Black Girl Dangerous (How To Know If You Are White)

White person tha I am I wouldn’t try to define what it is to be a POC but since this is an article taking a postion on what it is to be white….

Well, basically it’s on.

First and foremost, I know exactly what she is trying to get at and her point (although obscured) is a fair and pertinent point to make; either you are white or you aren’t and if there is any question… Well, that probably means you are white. If you have to qualify your non-whiteness with an explanation, you’re probably white. Totally spot on. I’m with her.

….But.

When it comes to sociology, terminology is both very important and very easily to lost in. I think she obscures the point she is making a bit. Let me point a few things that jump to mind.

First off and most obviously, I’m white but I have had some of those things happen to me. Is there some sort of scoring or ranking system being involved with being white? If I am, say, only 7 out of 10 white answers on the scale, am I still white?

Note: Of course I am. I’m whitey, white, white white. You can call me Snow White if you like. If I a Stephen Colbert here though, and claim I cannot see white, I don’t pass as 100% white.

Second, what about all of the African Americans through-out history who, through none of their own doing, could “pass?” Whiteness chose them, so they aren’t black? Whoa! As a white person that is about as deep into the discussion of the experience of African Americans with various skin tones as I’m willing to go. Being both awake and white, I realize I don’t know WTF I’m talking about when it comes to talking about what it means to be black and I best tread lightly. I realize that but I’m also a little mouthy so I have to at least say, “Whoa…” before I move on.  

Moving on. I think that one of the difficulties we as Americans have in discussing in race and the issue particular to African American community is that we are by-and-large limited to very restrictive paradigm to explain things in. For most of our history we have pretended that race is a -pardon the pun- black and white issue. Race is rather multi-dimensional.

As I mentioned I am white as the driven snow and I’ve already dipped my toe further than I probably should into the pool of discussion about the differences among or between black people so I’ll use whites to illustrate what I am saying here. I want to be very specific about the fact that I am not talking about not different levels of whiteness but different kinds of whiteness. (Levels is a whole other can of worms that is too messy to open up in here.) There are differences in the kind of whiteness that is Mayflower white, descendants of Jews who suffered thorugh concentration camps white or survivors of a racial genocide white. When we say white to refer to all of these different kinds of people with the same word.

When I say, “I love peanut butter ice cream,” and “I love my children,” it is easy to infer the difference in meaning that I intend. Race is a little trickier. I could mean annoying Aryan looking surfer dudes with no rhythm when I call someone white. Then again I could call someone white and mean that they are uber blood blood. I could even mean that they are white trash.*

To complicate things even further white people are not really a -again, pardon the pun- homogeneous group. In my neighborhood and the surrounding areas in addition to all of the plain white people running about their are those that distinctly Greek, or distinctly Irish, even distinctly Armenian. For now, let’s just use ‘people who you wouldn’t use another word in front of the word “American” to define their identity.’ Where those lines are certainly is a discussion in itself but let’s just go with that for now.

Plain white people are just white and American. White people other than plain white people are something-American. I’m not saying these people aren’t white, I say they thinking of themselves differently than plain white people do. Irish- Americans are often loathe to lump themselves in with the Protestants who who were historically so abusive and oppressive to their ancestors. Jewish people sometimes like to differentiate themselves from their goyim neighbors. Both groups have a different relationship with race and ethnic origin than plain white people. For example, historically both groups could have laid claim to the majority of conditions Black Girl Dangerous lays out as defining someone who is not white.

It’s hard enough to determine exactly what white means when you are only talking about white people. The discussion of blacks and whites interacting is generally more emotionally charged so it gets even trickier. That doesn’t even start to take into account Asians, Polynesians, Native Americans, or Hispanics. Race in America may very well be a black and white issue but it is an issue larger than just blacks and whites. It’s like we haven’t even begun to establish a framework of language for race in America is yet, no wonder our discussions of race are so fragmented.

Sigh.

* – What a topic in itself. I will resist for now. No, I won’t. Oh, the sardonic comedy that is white trash. I think we can all agree that they are amusing as hell. On TV. Not in real life. Not in my neighborhood. Having them live nearby is not funny at all. OK, more later on that goldmine of a topic.