Bree Newsome Bass

I don't believe I've ever mentioned Bree Newsome (now Bree Newsome Bass) on here, other than in my Twitter round-ups, where her words make frequent appearances.

She's the person who climbed the flagpole on South Carolina's state capitol grounds to remove the Confederate flag back in 2015, after Dylann Roof killed nine black parishioners at Mother Emanuel Church. She's courageous and her thoughts and words (via Twitter) inspire me pretty much every day.


From today:

I don't understand how every marginalized group surviving under brutal oppression for the past several hundred years are the "snowflakes" and the true victims are the white men who are mad because they feel entitled and can't compete in a somewhat more level playing field.

Like...if you can't compete in a landscape just because it's 2% less white and male than it was three decades ago, it's not because someone is taking something from you, it's because you were never cut out for it and can't compete in a society that doesn't cheat for you on your behalf.

and

I'm not convinced white society in general is truly capable of viewing nonwhite people as equally human or participants in citizenship. Whiteness is so fundamentally organized around the exclusion and dehumanization of nonwhite people that nonwhite humanity doesn't seem to register.

Endless examples abound, this isn't in direct response to one thing but many. That said, [recent controversy about the novel] American Dirt is a perfect example. A major part of white socialization seems to involve gawking at the misery of nonwhite people, not to empathize, but to reaffirm the misery of being nonwhite.

I recommend reading the pieces by various Latinx writers who've commented on this in recent days and point out how the white dominated publishing industry wants trauma porn that centers nonwhite people, not because they empathize, but for the entertainment of white readers.

The reason I say I'm not convinced white society in general is capable of viewing nonwhite people as human is because the dehumanization of nonwhite people is a major part of how individuals are socialized into whiteness in first place. That's how you get barbwire-themed centerpieces.

And I think more attention needs to be given to how people are socialized to participate in whiteness specifically through the practice of gawking at the misery of nonwhite people, how viewing nonwhite people as eternally suffering is a way of reinforcing white social privilege.

During slavery, white readers were very captivated by stories featuring a white-passing woman who discovered she had African ancestry and was forced into slavery as a result. Not because they empathized with enslaved women, but because it was a horror-fantasy that reinforced white privilege.

I don't know how else you explain a society that's fascinated with stories and films featuring nonwhite people being subjected to violence but then that same society resists any effort to end said suffering in real life. It's not about the people who suffer, it's about the white spectator.

and

“Pro-life” for the unborn, cages and bullets for the children already here. Forcing people to have children as you actively foster a society that is hostile to their existence (cutting nutrition access, attacking healthcare, housing and education) makes zero sense and shows you don’t actually care about babies or children at all.

Thank you, Bree, for letting me listen in.