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What is whiteness?

What is whiteness?

Mar 25, 2021

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Sunday, 3/21/2021

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This issue is going to be a little different because I can’t stop thinking about how a police officer in Atlanta had more sympathy for a white murderer than his victims. Six Asian women were murdered, and all this cop could think about was, wow that poor guy. Yep, white supremacy is a hell of a drug so let’s talk about it.

If you don’t already know, whiteness is really not a real thing.

No, I’m not saying white people aren’t real; of course they are. Just turn on your TV. What I’m saying is white capitalists invented this idea of whiteness after they realized that people hate being exploited, so much so that they’ll fight you to make it stop.

In his book A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn states,

“Only one fear was greater than the fear of black rebellion in the new American colonies. That was the fear that discontented whites would join black slaves to overthrow the existing order. In the early years of slavery, especially, before racism as a way of thinking was firmly ingrained, while white indentured servants were often treated as badly as black slaves, there was a possibility of cooperation.”

Yep, the evil monsters who run everything knew that oppressed people tend to be like drunk women in a bathroom. They will befriend each other and tear down the system.

And they weren’t wrong. In 1676, white indentured servants and enslaved Black people united to join Bacon in his rebellion against the British. Bacon’s Rebellion was driven by racism against the indigenous people, so let’s not laud it. The point is that after Bacon’s Rebellion, the rich whites got spooked ‘cause they were like, well we just can’t have this. So their solution? Racism! They used racism to destroy the solidarity between the indentured servants and enslaved Black people.

For example:

“After Bacon's Rebellion, [the virginia assembly] gave amnesty to white servants who had rebelled, but not to blacks. Negroes were forbidden to carry any arms, while whites finishing their servitude would get muskets, along with corn and cash. The distinctions of status between white and black servants became more and more clear.” [Also from A People’s History of the United States. Such a great book right? ]

Working class white people fell for this special treatment then and they are still falling for it now, making them the weakest link in our fight against capitalist exploitation.

I get it a little. I once bought a pair of pants that I definitely could not afford ‘cause the salesperson was very nice to me and I thought we were friends. But after looking at my credit card bill I realized the salesperson was not my friend, she needed the commission. The main difference between me and white people who continue to hold on to white supremacy is that I realized I was being had. Sure I got cute pants, but at what cost? Obviously white supremacy gives white people so much more than cute pants.


What’s the point of this whole rant?

The point is that white supremacy seeks to divide us from realizing we are all getting played. That’s why I’ll say what I said on TikTok again. We must have solidarity with the Asian American community because if we don’t, white supremacy wins. If white supremacy wins, capitalists win. If capitalists win, then Elon Musk wins and we just can’t have that happen because he sucks and deserves nothing.

❤️

Your favorite anarchist comedian

Marcela

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