"Antiracist" Double Binds

Let’s workshop this poem about some of the bullying double binds whites are placed in, gotcha situations where virtually everything they do shows their complicity in the brutalization of black kind

---

“Antiracist” Double Binds

Behold our world where—to the opiating amusement of priggish black bullies and their anxious-looking nervous-laughing side-glancing slouchy-beanie “allies” (pathetic yes-men craving the vicarious benefits of being on the good side of “super citizens,” or perhaps even ear-whispering wormtongues hoping to instigate discord by egging their “Black kings” on)—whites are constantly trapped in unfair (if not downright cruel) double binds, or at least near double binds, meant to showcase how—try as they might to tiptoe on the razor-thin line where their every move is scrutinized under the unforgiving lens of “antiracism”—they can never not be racist, as the following damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't list makes clear.

(1) Not only is it racist when the white actor’s scream at the black actress is sufficient for the scene (since that makes the black actress feel “unsafe” and brings out “a lot of intergenerational wounds, particularly feelings of black-body rape”), but it is also racist when the white actor’s scream is too weak (since that makes the black actress’s subsequent reaction seem overblown, “like I’m just another overreacting black woman!”).

(2) Not only is it racist when blacks are held to the same achievement standards as all other neurotypical humans (since that fails to acknowledge how set back blacks have been), but it is also racist—enough to get you escorted off a plane after a midflight rerouting—to mention the statistics concerning blacks not meeting achievement standards (since that suggests the white supremacist idea that blacks are inferior).

(3) Not only is it racist when whites look outward like Bruce Lee to appreciate and learn from and imitate other cultures (since that amounts, of course, to “the whiteness sin of cultural appropriation”), but it is also racist when whites adopt the more insular stance of limiting themselves to “their own culture” (since that suggests that “whites think, as if stricken by a superiority complex, other cultures have nothing worthwhile on offer”).

(4) Not only is it racist for whites to expect blacks to be uncivilized (since that evokes images of African cannibals with bones through their septa), but it is racist for whites to expect them to be civilized (since that involves expecting them to give up their native culture and assimilate whiteness).

(5) Not only is it racist for whites not to ask to be forgiven by the black person claiming they insulted her (since that amounts to “invalidation of the truth of someone who is, and will always be, the victim in this world”), but it is also racist for them to ask (since doing so “reads almost as insensitively as a rapist asking his victim for forgiveness while still panting on top of her: it discounts how dire the black experience remains due to terrors perpetrated by whites”).

(6) Not only is it racist for whites not to ask a black person how she is (since that reflects insensitivity to the fact that “white supremacy, displayed in much more subtle ways than simply officers openly killing black people with no repercussions or Klan members burning crosses on lawns, has metastasized now into cure-evading depths beyond what was even imaginable in lynching times”), but it is also racist for them to ask (since doing so can never not reek of the shame they have for black mistreatment and of their trying to assuage their white guilt, which has “the oxygen-depleting effect of making the question really about them as opposed to about the oppressed person in front of them”).

(7) Not only is it racist for a white person to fail to use his platform of “unsurpassable privilege” to speak against racism (since (a) “to whom much is given much is required” and (b) “you are racist if you are not pursuing antiracist causes to the best of your abilities”), but it is also racist for a white person to do so (since “he thereby acts not only as if he has some right to speak for blacks or at least to speak on oppression he can never know anything about, but also as if he has control over the voracious virus of whiteness steering him at all times”)—thus leaving whites with a narrow band of options: namely, saying “Listen to whatever he says” as he points with head down to a black person, one hopefully not pointed to for the white-supremacist reason that he too is infected by whiteness (like some Roland Fryer “audacious enough to say as a black man that racial disparity today is more about skill gaps than discrimination” or some Chad Jackson “audacious enough to be voice patriotic sentiments despite the sins of this hellscape”). 

(8) Not only is it racist for a white person to fail to be—and so not just appreciate—hip hop (since, more than just music that best speaks for the urgency of the antiracist ethos that all true antiracists must speak, “hip hop is the anti-white-supremacy stance of antiracism itself and, of course, anyone who fails to be antiracist is racist”), but it is also racist—perhaps with truly rare exception—for a white person to try to be hip hop (since to try to do that is “culture-vulture activity” that “black folx find, like a white person wearing a Native American headdress or a Mexican serape, traumatizing at worst and laughably cringey at best”).

(9) Not only is it racist for a white person to have pride in their white identity (since white identity is innately racist), it is also racist for a white person to disavow their white identity (since that would be tantamount to denying their true nature)—thus leaving whites at best with the narrow range of options (aside from following the black order “Kill yo’self”): either diluting one’s shameful whiteness (that is, diluting the power of one’s antiblack oppressiveness) through trainings and spreading the protective benefits of white privilege to black people and so on, or else—and perhaps for the best given that “whiteness is highly contagious” (especially in “allies who not only are often physically close to black bodies, but have a tendency to let the whiteness within convince them that they are less of a danger”)—finding ways to quarantine oneself off, as in those scary movies when the father demands that his family keep him tied up until the full moon passes (so as to thwart any opportunity for one’s antiblack oppressiveness to have real-world effects).

(10) Not only is it racist for a white person to lead a life of evil or inappropriate behavior toward blacks (since “such behavior, given that whites hold the power, is like an adult fist-fighting a toddler as if it were his equal”), it is also racist for a white person to lead a life of good and appropriate behavior toward blacks (since “such behavior, given that whiteness is an antiblack drive that cannot be helped, at best indicates that the white person is trying to compensate for her guilt and at worst indicates that the white person is putting on virtuous front” (perhaps in order to carry out even greater harms).

(11) Not only is it racist for a white person to engage actively in discussions about race and racism (since “their inevitable lack of understanding and deep-rooted biases can inadvertently perpetuate stereotypes or silence black voices"), but it is also racist for a white person to remain silent during such discussions (since “their silence is seen as complicity in the systemic oppression, a refusal to acknowledge their privilege, and an evasion of their responsibility to dismantle the structures of racism they benefit from").

(12) Not only is it racist for a white person to fear being labeled “racist” (since “such fear is her conscience’s way of telling on her for being racist”), it is also racist for a white person not to fear being labeled “racist” (since “such lack of fear at best is due, assuming she does know the social costs of this label, to her lying about her innocence and at worst is due to her callousness insensitivity to the CPTSD of black kind”).

---