Ready to Do Something About White Supremacy?

It’s long past time we stomped white supremacy out. And when I say “we,” I mean me and my fellow white folks.

White supremacy is our societal ill to fix. It’s not up to people of color to do this work. We’re the ones who benefit from the assumption that pale skin is best. We’re the ones whose subconscious racism, whose insistence on being “colorblind,” whose apathy and inaction allow systems set up by unapologetic racists to continue on virtually unchanged. We’re the ones who too often can ignore what’s wrong because it doesn’t affect us, or even benefits us.

What can we do? March in protests. Donate to causes. Listen to non-white voices and amplify them. All of these things are important. But there’s more to it than that, and many of us haven’t done the work we need to do within ourselves.

So for a start, I’m going to ask you to buy or borrow this book.

Image shows book cover
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla F Saad

It’s on sale for Kindle today for $2.99. you can read it on any device with the Kindle app.

We’re going to be working through this book together over the next several weeks. I think it’s going to be deeply uncomfortable, even painful at times – growth often is. I doubt it will be easy or fun. But it’s necessary.

I know you’re not a white supremacist yourself. You’re probably not overtly racist, either, or you wouldn’t be here. But most of us were raised in societies that were created by white people, for white people, on the backs of brown people. We had, and still have, racist family members, coworkers, and friends. We’re not able to see a lot of the ways our societies are built to benefit white people, because it’s not something that adversely impacts us. We may even think white privilege isn’t a thing, because we personally may not think we’re particularly privileged. But just as society is still mostly set up to benefit men at the expense of women, straight people at the expense of LGBTQ people, and religious people at the expense of the non-religious, it still benefits white people at the expense of non-white people. And it will keep harming them until we dismantle those structures and rebuild them fairly.

We can’t confront what we can’t see. We can’t change things we don’t even realize exist. That’s why books like this are important, and why we’re going to spend quite a bit of time working through this one.

I’m hoping that by the time we’re done, we’ll be better equipped to confront our own biases, stand against racism in our social circles, and create a far more equitable society.

There is no better time than now. Let’s do this.

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Ready to Do Something About White Supremacy?
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