White Liberals EXPOSED (Part 1)
As we begin the postmortem of the Democrats failed attempt to “save democracy,” one important aspect of this fiasco cannot be overlooked: the role of white liberals in maintaining this exploitative, capitalist system through the gatekeeping of resources. Nonprofits, foundations, charities and community organizations that are white led all have similar issues. For those wondering why the focus on white liberals, the following Malcolm X quote gets to the heart of it.
My main issue with white liberals is that they are the great pretenders — very adept at using deception, gaslighting and manipulation. While conservatives turn to outright coercion and threats, white liberals want to maintain the illusion of “being on the right side” while continuing to maintain a system of exploitation. What we desperately need right now are individuals and organizations with resources who are willing to support social movements and independent artists without all the BS and strings attached.
When I first heard of “reparationWorks” I thought it sounded interesting, though the problematic aspects are embedded in the name, as we shall see. There are certainly some nice sounding blurbs on their website, like this one:
Purpose: reparationWorks advances the movement to heal and repair from the harms of settler colonialism and chattel slavery in Philly and beyond. We seek repair on the levels of resources, Spirit, and relationship toward the re-membering of our connection with the kindom of creation.
Sounds nice, right? So, last year when I returned from Germany and met with one of these people I was expecting them to follow up and contact me about actual reparations. I was excited for the possibility of finally getting some funding to flesh out my antifascist conceptual art project built around the crucially important WWII diaries of Holocaust survivor Victor Klemperer. Instead, I was contacted about a nine month contract job at a non-profit where my role would essentially be to help white folks be less racist. “Huh?” I thought to myself. Were they seriously telling people that working a job was the same as receiving reparations? Nevertheless, I agreed to give it some thought. But the more I thought it over, the more ridiculous it seemed. Because the obvious point is that as a Black American, my inheritance has been stolen. The 40 acres and a mule never materialized. Many of us have no generational wealth and are being crushed by the “wealth gap.” Redress for Jim Crow terror and redlining and mass incarceration never materialized. Compensation for my family being forced into a roach infested ghetto never materialized. In the context we’re living in, reparations means paying what you owe for harms committed in the past; reparations means addressing the fact that Black folk’s ancestors here worked their entire lives without compensation. A job is work you do in exchange for compensation. Me working a job would not be reparations, it would be working a job. I believe that grown adults with masters degrees and so forth should have been able to understand this, so the question is what exactly is this “reparations” org all about really?
My answer to this question was revealed over the past six months of fruitless and pointless interactions with one of these people. I had my first contact with the Jewish guy in the group in early March; his identity matters, because I noticed he was more interested in talking about himself and what he was doing than with engaging with my project that I needed help with. Even after I sent over my artist statement and project description I got no actual feedback on it.
Let’s make sure we make note of the dates on these emails. Also keep in mind this guy is connected with local orgs like universities, start ups, synagogues, etc. He has connections. If he wanted to platform the work of Victor Klemperer somehow he could. I assumed he was interested in that because he referred to himself as an antizionist, but the reality is that he was never interested in radical critiques of Zionism or Israel. I realized this when I noticed he stopped liking my Instagram posts once I began challenging the genocidal propaganda Israel was using to justify their extermination campaign in Gaza. This refusal to engage with Klemperer from someone who claims to be an antizionist is just absolutely fucking ridiculous; for a moment I wondered if this was a security state situation where I was being put under some kind of surveillance, because the math just isn’t mathing. Because who contacts people and wastes their time like this?
Seven months after we were first in contact and after a three or so month gap, I received this, “oh gosh darn, it’s been so long” email. Again, notice how his main focus is on what he’s doing and making a production of it. This is how I responded to a question he had about whether it made sense to still meet up:
There was no response to this email and no response to my request to find a venue for these two Palestinian artist. So imagine my surprise when I saw this several weeks after he decided to ignore my last email:
The two individuals from this “reparations” org can be seen up front at a protest demanding the reinstatement of a Muslim teacher who was removed from her position after allowing tepid criticisms of Israel during a class presentation. What I’ve noticed is that these white liberals love their arts and crafts and making signs, but when it’s time to actually do something like handing over resources they are no where to be found. They want to be seen and observed as supporting the right things while in private they allow people to twist in the wind.
One important thing I’ve realized through all of this is that white liberals are not trustworthy individuals. If they can’t control you or control what you’re doing, they won’t engage. The folks at this “reparations” org refused to engage at all with my Klemperer project without asking me any real questions about it because they believe they know better than I do what I should be working on. They already had an idea in their minds of what I should be doing, and when I didn’t go along with that support was withheld. It’s a slap in the face that these gatekeepers are withholding resources like this. They don’t like the fact that I’m an anti-capitalist, counter-culture artist who is not concerned with mainstream conceptions of respectability and morality. But guess what? If you owe a debt you need to pay it regardless of whether or not you agree with someone’s politics or lifestyle. I also don’t like this weird shit where white folks who owe a debt won’t pay it until they think you’ve sufficiently proven yourself to them.
Enough is enough. Especially with Trump coming back again, those of us who are marginalized and systemically oppressed don’t have time to play games with privileged people about the resources they are hoarding. I don’t give a damn if people like me or what I’m doing or not. If you say you’re doing reparations you better be actually giving out reparations or else there’s going to be a problem. I decided to write this post because much of this stuff often happens in the shadows but it’s not uncommon. White people are hoarding resources and gatekeeping at the precise moment they need to be doing so much more to repair the harms caused by their ancestors and the shitty system they benefit from the most. It ends when we decide to stop letting this shit slide.
