Being A White Privilege Rejectionist
I won’t ever lose the birthright of being white in America. But I will educate myself as an example to others about the founding of racial division through my ancestors’ establishment of whiteness as a tool for division and control.
“What do you mean you’re a White Privilege Rejectionist?”
The truth is, before the last few decades of the seventeenth century, none of my ancestors were white. The term itself wasn’t used as a descriptor of race before then. Now, I can say that after reading the history of these events, I no longer wish to claim the gift that came with my creation. I understand my white privilege, and I reject it. I am not interested in separating myself from my fellow working poor people by accepting the bribe given to my rebel ancestry.
Unfortunately, just like science, white privilege does not care whether any of us believe in it- it exists. I can say “I am not that kind of white” until I turn blue. But that won’t stop a policeman, an employer, or a judge from seeing my whiteness before anything else. I cannot wish away my whiteness any more than anyone else can wish away their skin.
To answer the question on many of your minds: “well, what are you then, if you’re not white?”
I am a mutt, insignificant in breed, a mongrel of European invader and refugee progeny. My ancestors fled persecution from their old world to persecute other humans in a new world. Please consider this socio developmental irony as I beg you for your patience in understanding why some of us are so slow to grasp the concept of created equal.
Understanding the origin of whiteness.
Until August 27th, 2020 I never considered the action of checking a box to indicate my race the way I considered it on that day. But on that day, I’d just finished reading several historical accounts documenting the creation of race-based slavery. I looked at the box to check for White and looked over the other choices. Then I looked below to mother’s and father’s history and decided to leave the race question blank. I honestly didn’t see myself represented, for the first time. I lacked the quick-witted ability to make a nouveau bougie adlib and moved on.
To understand what it means to “be white” and/or “of privilege” in America, we must understand how we came to be recognized as White. The idea of whiteness was manufactured in the second half of the seventeenth century as a means of dividing an increasingly unruly class of free African and English landowners for the purpose of control.
White Privilege is indeed rooted in a “bribe” offered to free, formerly indentured colonists in exchange for their acceptance of their “whiteness” and its value over other “freed” nonwhites. This is illustrated beautifully in an essay by Herbert Dyer, Jr.: Why White Cops Can’t Stop Killing Black People.
“Briefly, the bribe worked like this: Rich colonial planters offered white indentureds shorter and less harsh conditions and terms of service, together with “freedom dues” following their successful completion of those terms. Freedom dues included a plot of land, tools, implements, and farm animals to work the land, foodstuffs, clothing…and, crucially, guns — but if and only if the “white” indentured servants abandoned their black cohorts and accepted “whiteness,” their own and their rich benefactors’ whiteness, as a material thing of value over and above the “blackness” of “free” and enslaved “African”-Americans, and the “non-whiteness” of all “others.”” -Herbert Dyer, Jr.
I urge all my fellow white folks to read Mr. Dyer’s essay, and his others. Because after all these years- the more I learn about the origin of my “whiteness,” the more I realize that not only is it my birthright, it is a choice.
We can accept this bribe offered to our forefathers over 300 years ago, or we can reject it and continue the work of abolitionists as modern “white privilege rejectionists.”
My ancestors were slave owners and abolitionists. They were imperfect. Nathaniel Bacon, leader of the infamous Bacon’s Rebellion, is part of my family tree. He was both an organizer of free Blacks and Whites against what they considered a tyrannical regime in 1676 and was at the same time one of the most reviled, indiscriminate murderers of Native Americans in our nation’s history. Today’s continued fight against white supremacy requires a look into our applied identity, and a rejection of our manufactured racial distinction if we truly propose to right the wrongs done by our forefathers all those years ago.
We are now responsible for what they lacked the ability to comprehend then.
To be clear- rejecting our privilege doesn’t remove it from our inherent being- but it sends a message of acknowledgement of privilege, its origin in American culture, and the necessity of fighting against it through education and community outreach programs. Donate your time, energy, and resources to the Black Voices in your area.
Black Voices Matter! Fellow white folks: listen to the leaders in the Black community. Ask those voices what they need from you and direct your activism accordingly.
We cannot and must not use our voice as a means to unwittingly put ourselves at the forefront in the fight for Civil Rights like some sort of white savior. This has happened in the Black Lives Matter movement to an extent, and in some cases to the peril of that movement. We must be the educators of our fellow whiteys- who still work racist forces behind the backs of all Persons of Color.
We must learn to listen to the voices of the POC in our community and provide assistance as they ask for it. I literally just started thinking in terms of White Privilege Rejectionism this morning- after reading Mr. Dyer’s insightful and thought-provoking essay.
In learning the history of how we became white, we can make informed decisions about how our own perception of our identity affects our place in American society and how we treat others. More importantly, the way we perceive ourselves will aid us in how we perceive the treatment of others.
#BlackLivesMatter
While having any discussion of race and oppression in the formation of The United States, it is imperative to include that during this time the original inhabitants of the land were experiencing a fiery genocidal campaign with a hellish brutality that’s being waged on their innocent women and children by both freed men; Christian converts, and slave alike. They still are and we need to have that talk, too. That will be the focus of my next published essay.
PGR- @wartimepete.
