Thank you for this article, Bae! I really appreciate you highlighting power structures — which I see as relative positioning in a stratified culture. (Which rung of the ladder you’re on.)
White supremacy could be analagous to fish swimming in water. Whatever color they are, they wouldn’t have a notion of being in “water” or “air” or what “breathing” is — until their ability to breathe is threatend. White people are fish that have both lungs and gills. They wiggle up to the top of the pond, crawl out onto the mud, and yell back down to the others, “Hey, come on! There’s nothing to be afraid of.” They don’t actually know they’ve moved up into a different environment, because they are equally comfortable in both — “Just the way things are.”
Let’s say the gilled fish have tried climbing out of the pond, and they know it’s dangerous. At best, unless the white people fish can actually experience the terror of not being able to breath, they’ll pity the fish with gills for being so…whatever.
It’s not personal. It’s about entitlement. “Of course I can…whatever it is.” White privilege doesn’t necessarily mean that any given white person is racist. Just that we benefit from a system that privileges us in ways that aren’t always obvious. It can feel confusing, as if somehow admitting that privilege means any suffering I’ve undergone hasn’t been “real” suffering or is invalidated by the suffering of people of color. If I’ve had a very hard life, it can feel untrue or dismissive of my experience to be told I benefit from any sort of privilege. Actually, personal suffering may or may not have to do with my privilege, or lack thereof, but I’ll have a hard time seeing any benefits of my privilege because I’m…well, with both water and air, I’m like, no biggie.
Adam, what does “using something without permission” mean? And what does “sacred” mean? Is Black women’s hair sacred? Don’t forget the overall and historical power differential between whites and blacks. If I imitate a Black look because I can and it’s my right to do so, I’m having my cake and eating it, too. BECAUSE I CAN. I’m not doing it for personal safety reasons, like Black women who feel their hair ought to look European in order to appear non-threatening as they seek to rise in their company. There’s a power differential at work that allows me to easily cross a boundary — while for people of color, crossing a racial barrier can be dangerous.
Seeking permission seems like a confusing way to conduct cross-cultural exchanges, anyway. How many people do you have to get permission from? If just one or a few, how do I know those people are “representative” of the whole group?
