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Terms: White Centering, White Privilege, White Supremacy, Womanism
White Centering
Definition:
“White centering is putting your feelings as a white person above the Black and POC causes you're supposed to be helping.” Jessica Sager
“White centering is the centering of white people, white values, white norms and white feelings over everything and everyone else.” Layla F. Saad
How Can I Stop White Centering:
Change your language - Your internal monologue and external expressions need to articulate that yes, you have benefited from white supremacy and that others have been oppressed, enslaved and killed because of it.
Educate yourself - It is not the job of people of color to educate you on the history of racism and oppression.
Use empathy - "To exhibit a true empathetic response, a person must see, think and feel through another person's lens," Jennifer Keitt
Quit virtue signaling - If your goals in protesting are to look and feel like a good or better person, you are not going to accomplish any actual activism. That's called virtue signaling, and it's essentially useless.
Get comfortable being uncomfortable - A lot of the work that must be done to dismantle systemic racism and oppression will make white people uncomfortable.
Talk to your kids - End the cycle of generational racism by opening your kids' eyes to racism and ways to end it.
Elevate and amplify Black and POC voices - Embrace stories, media and especially racial and social justice messages from Black and POC's voices.” Jessica Sager
Sources:
What Is White Centering and Are You Doing It? Plus, 7 Ways To Stop 2020
Resources:
What Is White Centering and Are You Doing It? Plus, 7 Ways To Stop 2020
Confronting racism is not about the needs and feelings of white people | Ijeoma Oluo | The Guardian 2019
White Privilege
Definition:
“I have come to see white privilege is an invisible package of unearned assets which I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was ‘meant’ to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks.
“Having described white privilege, what will I do to end it?” Will we choose to use unearned advantage to weaken hidden systems of advantage? Will we use any of our arbitrarily-awarded power to try to reconstruct power systems on a broader base?” Peggy McIntosh
Examples:
If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I want to live.
I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.
I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.
When I am told about our national heritage or about “civilization,” I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.
I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.
I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me. “ Peggy McIntosh
Sources:
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack1989
Resources:
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack1989
What Is White Privilege, Really? | Learning for Justice 2018
White Supremacy
Definition:
White supremacy is defined as white superiority. When we think of white supremacy, we think of neo nazis or klu klux clan. However, it runs much deeper than that. Supremacy implies a power relationship. Colonization has resulted in a deeply ingrained view of white supremacy even by those who are not aware of this view. It exists at the institutional level in every facet of our society. The media, government, business, education, justice systems, health care, employment, and housing are all built on the basis of white supremacy. No one is exempt from its effects. The first step to changing a system is acknowledging it exists.
“What can you do?
“Start to notice whiteness in your world What images do you see everyday?
How does whiteness affect your relationships in your home, in your community, in your workplaces?”” Selam Debs
Sources:
Resources:
Fundamentals, Core Concepts, System of White Supremacy and White Privilege
What is White Supremacy? | SOA Watch: Close the School of the Americas
Womanism
Definition:
“Womanism is a term used to refer to feminists of color, more specifically Black feminists. Womanism centers the experiences, contributions and efforts of Black feminists to better the world around them for all of humanity, not just themselves. Womanists speak to the injustices faced by Black women, men, children and families and frequently fight against these injustices by leading, participating in or supporting various social justice movements.” Marcia Walker-McWilliams, Executive Director, Black Metropolis Research Consortium