I have recently encountered the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ in greater detail than I’d known it before, leading me to consider the collective implications in the context of our white supremacist society. The ‘Imposter Syndrome’ includes a set of feelings and beliefs which lead to a sense that the person is an…

Maintaining White Supremacy Through Faux-Victimization The Imposter Syndrome and White Supremacy In the last year or two, I’ve been reminded about the concept of the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ by several (white) women I’ve met in collegial and professional settings. Through these discussions, I’ve noticed that the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ is a description of the embedded, real-life experience of…

A Response to Other Frustrated BIWOCs Tired of Being Scolded by White Women Don’t attend workshops with white women if you are not white and believe you are human. White women believe they OWN these spaces and will repel any reminder, in our stories, of her profound extrinsic privileging. She…

This is a list of general approaches that people take to negotiating power in their lives. I gleaned this list from a BIWOC writing workshop in which we were trying to explain our professional and personal dilemmas from a psychological standpoint. I’ve found this list really helpful in allowing me…

George ‘I’m a Heather’ Will Strikes Again — Once again, George Will has offered up a tired trope in the form of a ‘dog whistle’ in his recently published article, “Today’s anti-racism usually disguises itself as ‘diversity’” (The Washington Post, May 28, 2021; https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/28/todays-anti-asian-racism-usually-disguises-itself-diversity/). Will recycles the generations-long trope that ‘diversity’ (read: Black people) is the reason that…

Tactical White Supremacy and the Harper’s Letter The recent deceptively-titled Harper’s letter, A Letter on Justice and Open Debate (https://harpers.org/a-letter-on-justice-and-open-debate/ ), embraces the sort of narrow-minded, strategic behavior it purports to criticize. Relying on vague references, sweeping generalizations, and conservative dog whistles, it only serves to infuriate with its mirror effect: its focus on hypocrisy. This letter…

Cancelling ‘Cancel-Culture’: ‘Traditional Liberalism’ and White Supremacy In its Letter on Justice and Open Debate, Harper’s magazine proves itself, with finality, to be mired in John MacArthur’s narrow definition of traditional liberalism. Stubbornly adhering to these dictates without interrogating the (biased) history of liberalism reproduces the same errors, essentially resulting in a ‘color blind’ defense which supports…

Tactical White Supremacy, Attention as Resource, and Performative ‘Whiteness’ — I have seen a lot of articles about the ‘Whitelash’ (Van Jones’ term) which has happened in the wake of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor murders, including one by Herbert Dyer on Medium. (https://medium.com/age-of-awareness/white-backlash-has-already-begun-660fea4d1224 ) ‘Whitelash,’ or white backlash, is the countering response to any forward movement by the…

“A Few Bad Apples:” Verbal Maneuvering in the Interest of Supremacy Maintenance — Shouldn’t National Security Advisors care about NATIONAL SECURITY? Several days ago, Robert O’Brien, the Trump administration’s national security advisor, rolled out a tired white supremacist excuse for our institutionalized system of white supremacy: these abusive (and in some cases murderous) police officers are ‘just a few bad apples.’