No, It’s Actually Not Okay to Be White and Here Are 3 Reasons Why
Is that the sound of pearls rolling? Well, let them because I’m just getting started. Here’s the truth about why it’s not okay to be White.
- Whiteness Is Not Real
Newsflash, but you weren’t actually born White. I know your birth certificate and your family may say otherwise, but you’ve been lied to. Beyond any social meaning, White simply is not real. It is a category made up out of thin air by evil people who wanted to divide and conquer poor people for capitalism’s sake. These evildoers created Whiteness solely to construct a caste system. People like yourself are not born White, but are assigned Whiteness, which means you were inducted into a nefarious social order at birth. As soon as you become aware of this and say it is okay, you willfully condone and participate in an entire system which assigns greater value to some people than it does others.
2. ‘It’s Okay to Be White’ Is an Alt-Right Slogan
Before continuing to espouse “it’s okay to be White”, know that you are being fooled by White nationalism’s attempt at rebranding. That phrase is not about loving the skin you’re in. Rather, it is a popular Alt-Right slogan purposely meant to sound innocent and innocuous, but the truth is that it’s anything but. Just like its cousin “all lives matter” the “it’s okay to be White” catchphrase is one used by hate groups to drum up support from followers and to recruit new ones. Like graffiti, it is often spotted on stickers and leaflets left in public places around major cities and it’s a phrase commonly used in arguments attempting to counter social protests launched on behalf of Black people and people of color. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly kinder, gentler expressions of White supremacy… they are still White supremacy.
3. Settling For Whiteness Is Settling For Less Than Who You Are
Throughout my life, I’ve heard individual White people say they don’t have a culture. This isn’t true, of course, but there are a couple of reasons some believe otherwise. For one thing, a lot White people don’t consciously recognize that mainstream American culture is by-and-large their culture. Designed for them and built to center them (even when parts of other cultures have been appropriated for them), Whiteness is so much a part of mainstream American culture until many either don’t see it or are so used to it until they don’t perceive it to be vibrant or terribly interesting in comparison to other cultures.
Which brings us to our third reason why it’s not okay to be White. Before being adopted as poster children for the caste system, so-called White people took pride in historically rich non-American cultures which featured their own unique celebrations, languages, histories, traditions, foods and styles. But for the last several hundred years, most have erased these meaningful parts of themselves in order to embrace the flat, general, basic and privileged appeal of Whiteness.
As a White person reading this, you have hundreds of ancestors who never called themselves White and who, upon learning what White is and why it came to be, probably wouldn’t even want to be identified as White if they were alive today. These people had their own ways of being and they were proud of who they were as human beings. They would not appreciate seeing you abandon your roots in order to cling to this false, shallow and hateful existence known as White. You’d better serve yourself and them to embrace your true culture than to continue with this evil White lie.
Let’s Wrap it UP
So, you see, Whiteness is not real. It has real benefits and privileges assigned to it, but it is not and never was anything more than a social construct. As such, it was designed to use a certain class of people to aid in the oppression of others. By believing it’s okay to be White, you’re actually saying it’s okay to have a caste system and that it’s okay for you to live at its top rung. In addition to this problematic acceptance, you are also aligning yourself with the Alt-Right movement and all of the hatred it advances. And what do you get for all that hard work? You get to toss aside the real culture(s) of your ancestors, which are unique and belong to you.
Before You Start
Allow me save you some keystrokes in the comments because I know you want to ask, “Well what about Black people? Why is it okay to be Black if it’s not okay to be White?”. Let’s be clear, White and Black are not on the same level in the caste system or even in terms of character. For starters, Black is synonymous with African and African people do exist. Before you counter with White being synonymous with European, let me remind you that Middle Eastern and North African people are also legally White in the U.S. despite having no European lineage whatsoever.
So, we see here that White is all about the caste system and not so innocently just about being European. Black is a culture created out of extreme oppression, while White was created to give all the rights and privileges of humanity to one group of people so they could oppress Black people. These distinctions are far from simply being two heads of the same coin. We are not the same.
Before you go, read a couple more of my articles to help you understand Whiteness a bit better and why it’s definitely not okay to be White.
