I Do Not Fight Pigment; I Attack the Mental Stagnant

I DO NOT FIGHT PIGMENT!

I spread it over and through my brushes, or across my cheekbones, or I crush it in my palms, drag it across the cement, spray it on a canvas, splash it over a wall. But my beef is not with color, certainly not with the color of skin.

While I began this blog in El Grito days talking much more about people and our skin colors, the arc has brought me to a place where I understand a few more things, a few necessarily nuanced things about race and behavior and conditioning and culture. And of course, one of those is that while the benefits and privileges of that social construct we call “Whiteness” are not available to all by nature of design, the attitudes and behaviors that we often associate with said “Whiteness” are available to a person of any tint or shade.

There is a reason that people our society deems “white” have incredible influence and very often insulation from parts of life in the US that others will not get. There is a reason they can not individually remove the privilege from themselves and the consequent entitlements…not until we remove those values from our culture and the consequences of those values from our policing, jailing, sentencing, mortgaging/loaning (etc etc) systems as well. And if you know how to make that happen within one person’s lifetime, let me know.

But even the best intentioned of “allies,” will inevitably say something or do something that reminds you of the power differential, or at the very least the one that exists in their own mind…and in activism, this behavior gets even more insidious and tricky, as we are dealing with such deep feelings and lives and messaging and groups and heirarchy. With power.

Yes, there is too, a matrix and a weave of power and privileges. Even in one person, one particular privilege or condition which allows or disallows a specific privilege can fluctuate from situation to situation. That won’t, of course, change the system. Which is why individualist arguments against racism are phantoms. This disease lives in minds, in institutions, in the manners and methods of our ‘justice’ system, in our choices of who not to bomb and who to shush first, who looks like they are just asking for it, who can be excised from our national community without considering it a “loss” and who deserves a full scale amber alert, should they vanish.

It is true that depending on who is next to me, the power differential shifts. I stay aware of this, as I am on no mission to simply repeat oppressions.

Nor am I out to surrender power or let it leak out of a thousand paper cuts. I still seek power, just as any living creature does. However, I use and am determined to keep using any power and privileges I do have or can gain to help others like me who may not be in the location or class status or area or appearance to gain the same.

Don’t get it twisted: I am not a hero nor an altruist by any means. Just set on lending my strength and energy to a raging battle.

So as I move forward, my desire is to speak honestly about these things. One of the reasons always motivating me is that my children need to learn. They need to learn what I did and mostly what I did not learn. Much I write is discussed in terms of how children are affected by culture and attitudes and messaging in our media. This is all very practical and experiential and personal to me. I spent years in the wilderness of self denial and self loathing, as is the experience of many non-whites growing up in a system designed to remind them time and time again, then, how they are the Other. And this is an inner experience; one laid upon you by a system of systems, one that takes root in the mind and heart and body despite what any one individual thinks of you or how they treat you individually.

Some people come along when offended by my blog or my writing and say things like “You are so privileged, USA citizen, Westerner, you shouldnt complain of oppression and identity” etc etc. Nevermind that this is only one of many messages meant to stop me from speaking out and up as I do. The patterns get achingly obvious after a while. Even if I took that complaint seriously, all I could say is, yeah. That was my idea, I guess. Ignoring being “Mexican” and changing my own name as a child, lying about it, telling myself none of that mattered. Brownness was something I thought I could ignore at will. Turns out that wasn’t such a good idea. Funny, that, eh? Self Eradication not so pleasant after all. But I’m sure these visitors to my blog trying to shut me up would be very happy with that choice. That is in fact, what they are selling.

I’ve come to this out of necessity and the pride and pain that comes from being a person of color in this nation. Which is why I love my compas who get that. We never need to negate each other with it. Or suffer under the illusions that we are post racial, or coming across as “loud” or “divisive” or any of the terms that this culture is very ready to throw onto people of color who cross certain lines set up for us.

Even as some of my own family members employ the trappings of Whiteness…unintentionally. Which is why I do not take certain things certain places. What does my Mexican father know about being biracial? flyracial? What does my white mother know about being brown? They say silly and stupid things from time to time, things that reveal their non understanding. Things that hurt. So I learn where to go for certain support.

To the point, and of most importance right here: when I talk about Whiteness, I talk about a certain set of behaviors. And as time goes on, I find this distinction more and more important to discuss. Because anyone can think “I’m not WHITE so I’m cool.” Or “I’m an ACTIVIST so I’m cool.” Or “I’m a ‘PROGRESSIVE’ so I’m cool.” ‘I’m on the “LEFT” so I’m all good!’

Maybe that works for some. Myself, I find it important to draw out the behaviors of Whiteness. And I find it necessary, also, to underline these (necessary and rightful) distinctions between melanin and behavior, as I have children who range in tones, most light-skinned. Regardless of how they identify, I want them to understand they are not condemned to a set of behaviors due to the tone of their skin.

But all lightskinned people ought take special note, as it is easier, then, to cling to these traits and ways of thinking—the Weapons of Witeness, after all, are designed to continue a power structure that preferences Whiteness. And my four decades on earth have shown me almost without err that people do not give up power available to them very easily, if ever at all.

Intention. Does it matter? You cannot say “YES” and you cannot say “NO” across the board. Like most intelligent discussions, nuance provides true understanding from situation to situation. But to avoid the madness and confusion that Whiteness would have us fall into, I’d say “intention” is a distraction, and instead, one should focus on impact or effect of actions.

After all, “White” folks often don’t mean to be negating, appropriating, threatening, or dismissive of people of color; nor to employ any of the traits that Whiteness carries with it like a ring of janglyclash diamond keys. But the experience and thought pattern of those who live under the platinum cloak of Whiteness; within the sphere of invisibility that is Whiteness; the eternally-central region that is Whiteness; the Norm, the Top, the Unspoken Perfect…they predictably adopt that sense of infallibility, dominance (in their values and image of self as related to Other), and even the invisibility of Whiteness itself—the last manifesting as blindness in many areas.

This is because the US/Western culture teaches us to be blind to the value of Whiteness, so that its egregious dominance continues unnoticed and unchanged. (This is the same with Maleness. Many others will add many other crucial parts of what is called “Kyriarchy” to this list. I work on a few things that affect me slowly and with great attention and heart. I add every angle of injustice I can to my list, as I am ready, and as I see fit. I am certain I will die before the entire picture is realized. But as I’ve said before, it is the angle, the lean, the motion that matters.) And that is why those of us who underline these skulky paradigms as we find them demonstrating themselves in every day life, law, and culture feel it is a worthy effort to make. As a friend said on Twitter today in reference to something else (yet it very much applies here as well as to many other imbalances today):

Self-regulation isn’t going to work. It’s become a disarmament scenario.

And so it is that I bring you, after a proper time period of research and observation, the second edition of the fabled and Nez-patented Wite Magik Attax.

WITE-MAGIK ATTAX | Edition Dos

As I see it: any person can find themselves clutching these weapons and devices and switches. But it is certain types, namely those who benefit from maintaining the oppressive system(s) in question, who very much refuse to let go, even so. The degree to which you wield these is the degree to which you slip behind a glaring platinum shield of WITENESS.

First, the requisite framework within which the Weapons of Witeness are employed:

WITE PSYCHOSIS or THE SHELL GAME: [reality as objects to be arranged at will; life without meaning; symbol divorced from essence]

This is the setting in which you can understand the Weapons of Witeness. This is the only frame in which they will “make sense.” You will note all the following listed Weapons of Witeness rely on this prerequisite.

The reason these methods can be hard to see, let alone codify, is that they rely not on truth or a truthful and sane understanding of anything, but rather, very much on induced insanity. That is, these tactics operate by introducing a leveraging or arranging of reality not only destructive to reason, but to the very human condition. Of course that makes sense, as they are, indeed, weapons designed to corrode and baffle the mind so that free will can fall to the whim of the wielder of these weapons, just as Whiteness was invented to eradicate populations and to transform blood, soil, and sweat into gold.

The Weapons of Witeness are designed and employed to confuse and disempower the mind of the Other: to confuse the thought process, to shove you off balance, to make it impossible to use reason. This is, of course, to continue the oppression and exploitation that occurs all over the world when those deemed “white” conquer/corrupt/exploit those they deem worthy of devaluation and theft. Reason, after all, is inadequate for defending such actions, and so reason must be subverted and replaced by control tactics.

There are words from indigenous writings that compare the Indian’s relationship with reality versus the (Crazy) White Man’s and from wherever you quote it, or in what form, the message is essentially the same: Indigenous peoples view the world around them as having meaning and all things and creatures being connected to themselves and each other in some way. The Westerner/Whiteman/Madman sees life and all her creatures and moments as devoid of meaning, and rather, objects to be controlled and shifted around at will in order to arrive at a predetermined conclusion which will allow the person wielding said control to destroy, detach, exploit, and use anything in their path.

This is, after all, what happens when you remove Essence from its rightful Symbol; you have eradicated the tie that serves as a metaphor for our own sense of reason and sanity. The condition of being a spirit/energy that coexists with a human form/body is the metaphor for all Essence wed to Symbol. Language continues this metaphor, our sounds and words being but physical entities that represent an intangible but necessary meaning. When you divorce words from their meaning, you have non-sense. When you divorce a spirit from its body/shell, you have non-life as understood on this plane. Death. Whiteness is the death of truth and meaning; it is a hand that reaches into a relationship between Essence and Symbol and tears them away from each other to remake the world as a chaotic, nonsensical place ruled by naught but five cruel fingers.

You can see this madness, this divorce of Symbol and Essence, this Wite Psychosis, play out even today, in conversations or arguments between peoples. Again, any person can bestow or grow within themselves this madness. It is, after all, a very “Western” way of dealing. Empty of soul, and reframed in terms of power leverage.

You will find yourself engaged with Wite Psychosis when nothing you say or write in an email thread  or listserve discussion matters, even if it is a truth; when your truth (meaning) is countered by Terrain Shifting (lies, by sidestepping, by ignoring, and only to be reshaped or twisted around so that the other person’s point “wins” again) you know you are dealing with Wite Psychosis.

Just leave. You can’t “get through” this. Engaging with nonsense yields naught but noise and madness. Eventually you will find yourself frothing with rage at the person’s audacity and unabashed duplicity and amoral abandoning of truth. Should you be a truthful person at heart, one who strives to understand the meaning of yourself and others and the world around you and connect to that meaning, these violations of reason and offenses against truth will enrage you. Rightfully so. But at the last, you will be left frothing and enraged, at which point the person wielding this weapon will point to you and claim you are unreasonable, angry, divisive, oversensitive, or crazy. And this, my friends, is how the West Was “Won.”

the WEAPONS OF WITENESS

TERRAIN SHIFTING:

The method employed by Whiteness of “moving the goalposts” or abandoning what one just claimed was true from moment to moment, in an effort to destabilize the thinking or reality of a person of color. In this tactic, all that matters is having the last word, or sounding right, or looking right, or “winning” the argument. Power is the goal; Truth is not important. In this way, Terrain Shifting is a microcosmic in-motion manifestation of the very essence of Wite Psychosis.

SCENERY STEALING:

The Scenery Stealer kicks back and checks you out. The Culture Vulture is only one type of Scenery Stealer. A Scenery Stealer (por ejemplo) watches you stand up for a friend and decides that this 1) Makes you look admirable on this stage of life (because what is being expressed is not real, but all about appearance and image in the mind of Whiteness), and 2) That it is not right that you suddenly look more admirable than he—the center, the normal, the highest value, the norm, the dominant.

You have upset The Order, and taken the frame.

This will result in 3) the Scenery Stealer using the observed and nifty new behavior of (in this example) loyalty or solidarity or bravery, and most likely to gain a one-up on you. Perhaps in the next moment they will “stand up” for a third friend but (and here’s the insidious twist) do so against you. In but one moment they have negated your demonstrable goodness (your essence/actions’ meaning), by mimicking the action (stealing the appearance) replaced you in the spotlight, and returned the order back to it’s “rightful” heirarchical default.

Watch their hands when they get near the ropes. The Scenery Stealer has a neverending hunger for more facetime and better lighting in the frame, and they will populate their stage with all the trappings they find on their way and elbow you into a supporting role at every turn.

THE INVENTOR OF REMERICA

I would present The Inventor of Remerica as a specific subdivision of The Scenery Stealer. The Inventor of Remerica is that specific component/form of Scenery Stealing where an idea, a plotline, a behavior, or a style is “remade” as “new,” essentially stealing the material and then erasing the actual source out of the picture. (We know what happened/is happening to Indians in the Americas once the New World was “Discovered.”)

THE WITE-KNIGHT

The Wite Knight is not truly interested in helping you. It only appears that way. They are actually intoxicated with the bounce of their steed and the rhythmic rise and fall of their own gonads. The Wite Knight constantly craves a reason to get up on that horse and ride. It is where they can look down on all their marvelous works and the people they have rescued. The people are, in fact, their steed. It is you they ride. And just when you think they are there to help you be free, they dig a spur into your side.

Phrases like “you know I have always championed you” and “my dream of your being successful is finally coming true” and “I’m so happy that my efforts to get you A, B, or C are finally bearing fruit” are used. You note, they sound like a parent talking to a child. They do not, of course, empower you. That is by design! The statements of the Wite Knight must, by nature, appear complimentary while simultaneously disempowering you. This is the insidiousness of the Wite Knight who rides your back to the promised land. Without his steed, the Wite Knight would have to walk and of course be on the same level as you. And you’d not have to carry him anymore. And what kind of magic would even exist in his world at that point?

THE  SOLAR SYSTEMATIZER

The Solar Systematizer arranges the universe in their mind and words to always center around themselves. Regardless of the situation, their absolute focus will come back to themselves. In a world of constantly shifting planes and orbiting dust, they remain the sun. In their minds, anything is possible—except their not being central to the layout of just about everything. Decenter them and wait for the big bang.

THE SANITIZED SMILE

Remember, Whiteness values appearance over substance. Again, this is because Wite Psychosis demands the detachment of Essence from Symbol so all the imbalances and exploitations that have historically and that systematically benefit The White can continue, seemingly “justified.” The Sanitized Smile is the utterly and maniacally-civilized method of ignoring matters of real substance in order to continue an unruffled or bright appearance. Manners over Sincerity. Form over Function. What People Think over What’s Really Goin’ On.

Symbol important. Essence of no value. Meaning negated. Truth destroyed.

THE FEINT DISCLAIMER:

This statement pretends the appearance of awareness, while covering itself slipshod with ignorance. This Wite-Magik Attak begins with “Now, I’m not racist, but—” and we know what very well will follow. BOOM! You were looking down when you should have kept your eyes up. The Feint Disclaimer can also appear in more “benevolent” forms such as “Now, I’m aware of my privilege as a White Person, so—” before boldly wielding one of various Wite-Magik Attax. Teach your mind to recognize the Feint Disclaimer as a warning.

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As always, I offer these to you free of charge. You may use and apply them to life and behaviors as you see fit. Or not. As always, they are not invented, but rather simply named and described. These are actions that will occur many, many, many times. As usual, I expect a few “types” of people will be able to use them for various means, because at heart, racism and white supremacist values are not about color. Racism is about power. Racism is about control. Racism is about domination and negation. Racism is about a parasitic absorption and cooption of energy and being. And this power dynamic can play out in any venue, using any names. Names are important. Symbol is important to Essence. We need our physical and mundane markers for the myriad manifestations of the immaterial. But divested of the relationship that connects the two, Symbol means nothing at all. No matter how much it parades about proclaiming itself the irrefutable proof of its own quotient.