It may be tad cliché to write “just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier …” but no doubt you’ve figured that out already by this article’s title.
University of California-Davis PhD candidate in (naturally) sociology Blu Buchanan wants to educate us on some additional definitions of one of the most prominent catchphrases in the contemporary academy: “white supremacy.”
Buchanan, who is (ready?) a “Black trans scholar and activist [who] primarily work[s] with labor and anti-racist organizations to build community capacity, a strong understand [sic] history and an intersectional approach to mutual liberation” and is currently studying “white gay men’s participation in conservative social movements,” writes in The California Aggie that we should be aware how two movements have dubiously “situated themselves” as “marginalized voices” on the UC Davis campus: those of Blue Lives Matter and Zionists.
Taking advantage of recent shootings “by yet” more white men, and obviously feeling the need to put pen to paper to show what they’ve (yes, the author uses plural pronouns) just learned in “Hate Whitey 101,” Buchanan writes
All of us, white or not, risk upholding this ideology by engaging in practices that benefit whiteness and shore up its privileges. While not every person can be racist, we can all participate in actions that defend and support white supremacy. This is important in our current moment, as so many of us turn to look at these egregious acts of violence and ask ourselves, “How did this happen?”
Regarding Blue Lives Matter, Buchanan accuses an Aggie columnist and a student senator of utilizing the so-called law enforcement “thin blue line” — the “metaphor of [the divide] between civilization and chaos” — as a hat tip to white supremacy:
The image of “chaos” is a common racial “dog whistle” for Black and Brown people attempting to live their lives in ways that are dignified and respected. Dog whistles signal race to those in the know, without bringing down direct stigma on those who use them. When people defend the police, you’ll often hear these dog whistles. The Black, immigrant, deviant body is and always has been made criminal through this reading — the chaos the police are supposed to protect good (read “White”) law-abiding citizens from.
As for Zionism, Buchanan claims the ideology “advocates for the creation of a settler-colonial ethno-state in Israel,” and that its ties to whiteness manifest themselves via the Ashkenazim, Jewish people of European descent:
The state of Israel is virulently anti-Black. Miri Regev, a member of the Israeli Parliament, has called Sudanese refugees a “cancer on the body of Israel.” It has sterilized and limited the birth rates of Ethiopian Jews without their consent or knowledge. In just the past few months, there have been uprisings from Ethiopian Jews protesting the police violence they experience at the hands of a Jewish state that prioritizes people who are closer to the white, idealized citizen of Israel. Additionally, far-right supporters of Israel — including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — have repeatedly aligned themselves with white supremacists.
In closing, the black trans scholar says “let’s leave the use of ‘victimhood’ to sad little white men and set about creating a world in which white supremacy is impossible to imagine.”
Powerful.
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