There's no unlearning whiteness, despite what 'anti-racists' say

 

It's the tragic black celebration of her "acknowledgment" of her white privileges that calls for critical reflection on the new "anti-racism" industry by white liberals such as Professor Samantha Vice, Michelle Booth and now Schutte. Basically, they are struggling to live with the legacy of brutality and racism that brought them about and positions them as privileged. They want to be ethical, that is to say be good people of good conscience, so as to properly enjoy their good white lives alongside their black lovers and children.
It would be amiss for black people to ride this wave towards rescuing whiteness when a long history and present of white supremacy prove whiteness to be unethical and beyond restructuring.
This appeal that white people again admit guilt, ask forgiveness and we can simply move on on the basis of "common humanity" is consistent with the post-1994 reconciliation without justice exemplified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's impulse of getting some perpetrators of racism to repent, reveal and ask forgiveness, and thus gain moral vindication for the white race. We saw former death squad leader Eugene de Kock going to jail and former police minister Adriaan Vlok washing the feet of Reverend Frank Chikane in a macabre performance of remorse that leaves the anti-black status quo intact. Continue reading →