups can still be anti-Black, even if they too are oppressed under white supremacy. White-passing marginalized groups can still experience prejudice and harbor racist stereotypes. It is important to note that stereotypes against BIPOC stem from colonialist racist mindsets—ones that are complicated and fraught.

Marginalized groups can be divided into sub-groups subject to their own specific stereotypes (i.e. Asians versus Southeast Asians, East Asians, etc.), meaning that no one group should be “flattened” into one stereotype or form of oppression. There can also be additional harm posed by colorism, religion, and other dividing characteristics of a specific group. While some stereotypes may seem nice (i.e. “Asians are smart”), they are still actively harmful because they take away an individual’s right to define themselves, often erasing colonialism’s impact on the group itself.

By understanding how these stereotypes work, the participant must see how stereotypes are used by politicians, lawmakers, the media, and beyond as justification for the poor treatment of BIPOC. Even if these stereotypes are not spoken out loud, they can be insidious, instilled as a part of white supremacy to keep those without white privilege from gaining any power. This day’s journal entries ask the participant to name national racist stereotypes in their country; racist stereotypes they personally hold; how they think about and treat BIPOC children; how they treat lighter or darker skinned BIPOC; and how they have dehumanized/superhumanized BIPOC.

Day 13 then moves into examining cultural appropriation, which Saad describes as:

…the appropriation of another culture’s objects, motifs, symbols, rituals, artifacts, and other cultural elements. However, one person from one racial group can think something is culturally appropriative while another person from that same group disagrees and considers it cultural appreciation or cultural exchange (114).

Because of the power hierarchy and dynamics of white privilege between cultures, cultural appropriation can be difficult to define overall, particularly given how interconnected many cultures are due to growing globalization.

Saad makes clear that while it is hard to definitively classify what is or is not appropriative, appropriation happens between “a dominant and a nondominant or marginalized culture” (114), meaning it depends on the two cultures’ history as well as the relationship between both cultures today. Those with white privilege almost always belong to the dominant culture, meaning their understanding of the marginalized group is contextualized by colonialism, genocide, kidnappings, racist stereotypes, and beyond; thus, their taking on of another culture would be appropriation.

Rather than showing appreciation for said culture, cultural appropriation is a form of color blindness, tokenization, anti-Blackness, and racist stereotyping. Saad recommends participants, if they want to appreciate or honor a different society, ask themselves questions about the history of the relationship between those two cultures. Appropriation can show up in myriad ways, including—but not limited to—fashion, hair and beauty, religion and spirituality, wellness, music and art, celebrations, and language/slang.

The desire to share or learn from another culture is not inherently bad, but it often erases the work and history of a marginalized group of people for the financial, social, or interpersonal benefit of white people. White supremacy furthers the idea that white people can take cultural practices, artifacts, ideas, and more without proper compensation. This day’s questions ask the participant to reflect on how they have appropriated nonwhite cultures; whether they have ever called out another person appropriating a non-white culture or if they themselves have ever been called out; and how they have profited from, excused, or benefitted from cultural appropriation themselves.

Saad wraps up the week on Day 14 by acknowledging this is a particularly brutal and difficult week of work. Building on the foundations in Week 1, Week 2 takes the basic understandings about one’s complicity in white supremacy and applies these ideas to actual, tangible instances of colorblindness, anti-Blackness, racist stereotypes, and cultural appropriation. Saad recommends considering these often-scary revelations and coming to terms as a means to putting together the pieces of a larger jigsaw puzzle about white supremacy itself. This day’s questions ask the participant to consider what they have learned about themself and their relationship to white supremacy; how they are thinking differently about their allyship and superhumanizaton/dehumanization of BIPOC; and more.