White Supremacy

As I work on our upcoming project, Reconciling Rape Culture, the United States Capitol building engulfed by white supremacist terrorists, I cannot help but think about what curious bedfellows these two concepts are.

Because what is White Supremacy but a Rape Culture?

White supremacists come with force and violate sacred space. White supremacists eradicate culture– the wholehearted expression of a person and their beliefs– in order to dominate, possess, and come into their own personal gain.

White supremacists have raped the land that we live on: dominating the globe and ripping out ecosystems for personal monetary benefit.

It is no secret that white supremacists raped members of indigenous cultures, raped enslaved Africans, raped their own wives and sisters.

White supremacy is an illness, and it is my belief as a white-bodied individual that if a white-bodied person is not able to speak openly about or publicly denounce white supremacy then they are fueling the illness within them.

Individuals from intersectional cultures need not apply. I can not speak for anyone but white-bodied individuals, and on their behalf I say: #yesallwhitepeople

We can all do better, certainly, and it begins with you: white-bodied person. Use your privilege to speak. Speak out against this culture of supremacy that seeks to rape individuals of their freedom and expression. Speak out against the exploitation and overuse of resources, and against the unlawful occupation of previously indigenous territories for these exact same exploits.

In full transparency, I have been sitting with the words above for a few weeks before returning to this text. As a white-bodied individual myself, I often wonder what value I can even bring to this conversation: White Supremacy. Those who experience it regularly don’t need my white ass preaching at them. Those white-bodied folx who understand are already on that wagon. And those white-bodied folx that do not understand the way that they continue to benefit from supremacy, how their entire life has been a cache of privilege no matter what challenges they have faced, well, those people seem intent to deflect, deny, and when all else fails: burn down the motherfucking thing.

So many white people would rather burn down the motherfucking thing than do the work to confront their shame, that it is absurd.

Resmaa Menakem, probably THE most fabulous author that I have ever read on healing trauma at a somatic level, talks about clean pain versus the dirty pain. Clean pain, in which you walk directly into the wound with a scalpel, pull out all of the damaged tissue, and then flush the hole repeatedly until the wound starts to close. Dirty pain is like covering a socially transmittable disease with a bandaid and pretending that it isn’t there.

Trauma is socially transmittable, did you know that?

I have been thinking of the clean versus dirty pain in terms of fighting a dragon. Say you’re this well-armored knight, with The Sword That Can End It All, standing at the mouth of the dragon. That dragon is the trauma. For some of us it is easier than others to get close to that dragon, to stand at its mouth. But as the bearer of The Sword That Can End It All, if we don’t approach that dragon then we are complicit in its future devastation.

All too often I see individuals carry that Sword to the mouth of the dragon only to balk at the moment that it opens its mouth in fire. Sure, it is a human nature to turn away from pain. But you are the only one who can wield The Sword That Can End It All. To balk at the flam, to lift your shield, the flames bounce off the surface and burn everyone around you. Plus also you are fried-krispies, because it’s like a dragon and that shield is not going to protect you from still being roasted.

The only choice, in protecting those around you, is to run directly into the mouth of the dragon.

Run into the fire. Let it burn you. Don’t run from it, let it engulf your body. Hold that Sword and run right into the mouth of the dragon.

Do your work.

Of course it is well-advised to have a team of medical professionals available to support you: a well-trained trauma-informed therapist is the nurse that will salve your burns and help you take those first steps away from the mouth of the dragon. In fact, the knowledge that there is a medical professional present in moral support as you approach the mouth of the dragon seems like a reasonable impetus. White person, if you do not have a trauma informed counselor, I highly recommend that you seek one immediately: go to http://www.traumahealing.org

White people are the only ones who can end white supremacy. It is our responsibility to heal the mental illness of our ancestors that have been displayed for centuries in acts of violence, rape, and exploitation.

If we are not standing in solidarity with The Sword That Can End It All, ready to run into the mouth of the dragon to prevent further devastation by it’s claw, we stand in perpetuation of its destruction.

You either stand against white supremacy, or you perpetuate it.

Do your work.