Someone Told You That You Were “White,” and You Believed Them
But what were you before you came to America?
The man held responsible for attempting to assassinate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and who also authored racist rants on social media, is a white Canadian immigrant of illegal status. It seems that once he crossed the border into America, he discarded any sense of allegiance to his nationality and became fully immersed in the communion of whiteness. Because America is the origin of whiteness as a holistic and international concept.
He found emancipation in the sanctimonious glory of hegemonic whiteness.
Historically, immigrants literally fought to become “white” upon coming to America. Take the Irish, for example. They were not considered “white” upon reaching these shores, and they had to punch their way into the class of acceptable “whiteness.” Same with all other immigrants from Europe who hailed from any place outside of gentrified England. They changed their names, covered their accents, and adopted new attire, mannerisms, and customs.
In order to survive in this new land, these predecessors fought to become “white.”
We now see it with groups immigrating from outside of Europe.
Assimilate you must in order to live well lest you suffer greater from whence you came.
But what if assimilating a “white” identity entails communal degradation of humans whose skin color does not allow for full and complete passage into the holy stratosphere of acceptable whiteness?
Would the adoption of that identity be socially pathological to the human condition? Would that adoption demand and validate a dehumanization of others on the basis of their phenotype? What are the long-term consequences of such adoption?
Being a “white person” carries an identity, and it also carries a choice.
Whiteness is a choice. No one has to be a “white person.”
But if you have chosen to be a “white person,” then you should understand what you have chosen to be.
A “white person” is a formula of American colonial legislated class distinction that has been held for over 400 years. And despite its inherent pathology upon the human condition, both successors of past immigrants and now recent immigrants choose to join in the battle, to uphold, sustain and acquire this designation of whiteness.
This is the Civil War in 2022 and beyond. It is a war of identity as America gradually succumbs to the overwhelming call of transition. People of all colors, ethnicities, and cultures have assimilated into this communal American event. Still, at the same time, outside of a relative few who are confused, they do not, can not, and will never qualify as “white.”
Because while whiteness is available to anyone, only people specified by skin color can ever be considered and accepted as“white.”
‘Ye’ may have figured that out by now.
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