A poem: Whiteness is a structure of material and cultural domination. It has nothing to do with your fair skin besides that this structure you were born in functions as your (unseen) lottery system. Whiteness is a lottery system; it is the original affirmative action. Who counts as whites, however, is always changing: yesterday it did not include Jews, Irish, Slavs, Greeks, Finns, Italians, Arabs, and Hispanics, today, by and large, it does. The destruction of racism, of this racial order, is thus the destruction of the lottery system; this system of unearned privilege, the original affirmative action. Are you ready? Are you sure you will function without this lottery system? Are you resilient enough? Because you wont be important anymore. Your fair skin will no longer function as an unseen cushion against determinants of stress. You will fall, and you will fall hard! Folks wont sing anthems about you anymore. You wont be envied. You wont be desired. You wont be given the benefit of the doubt. You wont have an allure of innocence. TV stations wont channel you as much as they do. You wont be the over-represented face of awards, grants, and scholarships. Your place in history books will be taken off the pedestal. Color-coded words such as civilization, science, technology, democracy, and suburban wont be attached to your skin-colour in particular. Immigration officials, state officials, teachers, police officers, and other authorities will no longer silently wink at you and let you pass, show you favors, or be less harsh in their sentences. Naaa, youll get the full fledge of the law. All the indictments you previously were let off, suddenly will come swarming at you. Youll start to think twice before acting. Poverty will hit you harder than it presently does; all of a sudden, youll feel a large weight on your shoulder. Youll work hard, hard, and harder but the reality will be too obdurate to shift significantly. You will yell out: meritocracy is a lie. Your health will decrease--white morbidity and mortality rates will increase to match that of others; and your longevity will decrease by some five to seven years. In tears, youll experience more still born babies, and your women, sisters and girls will go missing and murdered at a higher rate than they are. You will have a radical increase in likelihood of being incarcerated. Officers will stare at you as you freely walk in the public space as if you are criminal-minded. The stares will strip away at your sense of safety and entitlement of comfort. Your neighborhood and workplaces will not be as white. More brown, black, pink, and indigenous bodies will surround you. It is not that you will experience racism! Or some tale of revenge. Naaa, we aint about that. But it is just that you wont experience race privilege anymore. You wont count. You wont be important. We wont be able to find any social indicator that shows a pattern between, for instance, wealth and race; health and race; education and race; career and race; and etc Nope! You will be insignificant. Naked. Unseen or seen through. A nobody. Now there are many wonders and beauty that will await you when you fall from your pulpit; from your apex of supremacy. But, you will be way to shocked by the falling at first. Way to in pain, and confusion. Once you get over your frustration, tears, fears, resistance, confusions, and pain; you will look up, and see many black, brown, pink and red hands with their hands extended towards you. With loving and smiling faces. From there, itll be another journey; a bigger family; for you and me. But first, are you ready to be a no one? To live without a lottery system?
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 17:15:37 +0000
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