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Just catching up on the convos that emerged from @sista_theology's talk at Sparrow...
As a white woman, the important (& ultimately freeing) thing that our sister said is that whiteness is not an ethnicity.
As a white woman, the important (& ultimately freeing) thing that our sister said is that whiteness is not an ethnicity.
I have been to taught to think of myself as white American. But my DNA is not "white"--it is a mix of western European. Scot-Irish, Swiss-German, English, & French.
IOW, white is the category that US history, culture, & society has used to classify me & separate me from POC.
IOW, white is the category that US history, culture, & society has used to classify me & separate me from POC.
This is why people classified as white can (& should) critique racialized power structure w/out any fear of denying their heritage or ethnic identity.
On the other hand to persist in this category, to protect it, is to embrace an inherently flawed, hierarchical system.
On the other hand to persist in this category, to protect it, is to embrace an inherently flawed, hierarchical system.
IOW, you can let go of your whiteness without fear of losing yourself. You can acknowledge the harm committed in the name of race.
Conversely, the majority of Black Americans were stripped of their ethnicities when they were enslaved & given the racial category Black--a category used to control & oppress them.
So here's where we find ourselves:
Even tho we don't realize it, many white Americans think of ourselves thru the racial lens of whiteness, confusing it for our ethnicity. When we do search out our ethnic DNA, it's is a hobby, a curiosity. We want to know "where" we're from.
Even tho we don't realize it, many white Americans think of ourselves thru the racial lens of whiteness, confusing it for our ethnicity. When we do search out our ethnic DNA, it's is a hobby, a curiosity. We want to know "where" we're from.
For many Black citizens, they have no other option except to operate in categories of race b/c their ethnicities were stolen from them thru slavery. When they search out their ethnic DNA, it is to know "who" they are apart from the racialized category they've been forced into.
I love the hope @sista_theology offers: One day, God will restore what was lost--even our ethnicity. One day, we will stand before him as people from every tribe & tongue & nation. We will be reconciled to each other b/c we will be fully reconciled to Him.
But that day is not yet. We live in the complexity of this moment. It is a complexity that requires humility & willingness to question our categories. To question ourselves & what we assumed to be true. In short, it requires that we learn.
And if there is one thing that those of us who have been classified as "white" must learn it's that whiteness is not our ethnicity. It is a cultural category used to separate people, to keep us from our neighbors. To keep us from those we've been called to love.
(PS--Many white Americans are also distanced from their original ethnic identities which is why embracing whiteness as an identity seems natural. The difference is that there's little historical disadvantage to being white in US & significant disadvantage to being Black...
If we were to argue that somehow the American experiment doesn't require ethnic identity, replacing it w/ new identity of "American," it doesn't account for the radically different histories of white & black Americans...
It's inescapable: American identity cannot be separated from a racial classification system that was imbedded in her laws & culture from beginning. To acknowledge this should not be controversial.)
