What “No White Guilt” MeansTo People Who Are Not White
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019 a person or persons unknown distributed flyers with the all-caps headline “NO WHITE GUILT” on 9th Street in…
On Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2019 a person or persons unknown distributed flyers with the all-caps headline “NO WHITE GUILT” on 9th Street in Wenatchee, which includes part of the Wenatchee Valley College campus.
Below the headline was a list of websites, some labeled “anti-white” and others under the label “pro-white.” An official from the Wenatchee Police Department said the flyers linked to websites they described as likely being “offensive” to some, according to iFiber One News.
This type of pamphleteering is new in the Wenatchee Valley, but it’s not uncommon to see flyers like these on college campuses across the US.
The xenophobic, jingoistic trash the links below the headline lead to are predictable, tedious and the work of sad, small people.
I won’t bore you with the details, but the basic message is: “Our way of life (aka “white culture,” whatever that means) is under threat by (fill in the blanks – immigrants, people of color, muslims, etc.) and we can’t sit back and let them “replace” us.”
Local media coverage hasn’t gone beyond reporting the fact that the pamphlets were distributed. What coverage there has been so far is disappointingly devoid of context. I haven’t seen anyone in the media (or not in the media) ask people of color in the Wenatchee Valley Community what they think about flyers leading to white supremacist propaganda being distributed in our community. Although plenty of white folks decided to weigh in on the threads of local media outlets that did cover the story.
Here’s just one example:
Reading these comments, I didn’t see any difference of opinion or any meaningful dialogue. Just affirmations that nothing is wrong.
I wondered what people of color thought. I wondered what the residents of 9th street thought. I wondered what WVC students, staff and faculty thought. So I asked. I went to the Facebook group Wenatchee Valley Crime and Events, and posted this:
What happened next was not unexpected. For the first 20 minutes or so there was some actual good faith dialogue, albeit uncomfortable. For example:
After the 20 minute mark the trolls came out and started to do their work – trying to deny, disrupt, belittle, bully and generally obfuscate any real communications. Failing that, they then turned to putting pressure on the administrators to delete the post altogether.
However, the group’s founder and main administrator Nathan Medeiros and I had been in private communication throughout this whole period and he agreed to let the post stay up with comments on for about an hour. And what happened on the thread, while not pretty, is important. More important and illuminating though were the conversations I had via direct message and through email with people of color who didn’t want to comment publicly but had something to say.
The comments on the thread were shut down but throughout the afternoon, evening and into the next day the direct message conversations continued.
A Wenatchee resident who contacted me and wanted to remain anonymous had this to say about her experience growing up here:
I was born in California. When I moved to Wenatchee at a young age, that’s when my freedom was taken away. When I moved here, that’s when I learned I was brown. I started experiencing racism in Wenatchee at a very young age. When I was in the third grade, a white man in a truck yelled out to me, “Go back to your country you illegal alien.” I was puzzled but that marked what would become the norm during my time here. I have experience racism within the community, including institutions like our schools. I am a young Latinx student who happens to be brown and I know the issue is not my immigration status. The colors brown and black have been criminalized, dehumanized, and demonized. As a person of color in the Wenatchee community, it is not uncommon to receive racism in many forms throughout the day. I am not excusing the behavior as conservatism. Wenatchee is a xenophobic, racist, bigoted town. I do not expect any less of a racist town. By spreading the idea of “No white guilt,” I assume that it will lead white people to be unapologetic and proud of their racism and outcasting of other groups. I wish I could be surprised but I know what type of community I live in. There is a positive change trying to happen in Wenatchee by organizations that call for equality, equity, and understanding when it comes to diversity and cultural humility. This push is causing the dominant culture within Wenatchee to react negatively due to fear. White people fear that POC’s will treat them in the same way they have treated POC’s historically. White people are scared that POC’s will take their positions and their power within society. Some white people find fear in having their actions called out. It is fear and ignorance that is leading towards these type of actions. This sign is a threat to communities of color. Not the sign itself but the oppression that it perpetuates towards marginalized communities.
I spoke with many others who wanted to remain anonymous, including a WVC alumna who has experienced instances of overt racism in the past year, including one at a local grocery store. Here’s a bit of our direct message conversation (for privacy I changed her name to Dolores):
Dolores: “I speak Spanish to my kids, I had a lady once tell me that I should be ashamed of myself for doing so because we ‘live in America.’ Right here in Albertsons in Wenatchee. She got a nice education about rights in this country from me.”
Me: “Wow. How long ago was that?”
D.: “That was around 2011.”
D.: “I have people make comments about my kids hair/skin color frequently. Three of them are fair haired and fair skinned with light eyes, and one dark haired, skinned, eyed. All the same father.”
Me: “And do you think it’s gotten worse in recent years? Or has it always been like this?”
D.: “No, it’s gotten worse. My sisters-in-law have both been told to go back to where they came from, in front of their children. Both happened last year.”
Me: “Where are they from?”
D.: “Mexico, both documented and here legally.”
Me: “Do you think it is in part because of the anti-immigrant/Latino rhetoric from our president? Or was this something that started to increase before he was on the scene?”
D.: “Absolutely, though there’s always been issues in this area. I’ve definitely noticed a boldness from people, they think if the president can get away with it, so can they.”
I also heard from a few people who are of mixed racial descent and therefore describe themselves as “white-passing” which brings with it a whole other experience that seems unique unto itself.
A very bright woman who was raised in Wenatchee and identifies as Latina and biracial who is working on her Ph. D. at Harvard had this to say about her experience growing up in the Wenatchee Valley:
“I know that I’m lucky because my experience growing up in Wenatchee was shaped by the fact that I am white passing. My mother is white and my dad is Latino and does not identify as white. For my own identity, I identify as Latina and biracial. I was constantly aware, especially in high school, that I was usually the only non white student in most of my higher level classes. I had someone tell me once that I am only as smart as I am because my mother is white. I also remember an MLK day assembly when I was in high school when they basically tried to encourage the Latino and white kids to start hanging out together. My friends, many of whom I have had since elementary and are overwhelmingly white, had the immediate reaction of saying that they don’t need to worry about that since they are friends with me which made it very clear of my “token” status within our friend group. I don’t remember the exact occasions, but I was called a wetback and a beaner several times (and still get that every once in awhile). Even calling attention to these as acts of I individual racism feels weird because the times I tried to do so as a kid, I was made to feel like these were trivial comments and that the people saying them didn’t mean them. I think I learned to give the benefit of the doubt more than I should have.
Those are just the racist instances that were personally experienced by me, but I could go on and on about the general racism I witnessed (especially since many people I assumed I was white and figured I would be a safe audience to say racist comments around).”
I also had an interesting conversation with an individual who if not connected to the pamphleting, certainly is in favor of it and called the act “white pilling” in the public thread. Although it’s hard to keep up with white supremacist vocabulary I gather that “white pilling” is like “red pilling” – a common phrase in alt-right and extremist vocabulary. It’s a reference to the film The Matrix. In the movie the main character Neo takes the red pill and begins to see the world as it really is, realizing that he’s been a slave his whole life. It’s a popular meme for men who fancy themselves both a nearly invincible action hero and a victim — the best of both worlds.
I followed up with him via direct message and the conversation didn’t get far, but he seemed to incriminate himself before drawing back and proclaiming that everything he said to me was “in a joking manner” and “if you slander me I will contact my lawyer.”
Since the conversation was done via direct message I’ll quote the most interesting but of the exchange here instead of using a screenshot:
Me: “Hi, (blank), I’d also like to hear about your point of view about the flyer thing at the college.”
White supremacist guy: “Are you a blogger or some shit?”
WSG: “Please tell me you’re a journalist.”
Me: “Ha. I have a degree in journalism and I freelance from time to time, but it’s not my day job. It’s doesn’t pay enough.”
WSG: “Of course you are. Leave my direct messages you journalist scum.”
Me: “Do you know if it was a group or an individual who put up the flyers?”
WSG: “Yeah I have an idea.”
Unsurprisingly, he’s not a fan of journalists. We went back and forth a bit more but once he said he had an idea of who distributed the flyers he seemed to get nervous and tried to walk back any allusions that he was involved or knew who did it.
His comment about “white pilling” reveals what I believe to be some of the motive behind acts like these. It’s an extremist’s strategy to radicalize white “normies” as they call us.
They want these flyers to act as a clarion call for Americans of white Western European decent and get them mobilized in what they hope to be a race war that ends with a modern apartheid and a partitioned North America with regional nation-states keeping racial groups well separated from each other.
So where do we go from here?
I don’t have the answer, but I have some ideas.
First, we need to recognize the problem. Then we need to resist the urge to sanitize or avoid hard conversations and even conflict (within reason). I also believe that white allies need to make it known that acts like this aren’t acceptable to us and push back in public ways, signaling to white supremacists that we are not on your side. Second, we need to listen to people of color – really listen – and think about their experiences, empathize with them and create opportunities and platforms for them to speak their truths.
Third and finally our community and faith leaders need to speak up and denounce this behavior. Today. Right now. From the pulpits this Sunday. Not in six months and not with some half-hearted canned speech using buzzwords and jargon. I think a series of programs up and down the Wenatchee Valley at our major community centers dedicated to bridging this divide, combating ignorance and racism, and celebrating people of color is not a bad idea.
Silence is complicity.
So I decided to ask a question. I decided to listen and write what I heard.
To our community leaders: I challenge you. I challenge our mayors, our city councilors, our pastors, priests, members of the media and leaders of all shapes and sizes to speak out too.
To the people of color in our community I want to say that I’m sorry for the behavior of what I hope is a single individual or a small group of petty, ignorant, invertebrates who have nothing better to do than ooze hate because they equate their race with their identity.
I’d like to thank Nathan Medeiros for having the courage to allow me to ask that question and the seek answers. I’d also like to thank the folks at the Wenatchee Valley College Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion for contacting me and sharing their concerns, they were valid and they were heard. Most of all though I’d like to thank the individuals who got in touch with me and shared their stories.
I am not perfect but I am committed to working toward equality for all, and to listening to people of color and members of marginalized groups as well as trying to make this community, our country and our world a more safe and equitable place for everyone.
Read more about white supremacy in Washington state from the Seattle Times here.