Sam, your points are all good. There is nothing wrong with what you are seeing.
It is about the fix. Actually, it is about the availability of the fix.
What I see happening with whiteness is that it points at power. Just like the Black Power movement, there is energy and potential, and just making the statement is good indeed. Folks must feel good about themselves on the inside.
But to create a future that is sustainable, not power must be combated, but the heart of the matter. Whiteness does not address the heart of the matter, it controls it; removing whiteness does not change the heart of the matter. Do we really want to be the next leaders doing the same as the current leaders and repress a substantial (but different) group of people?
If I crunch the numbers correctly, then there are more white folks in the US that are suffering from the system than there are black folks in the US, period.
Whiteness does not reach out hands to all that are suffering from this system. So, my conclusion, you are dividing the divided. And you will therefore not reach that goal. You will not because the setup is structurally flawed. You are still thinking within winner-take-all.
What is available to change the box is actually not the whole, nor the top. It is only the bottom. But we better take it, because small steps can make change possible. Much like the movie Pleasantville, we need a third color be empowered. I am fine starting at the local level, because today that’s where the real bulwarks are: so many city councils are really one-party controlled councils. One party either has a very comfortable majority or it has all the seats throughout the nation. The US Constitution declares in the 14th Amendment that governmental systems must be the better system (where this is applicable: at the local level).
Sam, we agree on many things (you know more about whiteness than I do), but I have my feet on the ground. Who gets elected, how and why. Who sits at the table where the decisions are made. Who controls the outcomes.
Our words are always beautiful, and yet our reality is not. This means that in the beautiful words some levels are built in where the manipulation from one level to another level occurs. And that is where the change can take place by having solid ground for our words. Don’t add more beautiful words from higher levels that are then supported by yet another division only. Stick to the ground.
Thank you, Sam, I really hope my words make sense. You want the right things as I do, but the heart of the matter is really this system that discriminates everyone. We all are slaves of the bad system (that benefits the few). Bad systems have flaws, and one of them can get fixed in an easy manner and that changes the overall outcome.
