Understand the Realness of Others

Understand the Realness of Others

It sounds so silly when we say it out loud, but the reason there is oppression is because we don’t believe that others are as real as we are. I’m talking to my white brothers in particular here, those who occupy the most centered social locations, without awareness of the structural lines of force privileging our perspectives. If you are white and you’re a guy, you have built-in advantages that are present everywhere in this society. It’s likely you have been socialized to see yourself as an individual, outside the sociological context, and have therefore been led to believe your accomplishments are due to your own efforts. It’s cuz you’re a white guy, bruh. You get hired at twice the rate, when you are half as qualified. If you want to be healthy, take a good long look at your whiteness. Because we lack awareness of our whiteness, and our maleness, that’s what makes us assholes, and that’s what makes us unhappy. Because the only people who like assholes are other assholes, and they don’t really like you—they just find it advantageous to be around you.

Listen carefully to the experiences of others from different social locations, and believe them. Listen to women of color. Learn about the origins of whiteness: it was a sociological construct developed specifically to unite rich European land-owners with white indentured servants to prevent them from uniting with the enslaved African people with whom their interests were more naturally aligned. White Supremacy is baked into this country like yeast. It is what made the bread rise. This country is built on stolen land; its economy developed through stolen labor. Until we collectively address this, the residue, and the on-going structures of which are alive and well, this country will never grow up. It will always be adolescent.