Me and White Supremacy: Days 6/7 - White Exceptionalism + Weekly Reflection

Resource: White Supremacy and Me by Layla F. Saad

White Exceptionalism

White exceptionalism is the belief that you, as a person holding white privilege, are exempt from the effects, benefits, and conditioning of white supremacy and therefore that the work of antiracism does not really apply to you as well, as the belief that racism is a Black or Brown problem, and not a white problem. It is found not so much right-wing nationalists/overtly proud racists (who share exactly what they believe), but liberals who believe their progressive ideologies separate them from the racism of the extreme right and do not acknowledge their own complicity in white supremacy. White exceptionalism shows up in the way you convince yourself that you don’t really need to do anti-racism work, but that you are doing it because it is the commendable thing to do; in the belief that because you have read anti-racism books and articles, listened to social justice-based podcasts, watched documentaries on the effects of racism, and follow some BIPOC activists and teachers, you know it all and do not need to dig deeper; in a response of “Not all white people!” when BIPOC talk about white people’s behavior; and the idea that you are somehow special, exempt, above this, past this, beyond white supremacy.

Two statements from Layla Saad stuck out to me: “While you experience hardships and oppression in your life from other identities and experiences, you do not experience these things because of your skin color. And your individual acts of voting for a Black president or having relationships with BIPOC do not erase any of this.” and “If you believe you are exceptional, you will not do the work. If you do not do the work, you will continue to do harm, even if that is not your intention.”

Reflection questions: In what ways have you believed that you are exceptional, exempt, “one of the good ones”, or above the conditioning of white supremacy? How has your white exceptionalism prevented you from showing up in allyship to BIPOC? Think back to your childhood. How did society (parents, school, the media) teach you white exceptionalism?

Sometimes, I feel like the only white person I know working to be anti-racist (although not as much now that I am connecting more with people who are also doing this work - also recognizing that people may be doing it but not as vocal about it, although I wish we all were), and with that it definitely can feel like being “one of the good ones.” I hope that as I work on this blog that I am sharing knowledge and modeling self-reflection rather than virtue signaling (being vocal about issues publicly to save face) which I think is an indicator or outcome of white exceptionalism. I am at a point where the work I am doing is primarily learning (unlearning and relearning), and I am recognizing that that is not really “the work,” although an important precedent to it. And I know that learning and actually doing the work can be done in tandem. I am starting to have conversations about race with people whose opinions differ than my own and thinking about how to apply anti-racism work to the structures/systems in the places I work at (and in my individual teaching - thinking about rather than applying right now because I haven’t interacted with students since March :( and as I am transitioning into a new job - hopefully soon, as my seasonal work is almost over).

I think more than believing I was above the conditioning of white supremacy, I was ignorant of how widespread and deep the conditioning is. Before starting to learn about racial equity, I would say that I was “colorblind” - I was taught to treat everyone with kindness and not see race as an issue because slavery and Jim Crow era was over. That is something I believed until I started working for City Year Seattle-King County whose focus was on racial equity. Along with that, growing up I saw racism as individual acts, and only in the past several years have recognized its presence in systems and institutions. The more I learn about white supremacy, the less I feel exceptional, although I do feel the need to remind myself about white exceptionalism because I can see myself falling into that line of thinking pretty easily. It certainly is easier and more comfortable for me to ignore white supremacy, and I worry that I’ll fall into the trap of surface-level equity work that actually perpetuates systems of white supremacy and racial inequities. I feel lucky though that I am building up a community of people to hold me accountable.

I wonder too if I am not answering these questions directly enough in this blog post and that is an example of white exceptionalism itself. I do feel myself falling into the thinking that what I am doing is is enough, and just reading and learning without action is not. I feel like being aware of racial inequities/white supremacy is a first step, and action is the next step, although I think even a few weeks ago, I would have said that being aware is good enough.

Week 1 in Review

Reflection: What have you begun to see and understand about your personal complicity in white supremacy that you were not able to see or understand before you began this work?

I think just seeing what forms white supremacy takes in systems/institutions and seeing that I have been complicit in white supremacy at all has been eye-opening. For the most part, all of the things that were discussed in this first section (white silence, white fragility, white superiority, white exceptionalism, tone policing) were all things that I have done or embodied without realizing it until being made aware of it (mostly through reading this book and other racial equity work I have done in my work spaces). It’s hard to recognize and be aware of the culture that I have not questioned for the past 25 years or so, and I think being aware of it is like when you put on glasses for the first time and you can see every single leaf on the trees and you never knew that trees could look so clear. Except with white supremacy and racial inequities, rather than seeing every leaf at once, it’s like I can see the outline of the whole tree now, and slowly as I learn more, more individual leaves start to become clear.

I wish I had been aware of my privileges/behaviors sooner, although now that I am aware, I have a responsibility to work on them. I think that tackling dismantling white supremacy in my life starts first with examining/changing my own actions/behaviors and doing whatever I can to dismantle it in the communities I am part of and in my own workplace. In other words, I need to be focusing this work in the spheres I am already part of and not trying to change the entire world and everyone I meet. Maybe this will change as time goes on, but right now, I think that’s what I need to focus on. I feel this strong sense of responsibility to leave behind a more equitable world than the one I was born into. In listening to Indigenous scholars, an idea that has surfaced over and over is one of being a good ancestor - in other words, living your life in a way that makes the world better for your descendants, or thinking in the way that we borrow the world from our children rather than inheriting from our parents. I’m using that as a guiding force as I continue to learn and take action.