Infiltrating a White Supremacy Teach-in

Yesterday morning, I found myself at a white supremacy teach-in. At the time of my spilt-second decision to splurge college freshman-style on a dollar bagel for breakfast, I had no idea I would later end up at the discussion led by white leaders to an almost all-white audience whose median age had to be about forty years at least—white in both skin and hair color. I assumed silence as a fly on the wall despite my front-row seat, and I was riveted from the beginning.

The speakers first established the space—a small underground black box theater with sixty or so people in full-house attendance and some even cross-legged on the floor where seats had run out—by using identifiers like “us” and “others” with their opening definition of the key term:

white supremacy /(h)wīt • so͞oˈpreməsē/ n. a historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations, and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent, for the purpose of maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power, and privilege. [source]

As the presentation continued, I started to hear a lot of obscure, abstract terms thrown around, including “diversity,” “inclusivity,” and “history.” I kept thinking, but what does that mean? Whose perspective decides what is diverse? Whose version of history? My awareness of this deeply ironic dynamic made me feel like a scholar with a M.A. in Race as I followed along, auditing what seemed like a kindergarten crash course on such topics as institutionalized racism, imperialism, and cultural oppression. With their combative questions and self-focused critiques of the presentation, the struggling students failed their pop quizzes and tests of temporary discomfort with not flying but faded colors. Many earned not even an F, but more like an Incomplete, because it seemed that they refused to even consider the moral assignment they were given without first contending it. Some marked themselves Exempt because this was not the Sunday morning topic they were expecting. Or perhaps they felt entitled to extra credit simply for their attendance?

A few pupils argued to use the "less divisive" term of “white privilege” rather than facing the prompts posed to them on white supremacy. I just sat back like, wow. I spotted three physical exits in that room, doors marked overhead with blazing crimson signs. But more important were the metaphorical exits available to each white individual present, allowing them to simply walk away from addressing these topics for the rest of their lives in our current, privilege-steeped society. For white privilege to be so rampant, one area where it fails—and actually disadvantages the people who wield it—is the realm of social consciousness.

“The term ‘white supremacy’ would make enemies of some of the good guys” one man said, nudging his sloping spectacles back up the bridge of his freckled nose.

At that, one of the few teenagers in the room stood and said, “but we should make enemies of the ones who are too closed-minded to take up the fight against white supremacy.”

She was surely the group’s star student. As I looked around, I caught the squinted glare of one skeptic and thought, I don’t know how you could ever get it. Discussion eludes you, because I really can’t talk an understanding of racism into you. A teacher could never demonstrate racism in a hands-on workbook exercise or lab experiment as with other fundamental concepts, like supply and demand or gravity laws. If this is the case, then how can any person who doesn't belong to a marginalized community become conscious enough to lead even the most remedial teach-in? Better yet, what would drive someone who enjoys a superior quality of life to do anything that could change that? I walked up to the presenter and asked about this.

Her reply: “I had to let go of my own white comfort.” A spark lit up her slate grey eyes when she mentioned her multiracial mix of grandchildren. I considered this. Of course, it makes sense why someone like me and my fellow activists would have a stake in these issues, and why our discussions on the matter sound much more productive. I am reminded of centuries’ worth of work that people of color have put in, picking the locks on shackles of white supremacist, patriarchal, and capitalistic systems of oppression. I just imagine how much could be accomplished by the white forces who hold the chains' keys and control the locksmiths. But why would they? I kept wondering why would someone not like me or my fellow activists, someone asleep in the shade of a "white comfort" tree trade it all in to come share a seat in the harsh sunlight’s truth-revealing rays. Maybe the guilt of knowing one contributes to the oppression of their own kin is enough to motivate masses of people to challenge the systemic sources of their shame and discomfort. Maybe grandkids look cuter than racism does. Who knows?

I told the presenter that her efforts seemed well-intentioned but were obviously lost on her audience, judging by their confrontational reactions. But it’s often better to take a failed step forward than none at all. When this lesson plan is revised, it may help to frame the history of white supremacy not in terms of a distant, bygone past, but of its present reality:

• Traders first dragged people ashore in shackles, and are still profiting daily from chaining them to a billion-dollar prison industry.

• Invaders pushed people from their lands through warring and bloodshed and are still forcing them from their family homes and neighborhoods along a gentrified trail.

• Masters used brutality to control enslaved Africans, and police terror continues to reduce Black bodies to target practice for bullseye bullets.

These cases, and the hundreds more examples like them, are not to equate white supremacy’s earlier evils with those more prevalent at present. But they are here to offer the source of a spark for someone, somewhere to reflect. To learn and to educate. To join us, pull up a seat around the conference table of budding consciousness and start prepping for injustice’s next big test—before awaiting another teach-in to begin.

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