"If we follow this line of thinking, that means that White women and gender-non-conforming people get to have an identity, but only at the point of the spear that is their gender. The same is true for Queer White people, poor White people, Jewish White people and disabled White people. At some point, though, we’re still left with an identity-shaped void around the outline of our Whiteness. And the message we’ve internalized is that there’s nothing of value there. Wherever our Whiteness begins, our identity ends. We are as blank and desolate as the Omaha of the coastal imagination."
This is such a good articulation of something I think about a lot, in several ways! I always try to keep a hold on how much more compelling it is to claim transness than whiteness as a defining identity. It's a lot easier, and yes, cooler, to claim marginalization, than to have to grapple with the moral responsibility of being a white person under white supremacy. I've been grateful to have more people in my life who are willing and able to see and look at whiteness instead of treating it as empty space to be filled with other people's stuff.
And the photos you chose are amazing, such a great complement to the article.
I think you articulated it really well too! It makes total sense, of course, and is so seductive. I think it reminds me of a lot of what Maurice Mitchell talks about in the "Neoliberal Identities' section of this article:https://forgeorganizing.org/article/building-resilient-organizations
Thank you for saying this. One of the values of Twitter for me--more true pre-emuskulated-Twitter, but still true--was the opportunity to listen and learn to people who articulated this along with other realities of embodying multiple identities. I think of the #DisabilitySoWhite hashtag, for example, as a challenge to those who have the marginalized identity of disability and who forget or overlook that the experience of disability is conditioned by race, gender identity, and all the rest.
Really thought provoking and a great articulation of things that have been swirling in the back of my mind for some time. I think one of the biggest questions I have these days is "What does it look like to claim identity as a white person without either cultural appropriation or falling into white supremacy?" For example, I've been loving writing by indigenous authors such as Robin Wall Kimmerer and wondered what it would look like to research the traditions of pre-Christian Europe to understand what my long ago German ancestors were doing. Of course what I found is that German Paganism is a thing that exists - and is constantly fighting off attempts to claim it by White Supremacy. Not sure exactly how to end this comment other than to say - yes, I agree that our pattern up until now has been to look for coolness and legitimacy from more oppressed folks, and that I'd like to find a different way forward but have yet to figure out what that looks like.
Oh that’s a really interesting exploration. It is a fascinating question whether White supremacy has so severed a connection to European identities that came before it to make reclamation hard, but it is notable that while there is of course such difference in Indigeneity in different contexts, one thing that remains constant across continents is communities that had more of a commitment to each other and the immediate environment around them, and that too seems true and applicable for those of us who are White.
Your mention of your ancestry prompts this. My mom's mother came to this continent from England with her family when she was 4 years old (on a ship, because there was no transcontinental air service then; she was born in 1902). Possibly because of that and thanks to my mom answering a question of mine as a child, I've always had a list of my family's heritage and can rattle off that I'm English, German, Dutch, Irish, Welsh. (My English great-grandmother reportedly once told my grandfather he wasn't bad "for a Welshman"; bias is timeless, and the English have looked down on everyone they colonized.)
I don't know if it's in my bones, but I've always been drawn to Celtic mythology and music, and took a class in Middle Welsh in college as a linguistics major.
I recognize the privilege of having the ability to trace our family tree back because none of them were brought over on the Middle Passage or removed from their families and sent to boarding school or forbidden from having their families with them while they labored to build the railroads. If we acknowledge that and hold it alongside whatever traditions from those cultures of our ancestors we might appreciate or enjoy, are we getting somewhere?
What a lovely response! Very different migration story for my family as they were Mennonites fleeing religious persecution in Germany in the 1700s, but I heartily agree that we should appreciate the fact that we are able to know exactly where and when our families left their continents of origin unlike so many others. Also, I have to offer you a high five as I was also a linguistics major!
Hi Abby, your comment has been with me since you posted it last week because I've been sitting in a similar place of reflection. Thank you for sharing!
I can't now recall where I first read the phrase 'indigenous Europeans' but coming across it honestly kinda blew my mind since I didn't know there was such a thing until that moment. But it is and it's my understanding that it references the folks of Europe before Christian colonization.
Anyway, having the privilege to know where in Europe all of my great-grandparents are from, the logical step for me in this journey has been to begin exploring the related customs, language and culture. Like Garrett mentioned below, there is a history of community and collective care within our ancestral pasts. White-bodied folks of European descent have long been separated from that due to Christianity, imperialism, white supremacy and capitalism.
With predominantly German heritage from Swabia and Bavaria, I've particularly been enjoying the content created by A Hearth Witch on TikTok and Patreon. She thoughtfully and thoroughly explores German folk traditions. MaryBeth Bonfiglio's Blood + Belonging course has also been a helpful framework for ancestral exploration with its components of animism, dreamwork and somatics.
This articulates so much. So, so true that in my younger years I felt a sense of "cool points" that came from liking and listening to specific artists. I'm remembering with some shame the performative nature of wanting to demonstrate that I wasn't boring or biased, as a plain vanilla white girl from middle class Idaho. It wasn't enough simply to know for myself, inside my own self--others had to witness. I do think of at least some of that as being an element of youth and the desire for belonging that's very human: "look at me! look at me! like me! like me!" But that need can just as easily describe being a Garth Brooks fan.
Your piece gives me another lens through which to view those thoughts, and those visits to Funk Night at the bar in Moscow, Idaho (which in my day had a lower drinking age than Pullman, where I went to school). Let me tell you, that was a room full of mostly white kids getting down, getting funky, and getting back up again, and feeling very cool doing it, while most likely assuming that any Black person in the room was an athlete or possibly an exchange student.
In full confession, the first chords of Super Freak by Rick James still make me get up and dance every time even though I now know about his problematic behaviors that came to light in the 1990s after my funk nights had been replaced by getting babies down to bed and hoping they would NOT get back up again.
There is part of me that hears about Funk Night and is like "hmm, as you're doing here, that's probably a good thing to lovingly problematize" and another part of me that is like "oh, Super Freak on Friday Night in 90's Moscow, ID... count me in!!"
"If we follow this line of thinking, that means that White women and gender-non-conforming people get to have an identity, but only at the point of the spear that is their gender. The same is true for Queer White people, poor White people, Jewish White people and disabled White people. At some point, though, we’re still left with an identity-shaped void around the outline of our Whiteness. And the message we’ve internalized is that there’s nothing of value there. Wherever our Whiteness begins, our identity ends. We are as blank and desolate as the Omaha of the coastal imagination."
This is such a good articulation of something I think about a lot, in several ways! I always try to keep a hold on how much more compelling it is to claim transness than whiteness as a defining identity. It's a lot easier, and yes, cooler, to claim marginalization, than to have to grapple with the moral responsibility of being a white person under white supremacy. I've been grateful to have more people in my life who are willing and able to see and look at whiteness instead of treating it as empty space to be filled with other people's stuff.
And the photos you chose are amazing, such a great complement to the article.
I think you articulated it really well too! It makes total sense, of course, and is so seductive. I think it reminds me of a lot of what Maurice Mitchell talks about in the "Neoliberal Identities' section of this article:https://forgeorganizing.org/article/building-resilient-organizations
Yes, this article was so fantastic, I was thrilled to read it after it was shared on the Discord!
Thank you for saying this. One of the values of Twitter for me--more true pre-emuskulated-Twitter, but still true--was the opportunity to listen and learn to people who articulated this along with other realities of embodying multiple identities. I think of the #DisabilitySoWhite hashtag, for example, as a challenge to those who have the marginalized identity of disability and who forget or overlook that the experience of disability is conditioned by race, gender identity, and all the rest.
Really thought provoking and a great articulation of things that have been swirling in the back of my mind for some time. I think one of the biggest questions I have these days is "What does it look like to claim identity as a white person without either cultural appropriation or falling into white supremacy?" For example, I've been loving writing by indigenous authors such as Robin Wall Kimmerer and wondered what it would look like to research the traditions of pre-Christian Europe to understand what my long ago German ancestors were doing. Of course what I found is that German Paganism is a thing that exists - and is constantly fighting off attempts to claim it by White Supremacy. Not sure exactly how to end this comment other than to say - yes, I agree that our pattern up until now has been to look for coolness and legitimacy from more oppressed folks, and that I'd like to find a different way forward but have yet to figure out what that looks like.
Oh that’s a really interesting exploration. It is a fascinating question whether White supremacy has so severed a connection to European identities that came before it to make reclamation hard, but it is notable that while there is of course such difference in Indigeneity in different contexts, one thing that remains constant across continents is communities that had more of a commitment to each other and the immediate environment around them, and that too seems true and applicable for those of us who are White.
Your mention of your ancestry prompts this. My mom's mother came to this continent from England with her family when she was 4 years old (on a ship, because there was no transcontinental air service then; she was born in 1902). Possibly because of that and thanks to my mom answering a question of mine as a child, I've always had a list of my family's heritage and can rattle off that I'm English, German, Dutch, Irish, Welsh. (My English great-grandmother reportedly once told my grandfather he wasn't bad "for a Welshman"; bias is timeless, and the English have looked down on everyone they colonized.)
I don't know if it's in my bones, but I've always been drawn to Celtic mythology and music, and took a class in Middle Welsh in college as a linguistics major.
I recognize the privilege of having the ability to trace our family tree back because none of them were brought over on the Middle Passage or removed from their families and sent to boarding school or forbidden from having their families with them while they labored to build the railroads. If we acknowledge that and hold it alongside whatever traditions from those cultures of our ancestors we might appreciate or enjoy, are we getting somewhere?
What a lovely response! Very different migration story for my family as they were Mennonites fleeing religious persecution in Germany in the 1700s, but I heartily agree that we should appreciate the fact that we are able to know exactly where and when our families left their continents of origin unlike so many others. Also, I have to offer you a high five as I was also a linguistics major!
Re: your last question... I think that holding all those things at once DOES get us somewhere, absolutely!
I also think this is why we're seeing more and more 'European ethnic' baby names! Like Lorenzo instead of Anthony or Michael.
Never thought of this but it tracks (saying this as somebody whose kids have iconoclastic/ethnically European names)
Hi Abby, your comment has been with me since you posted it last week because I've been sitting in a similar place of reflection. Thank you for sharing!
I can't now recall where I first read the phrase 'indigenous Europeans' but coming across it honestly kinda blew my mind since I didn't know there was such a thing until that moment. But it is and it's my understanding that it references the folks of Europe before Christian colonization.
Anyway, having the privilege to know where in Europe all of my great-grandparents are from, the logical step for me in this journey has been to begin exploring the related customs, language and culture. Like Garrett mentioned below, there is a history of community and collective care within our ancestral pasts. White-bodied folks of European descent have long been separated from that due to Christianity, imperialism, white supremacy and capitalism.
With predominantly German heritage from Swabia and Bavaria, I've particularly been enjoying the content created by A Hearth Witch on TikTok and Patreon. She thoughtfully and thoroughly explores German folk traditions. MaryBeth Bonfiglio's Blood + Belonging course has also been a helpful framework for ancestral exploration with its components of animism, dreamwork and somatics.
Wishing you the best on your journey!
This articulates so much. So, so true that in my younger years I felt a sense of "cool points" that came from liking and listening to specific artists. I'm remembering with some shame the performative nature of wanting to demonstrate that I wasn't boring or biased, as a plain vanilla white girl from middle class Idaho. It wasn't enough simply to know for myself, inside my own self--others had to witness. I do think of at least some of that as being an element of youth and the desire for belonging that's very human: "look at me! look at me! like me! like me!" But that need can just as easily describe being a Garth Brooks fan.
Your piece gives me another lens through which to view those thoughts, and those visits to Funk Night at the bar in Moscow, Idaho (which in my day had a lower drinking age than Pullman, where I went to school). Let me tell you, that was a room full of mostly white kids getting down, getting funky, and getting back up again, and feeling very cool doing it, while most likely assuming that any Black person in the room was an athlete or possibly an exchange student.
In full confession, the first chords of Super Freak by Rick James still make me get up and dance every time even though I now know about his problematic behaviors that came to light in the 1990s after my funk nights had been replaced by getting babies down to bed and hoping they would NOT get back up again.
There is part of me that hears about Funk Night and is like "hmm, as you're doing here, that's probably a good thing to lovingly problematize" and another part of me that is like "oh, Super Freak on Friday Night in 90's Moscow, ID... count me in!!"
Oooh, this is a good one, Garrett! So many thoughts.
Thanks Sara!