Ok we are diving into another sticky subject! Remember, in order to break out of the System’s rubberbands, you need to understand the rubberbands that are on you and how those came to be. This is nothing personal … you were simply born into this System. We all get wrapped up in rubberbands that aren’t from our Higher Self but are from societal conditioning. Your Ego may come up with a lot of stories, be prepared for that! Take lots of breaks, breathe through it, and remember that you are doing this work to release your Higher Self that has been buried and covered up for far too long … It takes courage to do this work. 

Ok, here we go!

“White supremacy is not merely white men riding around in white hoods in the woods.” White Supremacy “permeates every institution the world over, from health and education to military and politics, and the impact begins from youth.” (Ricketts 8)

What is White Supremacy?

“White supremacy is complex, entailing multiple forms of oppression. It is first and foremost a form of racial oppression including anti-Blackness and anti-Indigeneity, but it also includes heteropatriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, classim, ableism, ageism, fatphobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and all forms of oppression. As such, I believe racial justice includes ending all forms of oppression. BI&PoC include all ages, abilities, ethnicities, classes, sizes, religions, cultures, etc., so we cannot advocate for the freedom of some without advocating for the freedom of all. Instead of naming each of these forms of oppression separately, they are included within my references to white supremacy.”

• Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy: Do Better by Rachel Ricketts (xxiii)

White Supremacy exerts power over the “other” to maintain control. This model of ‘power over’ oppresses the “other” and thus is a Domination Model. A group on top of another. We have been operating in this dynamic as a collective for the last six thousand years, yet we have lived differently like the earth-based societies who were rooted in matriarchy and partnership. (No, matriarchy does not mean the opposite of patriarchy.)

How did this come to be?

White Supremacy operates and maintains control through artificial hierarchical social structures. These structures have been created through social narratives that in time become naturalized, weaponized, internalized and upheld by individual behaviors, attitudes, and actions, as well as enforced through laws, policies, cultural representations, language, and institutions (Trish Derocher)

Why do we need to do something about it?

Well, for one, White Supremacy is literally causing physical, emotional, energetic and spiritual harm and oppressing People of Color (racism), People who are non-heternormative (transphobia, homophobia), People with disabilities (ableism), People who are from a different country or other religions (xenophobia), People who are from different social classes (classism). And further, everyone is harmed by White Supremacy. Yes, even if you are a heterosexual, white, able-bodied, nerotypical person aka not a person who suffers from the typical forms of white supremacy’s oppression), you are still indoctrinated in this way of thinking which by default, means you have not been free to truly express you authentic self. We’ve been fitting ourselves to fit into a system that does not accept the full expression of ourselves. And what's more: Many of us have caused harm on others, and that hurts the Soul.

Here are characteristics of a white supremacist culture according to Tema Okun. Can you see these playing out in your life? Reading these, do you want to envision a different way of being? What would you want that to look like?

• individualism and perfectionism
• belief in objectivity
• power hoarding
• either/or thinking (right versus wrong)
• worship of the written word
• defensiveness
• paternalism and urgency
• quantity over quality
• fear of open conflict and right to comfort

Dismantling White Supremacy as a White Person

“One of the many privileges afforded to white people by white supremacy is the ability to simply be who they are without preconceived negative stereotypes regarding intellect, ability, class, criminal history, language, origin, or otherwise thrust upon them strictly due to the color of their skin.” (Ricketts 9)

As a white person, this concept is relatively new for me. Well, because I’m a white heterosexual woman, I haven’t been oppressed to the level that others have, so I am afforded the privilege of not being “bothered” (aka oppressed in the most violent and overt ways) to be thinking about these things … let me say it again in another way … if you have not had to think about things before, then it is a privilege of yours granted to you by the White Supremacy culture … Those who have had to think through these things before, know too well how they have been oppressed and harmed because they come across White Supremacy in almost every interaction and movement they take within their living existence. White supremacy silences POC struggles and prioritizes white comfort. (Ricketts 13)

“Black and indigenous folx, young and old, are dying – emotionally, spiritually, and physically – every single day at the hands of white supremacy and all those perpetuating it. Not caring is a privilege we simply cannot afford.” (Ricketts 10)

White supremacy impacts our relationships with ourselves, each other and the Earth. It dominates everything that we do. White Supremacy is deeply interconnected in the way we operate in the world and is a massive underpinning to deconstruct. 

This talk by Resmaa Menakem highlights what happens when white people do not deal with white supremacy;

He uses this concept of "Blown Through" -- meaning the trauma and feelings that white bodies feel and ultimately do not deal with get passed down or "blown through" to bodies of people of color. Because white people have not dealt with the trauma inflicted on them (many white people were traumatized by the elite before coming to settle North America) or inflicted on others (colonizing the indigenous, enslaving black people from Africa, being complacent in perpetuating a system of White Supremacy), that energy gets blown through People of Color (PoC). 

THE ENERGY LIVES SOMEWHERE. Because the energy of the emotions is not dealt with and is not transmuted and alchemized into a different frequency of energy, it gets "blown through" onto PoC. 

Unfortunately, because we have not developed a somatic vocabulary or somatic understanding of this, many bodies of PoC feel this energy that has been shoved onto them, and they hold this energy as a deficiency, a reflection of them, instead of what is actually happening. 

In other words, White people aren't dealing with their shit and throw it on PoC who either see it for what it is (White Supremacy not dealing with their shit) or they take it as something is wrong with them and they lower their sense of value. 

In order for us to heal ourselves, so we can heal Mother Earth, this cycle has to stop. As Rachel Ricketts says, white people must do better.