Whiteness is sociopathy. Honestly. There is such a massive void of honesty and genuineness in their context. No humility or humanity, generally speaking rare exceptions here and there. They work within rigid, inflexible boundaries of dualistic, intensely reductive misunderstandings of everything. And because they are groomed to be narcissists, to center themselves in any and every setting they don’t value the essence which is inherent to us as African (black) people. So our way of engaging with the world is reduced to stupidity or naïvety. Idealistic. Unrealistic. Lofty. They can’t imagine not being the fixed point of focus, a bystander, an afterthought let alone invisible. As for us, we are an earth based people. There is immense love, respect, intense passion for life - for all of life and all living beings. Even, especially when we are suffering. They mistake that for some sort of masochistic inclination. Deep down we know everything is alive. They operate as if everything is already dead.
Yes whiteness is a sickness of the mind & spirit that needs to be unlearned. No "white ally" workshop will teach you that. In Dakota the word wasicu is used for settlers, but it doesn't refer to ethnicity or skin color, but mindset & behavior. It means one who takes parts of the buffalo then leaves the rest of rot. A greedy, wasteful person.
And right now I am focusing on the root of that sickness which all should be capable of agreeing the root of "whiteness" is white people (Europeans, a spectrum of identities and societies). Could not be "dogmatic" since this is an observation based on repeated actions of a group from a historical framework.
basically what i have been screaming/weeping about in therapy this week, the pull towards death that is characteristic of whiteness as socialization/culture
Yeah white people have crafted a world in which madness is the default, indifference, apathy, inhumanity and conceit are qualities we are taught to aspire for, incorporate within ourselves. To care is to be uncool. You are gaslit and discredited or ignored if you point this out. People will try to say it isn't *just* white people (see the above comment to my comment, a timely example) but fail to acknowledge that as a majority these people, at least very obviously a considerate portion, operate within this framework - and that framework has defined, and so contaminated, the world. We are all defined according to our relation to whiteness. "The world is molded by monsters and we are made in their image" I said this once, I'm sure some white lady will steal it and pass it off as her own phrasing. Anyway you can't have the worst, most selfish, most violent, most careless, gluttonous, inhumane types of people dictating what the world will be and expect everyone to be fine. It's a lot to undo. White leftists definitely can't be trusted because they don't even have a clear, concise or objective understanding of themselves in this system they perpetuate. Or of history! And even them positioning themselves as saviors is colonial violence. The African working class will free the world. We don't want anti-racism. We don't yearn to be accepted by white people or understood by them. We want POWER to determine our lives and for all life to be honored. Healing is a violent process. Untethering ourselves from crystallized ideas is immaterial carnage. I hope you survive healing somewhat unscathed.
Some of us white people who have lived on the fringes of society have this sense too. And we recognize the sickness around and within us and want to liberate ourselves from it so we can actually live a bit and detach from the death machine and perspective
Who is "we"??? Despite my hostility and clear disdain for white people, no I don't believe in genocide for anyone. I think white people should be honest with themselves, about who they are, who they are the mutations/extensions of and what they are doing with the world in the present tense in terms of power, influence and control. And how that negatively affects everyone and everything alive. What that all implies about their pathologies, worldviews, standards, beliefs about themselves and what they might be capable of doing to evolve into better human beings. And most importantly face the consequences of an uninterrupted timeline of death and destruction, pay whatever price (including but beyond financially) is determined due to pursue justice so that we can restore order to the realm. This extends to all colonial societies including Arab colonizers, neocolonialists, etc. But more urgently European colonizers. As for me and my people we will heal accordingly and internally.
I want to respond to this with honesty and care, because I’ve truly sat with Erika’s words and read Penny Hess’s work as she recommended. It was deeply uncomfortable which it should be.
Long before I had the language for it, I had moments that shattered my illusions. Years ago, I was at a bar with Black friends who were blatantly refused service. I was confused at first, I kept asking the owner what was wrong, until my friend said quietly, “This is exactly what you think it is.” I was stunned. That moment cracked me open. I was told to leave, but more than two dozen customers stood up and walked out too. I made a promise that night that I would never stay silent when I saw injustice again. I’ve kept that promise—even when it wasn’t easy or safe—because I know my whiteness gives me a level of protection others don’t have.
I’ve also been in countless situations where people assumed, because I’m white, that I’d agree with their racism. A woman once followed me out of a store to ask if my children were adopted because I’m blonde and blue-eyed, and they’re brown-skinned with nearly black hair. Did she think we’d bond over some savior fantasy? Another time, a contractor casually said they don’t hire Mexicans, unknowingly he was bidding a job for my Mexican partner. It hits me in the gut every time. If this is what I see casually, publicly, how much worse is it for those who can’t walk away from it?
When we moved to a new neighborhood, my husband didn’t go for walks without our two fluffy white dogs for three years just to make sure the police saw him as safe. I’ve filed complaints with our police department, naively under my real name, because I kept seeing the same officer pull over only Black drivers while white men sped past without consequence.
Now, raising two children in an interracial family, racism is not theoretical. It’s in our lives. I fear for my kids. I fear for my friends’ children. Honestly, I often don’t know what to say or where I’m “allowed” to speak. I know these situations aren’t about me, but they are part of my life, too. While I never want to be self-centered or ignorant, I also believe racism affects all of us. I often feel caught in the blur—too white to be fully trusted, too awake to pretend I don’t see what’s happening. I get met with eye rolls or “poor white girl” attitudes, and I understand that response. I don’t take it personally. But I do believe these blurry, uncomfortable spaces are where we have the most potential to build better communities—if we let each other in.
I also want to say clearly: I do not believe anyone is born with a void or with evil because of their race or culture. That kind of essentialism—directed at anyone—is dehumanizing. I don’t believe in erasure as an answer to historical harm. I’ve spent my life studying genocide. I wrote my thesis on how Western civilization is built on cycles of erasure and mass violence. I’ve interviewed Holocaust survivors. I have close friends on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I’ve learned this: once we accept dehumanization as a tool for justice, we’ve already lost the fight.
I understand the rage. I understand the grief.
I believe in unlearning, in accountability, in staying in discomfort. But I also believe in healing. I believe in truth without cruelty, in justice without erasure, and in shared humanity even when it feels like we’re unraveling.
I’m not here for absolution. I’m here because I still believe something better is possible.
Thank you for this honest and deeply sincere response. I value your self-awareness and have felt this same desperation. I also agree that dehumanization of anyone is antithetical to the work of true liberation, and apologize that my wording connoted it. When I speak of the VOID, I refer to the very phenomenon described in this incredible essay—a lack (to some crucial extent) of connection to culture, which forms the foundation of whiteness.
I cannot possibly speak to your own experience, but if you’ve felt an uncertainty of self, a need to cling to an external source or action to reify your own identity, you might be feeling that VOID too. The VOID is a wound. Having it does not make one less human, but it does make one wounded. And many white people do not know that wound is there, nor how it drives so many of our actions. It is our responsibility to contend with this wound ourselves, and shoulder the labor of healing it.
If any of this speaks to you, please let me know. Your comments really spoke to me and reminded me of when I was asking those questions myself. I want to help you reach a place where you no longer feel uncertain.
A lack of connection to culture… yes. The closest I’ve come to a real sense of culture was when I was part of Irish-Catholic community. The void is real. The wound is real. Disconnection from our ancestors and the cultures that have been too often displaced by nationalism are real.
I want to ask something sincerely, not to defend myself, and not to ask you to teach me, but because I want to be in this space without pretending.
How am I supposed to be your ally when the system I was born into is this broken, and the identity I carry brings this kind of pain? What breaks the barrier? What makes me less dangerous to you, less performative, less extractive, more human?
I’m not asking for a checklist. I’m asking what it looks like for someone like me to be in this conversation with integrity. Because I don’t want to disappear and I don’t want to cause more harm. I don’t know what’s possible unless I ask.
I know the answer might be: “You can’t.” Or “You listen, and stay quiet.” Or “You stop asking.” I’m open to any of that. I just don’t want to mistake my own discomfort for silence or worse, for virtue.
Hello Eleanor, I think sitting with yourself in the uncomfortable, bizarre, grotesque realities of this world, honestly investigating how you uphold it, where it lives within you and learning the most objective retelling of history is best. And then begin unmaking yourself psychologically and spiritually (seriously good luck). "Overturning the Culture of Violence" by Penny Hess is a great source as well. Be accountable in ways accessible to you. I cannot tell you what that is. That is something you'll have to discover with people in your region. You can be an ally and not even really have so much engagement with the people you are being an ally to. But if so, allow them to lead should they seem capable and in a position to. Reprogramming the people in your own family, educating your white counterparts as you learn, doing the violent work of divesting from the world views that have been imposed on us all is a start. Definitely avoid being in any position of leadership of the people you seek allyship with. I will paste a previous reply. "Despite my hostility and clear disdain for white people, no I don't believe in genocide for anyone. I think white people should be honest with themselves, about who they are, who they are the mutations/extensions of and what they are doing with the world in the present tense in terms of power, influence and control. And how that negatively affects everyone and everything alive. What that all implies about their pathologies, worldviews, standards, beliefs about themselves and what they might be capable of doing to evolve into better human beings. And most importantly face the consequences of an uninterrupted timeline of death and destruction, pay whatever price (including but beyond financially) is determined due to pursue justice so that we can restore order to the realm." If you are earnestly seeking justice, atonement and healing, you will be supported by the invisible forces of our reality. Best of luck.
If you are white, there is a VOID inside you. You need to learn to heal that VOID, or you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to fill it.
If you have any questions about this specifically, please do ask! Everything Erika said should come first (and continue habitually, as this will)—understanding these systems and unlearning your own biases to the best of your ability.
I mostly agree with what you're saying. The is a spiritual void at the heart of white western culture and so much harm perpetrated. I don't exactly agree that it is whiteness per se that is sociopathic though I see where you're coming from. But as many people in the comments have pointed about there were and still are earth based indigenous white peoples such as the Sami today. Also historically non white civilisations have also scoured the land and caused ecological devastation and hardship for their people. But I recognise that the modern predominantly white western civilisation is ravaging the earth and harming it's peoples in an unprecedented way due to industrialisation and globalisation, the spreading of this sociopathy as you put it.
Tyson Yunkaporta writes well on this. He says it is not whiteness that is the problem but civilisation, which he defines as any group that creates cities and hierarchies and decimates the surrounding environment. Which by definition is unsustainable and requires an underclass to prop up. I will agree though that white Europe does seem to be the petri dish from which this particularly virulent from of sociopathy has spawned and so we as white people do have a reckoning with ourselves to do. It is true there is a sickness of spirit at the heart of much of the western world but some white folks are trying to purge themselves of this sickness and also despair and weep at the state of the world and long for justice harmony and the enchanting of the world and recognition of spirit.
"we are an earth-based people": this is exactly what is missing in my culture of origin and why I feels so untethered as a someone reckoning with my white identity. There has to be a way to get back to the land, community, and spiritually connected joy!
That's what I've been doing, reconnecting with cultural/spiritual roots, while continuing to work on deepening solidarity & learning. Check out Rune Rasmussen's work on Nordic Animism for a great example of this. He's on YouTube.
It is good to understand more deeply what happened to the people under empire and feudalism to see the replications our ancestors imposed and continue to try to enforce in the “new world.”
I came here to say the same- this is actually the focus of my writing (ReRooting). We forget in our thinking of Decolonization, that the 1st peoples lands, stories, traditions & rituals (how they connected/ communicated with the land & each other FOR SURVIVAL) were the Celts, Slavs, Illyrians... we cannot "heal" until we come to terms with our own lost Traditional Ecological Knowledge
This is so good! I completely agree and I think the desire to “cleanse” movement work of spirituality wreaks of eugenics. That puritanical desire for one definition of rightness, goodness and ultimate authority is another expression white supremacy.
Yes! The eugenics piece is so real, and I think especially with white supremacies obsession with purity culture, the objective and being the sole arbiter of truth, spirituality and enjoy are a direct thread
I don’t know if you’ve ever read The Colour of God by Ayesha Chaudhry, but I remember there being a specific section in that book about how puritan “spirituality” focuses on the abstract spirit while disdaining the physical body — how so many religious rules govern how people are allowed to bleed, fuck, and die — because of the idea that becoming closer to an abstract and all-powerful God means getting further and further away from being human, and all the joy and mess that life entails. It’s an amazing book!
This is great, and I’m enchanted by the synchronicity ✨ I’m re-reading Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic imagination (1978), in which he points to Moses as a helpful example of what it means to embody the call of all prophets: to criticise, awaken and energise.
“His work was nothing less than an assault on the consciousness of empire, aimed at nothing less than the dismantling of empire, both in its social practices and in its mythic pretensions […] there is no freedom of God without the politics of justice and compassion, and there is no politics of justice and compassion without the freedom of God.”
I think for most white folks in the United States (including myself here), we've been indoctrinated to think of joy as an object, not a movement. It lacks sensuality and presence. It's moving up in the workplace, a new house, or the amount of likes you get on an IG post. When we've been taught this view of joy and then we wake up to the injustices in our world, we jump to cleansing ourselves by suppressing joy. We think that's the only way to be "serious leftists." We can't imagine joy that dances with discomfort at the same time. So we continue to avoid getting our hands dirty and then also avoid joy. Most of us have really never "let ourselves go" to tap into the world beyond the individual. We like to talk and write about this, but how many of us white folks have just shut up and started dancing?
Really enjoyed this and felt like I needed to hear it. Curious what guidance you can give on how to build this into my life. I’m a white, gay, leftist from Utah who grew up Mormon. I’d argue the majority of white leftists in Utah also grew up Mormon. I can’t speak for them, but for me, spirituality and ritual was used for control and manipulation over empowerment and celebration. For that reason, I have a distrust for the spiritual. I’m definitely guilty of leaning too far into fact/discourse and taking the soul out of the work. I can tell my own spirit yearns for it, though, but I’m not sure how to build that trust. Thanks again for a great read. You’ve given me a lot to think about.
Agreed. The book Braiding Sweetgrass was food for my soul. Kimmerer speaks to the urgency of becoming indigenous to place, wherever we are, and especially for the descendants of settler-colonists. After all, we are destroying the planet.
I also recommend cross-cultural shamanism. Authentic European indigenous practices have been repressed for thousands of years, and white Americans live thousands of miles away from these roots and landscapes. We need spiritual practices that are in the here and now.
You shouldn’t have encouraged me, because now I won’t be concise! 😂 I highly recommend the work of David Abram (@riverspell), especially Becoming Animal. And spend as much time listening to trees as you can manage. I have found them to be wise, patient, generous, and abundantly joyful teachers.
Thanks for the great read. It's refreshing to see writing that inspires hope. While it’s easy to be critical, it often feels hollow if there's no alternative offered to the nihilism gripping public discourse these days.
Spirituality, in particular, tends to be frowned upon—especially within the dominant culture shaped largely by white, cisgender, and heterosexual norms, which often reinforce narrow definitions of identity and success.
As artists, we engage in spiritual practices all the time—whether through mindfulness, meditation, curiosity, or asking questions whose answers only lead to more questions.
In The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller, PhD, she explores the clinical and psychological impact of spirituality on depression, particularly the role of belief in the unknown.
If you haven't come across her work, I’d recommend checking it out. It offers a spiritually validating lens that fits within the framework of the dominant culture.
I really relate to this. I am an indigenous person raised among devout Catholics who had to journey beyond my culture and community to find Spirit and restore my faith in God and humanity. Along this journey I identified the strains of whiteness and Western hegemony that you touch on here. Like the same punishing mindset of the Puritans can be seen in the fixation on regimented physical fitness like gym culture and marathon runners. In the typical leftist circle it's the anal retentive hyper intellectual need to be logical and rational (while denying the truths of embodied reality). Anyway, I found this book really insightful in tracing these lineages - which helped me free myself and disown them as a white-adjacent person: Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West by Morris Bernan.
So much to say and unpack, so I'll just say thank you for describing something so painful and difficult at times to express 💗
This is amazing. I think a spirit that isn't fed with joy can't survive the struggle for revolution in the first place. The forms of celebration are a reminder of the past, the present, and the future. The past is something that we don't want to forget because it's part of our identity, the glimpse of the future we could have for the next generations, and the present, where we also want to find happiness with our loved ones while we are alive. This thought reminds me of that iconic scene in Sinners when all the times and forms of cultural manifestation cross in a moment. I´m from Brazil and I was so excited by the example you brought! Terreiros are such a good representation of the joy that strengthens the community. The Orixás come and dance with their people. This reminds me of that phrase attributed to Nietzsche “I could not have faith in a god that doesn't dance”. There are so many other cultural manifestations here that only exist because of black and indigenous folk. Even catholic celebrations such as our “June feast” exist because of their influences. Christianity made a sin of every source of joy possible. The idea of the “pleasures of the flash that clouds our better judgment” seems to live on with an intellectual facade. And we (white people) are still influenced by it even when we think we are not. You know what's even sadder? I´ve read an article talking about how the Umbanda and Candomblé terreiros are being more and more attended by white people while the pentecostal protestant churches are being more attended by black people. That's a consequence of religious intolerance towards afro religions and how spiritual joy is considered less “dangerous” when lived by a person with a lighter skin tone. And how the lack of cultural connection that white people feel leads to cultural appropriation in most cases (I see the plot of Sinners here again).
I’ve been saying this and posting on my IG stories. It started as a feeling a while ago. Something seemed to be missing in the White leftist circles and it felt like it was oriented towards deconstruction. No joy for my people, for Black people. And I know joy, real joy has always been at the center of Blackness; and African diasporic culture. We resist. We dance. We laugh. We eat together. Growing up back home it was very common to eat Suya, drink, and talk politics/how to make living conditions better. It’s what is missing from these spaces. We need to orient towards life!
I am grateful for this message finding me today. Since the election I have been thinking about joy as resistance and learning even more about Black history. I'm a white leftist who has always felt most connected to spirit through dance. I didn't want to take classes because I didn't want to do what everyone else was doing and my Mom could not understand that. I was happiest in my life when I was at the club or warehouse parties 3-4 nights a week and we called it church. I recently discovered Ecstatic Dance and, for me, it is time travel and pure joy. Yesterday during the session, I had a vision of block parties and dance parties rising up in every city and town square across America on the 14th. Dancing, singing, connection, unity, and JOY. He closed the dance with Rise Up and I cried. I got in the car and a song titled Purpose was playing. And now here are your beautiful words greeting me. It all feels aligned. I'm not an organizer or a leader and I have no following to make it happen but that's what I'll be doing that day. Hopefully with community. Thank you for sharing this and for being a celebrationist. I have a feeling that is exactly what the resistance needs. ✨💕
Whiteness is sociopathy. Honestly. There is such a massive void of honesty and genuineness in their context. No humility or humanity, generally speaking rare exceptions here and there. They work within rigid, inflexible boundaries of dualistic, intensely reductive misunderstandings of everything. And because they are groomed to be narcissists, to center themselves in any and every setting they don’t value the essence which is inherent to us as African (black) people. So our way of engaging with the world is reduced to stupidity or naïvety. Idealistic. Unrealistic. Lofty. They can’t imagine not being the fixed point of focus, a bystander, an afterthought let alone invisible. As for us, we are an earth based people. There is immense love, respect, intense passion for life - for all of life and all living beings. Even, especially when we are suffering. They mistake that for some sort of masochistic inclination. Deep down we know everything is alive. They operate as if everything is already dead.
Yes whiteness is a sickness of the mind & spirit that needs to be unlearned. No "white ally" workshop will teach you that. In Dakota the word wasicu is used for settlers, but it doesn't refer to ethnicity or skin color, but mindset & behavior. It means one who takes parts of the buffalo then leaves the rest of rot. A greedy, wasteful person.
While that’s interesting I am specifically speaking to the pathologies of Europeans (a spectrum of identities categorized as “white”).
That’s dogmatic too. Whiteness is a spiritual sickness that can be learned by anybody.
And right now I am focusing on the root of that sickness which all should be capable of agreeing the root of "whiteness" is white people (Europeans, a spectrum of identities and societies). Could not be "dogmatic" since this is an observation based on repeated actions of a group from a historical framework.
basically what i have been screaming/weeping about in therapy this week, the pull towards death that is characteristic of whiteness as socialization/culture
Yeah white people have crafted a world in which madness is the default, indifference, apathy, inhumanity and conceit are qualities we are taught to aspire for, incorporate within ourselves. To care is to be uncool. You are gaslit and discredited or ignored if you point this out. People will try to say it isn't *just* white people (see the above comment to my comment, a timely example) but fail to acknowledge that as a majority these people, at least very obviously a considerate portion, operate within this framework - and that framework has defined, and so contaminated, the world. We are all defined according to our relation to whiteness. "The world is molded by monsters and we are made in their image" I said this once, I'm sure some white lady will steal it and pass it off as her own phrasing. Anyway you can't have the worst, most selfish, most violent, most careless, gluttonous, inhumane types of people dictating what the world will be and expect everyone to be fine. It's a lot to undo. White leftists definitely can't be trusted because they don't even have a clear, concise or objective understanding of themselves in this system they perpetuate. Or of history! And even them positioning themselves as saviors is colonial violence. The African working class will free the world. We don't want anti-racism. We don't yearn to be accepted by white people or understood by them. We want POWER to determine our lives and for all life to be honored. Healing is a violent process. Untethering ourselves from crystallized ideas is immaterial carnage. I hope you survive healing somewhat unscathed.
Some of us white people who have lived on the fringes of society have this sense too. And we recognize the sickness around and within us and want to liberate ourselves from it so we can actually live a bit and detach from the death machine and perspective
Who is "we"??? Despite my hostility and clear disdain for white people, no I don't believe in genocide for anyone. I think white people should be honest with themselves, about who they are, who they are the mutations/extensions of and what they are doing with the world in the present tense in terms of power, influence and control. And how that negatively affects everyone and everything alive. What that all implies about their pathologies, worldviews, standards, beliefs about themselves and what they might be capable of doing to evolve into better human beings. And most importantly face the consequences of an uninterrupted timeline of death and destruction, pay whatever price (including but beyond financially) is determined due to pursue justice so that we can restore order to the realm. This extends to all colonial societies including Arab colonizers, neocolonialists, etc. But more urgently European colonizers. As for me and my people we will heal accordingly and internally.
I’m sorry, I’m not mentally well and shouldn’t have said anything, please ignore me.
100% True.
I want to respond to this with honesty and care, because I’ve truly sat with Erika’s words and read Penny Hess’s work as she recommended. It was deeply uncomfortable which it should be.
Long before I had the language for it, I had moments that shattered my illusions. Years ago, I was at a bar with Black friends who were blatantly refused service. I was confused at first, I kept asking the owner what was wrong, until my friend said quietly, “This is exactly what you think it is.” I was stunned. That moment cracked me open. I was told to leave, but more than two dozen customers stood up and walked out too. I made a promise that night that I would never stay silent when I saw injustice again. I’ve kept that promise—even when it wasn’t easy or safe—because I know my whiteness gives me a level of protection others don’t have.
I’ve also been in countless situations where people assumed, because I’m white, that I’d agree with their racism. A woman once followed me out of a store to ask if my children were adopted because I’m blonde and blue-eyed, and they’re brown-skinned with nearly black hair. Did she think we’d bond over some savior fantasy? Another time, a contractor casually said they don’t hire Mexicans, unknowingly he was bidding a job for my Mexican partner. It hits me in the gut every time. If this is what I see casually, publicly, how much worse is it for those who can’t walk away from it?
When we moved to a new neighborhood, my husband didn’t go for walks without our two fluffy white dogs for three years just to make sure the police saw him as safe. I’ve filed complaints with our police department, naively under my real name, because I kept seeing the same officer pull over only Black drivers while white men sped past without consequence.
Now, raising two children in an interracial family, racism is not theoretical. It’s in our lives. I fear for my kids. I fear for my friends’ children. Honestly, I often don’t know what to say or where I’m “allowed” to speak. I know these situations aren’t about me, but they are part of my life, too. While I never want to be self-centered or ignorant, I also believe racism affects all of us. I often feel caught in the blur—too white to be fully trusted, too awake to pretend I don’t see what’s happening. I get met with eye rolls or “poor white girl” attitudes, and I understand that response. I don’t take it personally. But I do believe these blurry, uncomfortable spaces are where we have the most potential to build better communities—if we let each other in.
I also want to say clearly: I do not believe anyone is born with a void or with evil because of their race or culture. That kind of essentialism—directed at anyone—is dehumanizing. I don’t believe in erasure as an answer to historical harm. I’ve spent my life studying genocide. I wrote my thesis on how Western civilization is built on cycles of erasure and mass violence. I’ve interviewed Holocaust survivors. I have close friends on both sides of the Israel-Palestine conflict. I’ve learned this: once we accept dehumanization as a tool for justice, we’ve already lost the fight.
I understand the rage. I understand the grief.
I believe in unlearning, in accountability, in staying in discomfort. But I also believe in healing. I believe in truth without cruelty, in justice without erasure, and in shared humanity even when it feels like we’re unraveling.
I’m not here for absolution. I’m here because I still believe something better is possible.
Thank you for this honest and deeply sincere response. I value your self-awareness and have felt this same desperation. I also agree that dehumanization of anyone is antithetical to the work of true liberation, and apologize that my wording connoted it. When I speak of the VOID, I refer to the very phenomenon described in this incredible essay—a lack (to some crucial extent) of connection to culture, which forms the foundation of whiteness.
I cannot possibly speak to your own experience, but if you’ve felt an uncertainty of self, a need to cling to an external source or action to reify your own identity, you might be feeling that VOID too. The VOID is a wound. Having it does not make one less human, but it does make one wounded. And many white people do not know that wound is there, nor how it drives so many of our actions. It is our responsibility to contend with this wound ourselves, and shoulder the labor of healing it.
If any of this speaks to you, please let me know. Your comments really spoke to me and reminded me of when I was asking those questions myself. I want to help you reach a place where you no longer feel uncertain.
A lack of connection to culture… yes. The closest I’ve come to a real sense of culture was when I was part of Irish-Catholic community. The void is real. The wound is real. Disconnection from our ancestors and the cultures that have been too often displaced by nationalism are real.
Thank you.
I want to ask something sincerely, not to defend myself, and not to ask you to teach me, but because I want to be in this space without pretending.
How am I supposed to be your ally when the system I was born into is this broken, and the identity I carry brings this kind of pain? What breaks the barrier? What makes me less dangerous to you, less performative, less extractive, more human?
I’m not asking for a checklist. I’m asking what it looks like for someone like me to be in this conversation with integrity. Because I don’t want to disappear and I don’t want to cause more harm. I don’t know what’s possible unless I ask.
I know the answer might be: “You can’t.” Or “You listen, and stay quiet.” Or “You stop asking.” I’m open to any of that. I just don’t want to mistake my own discomfort for silence or worse, for virtue.
Hello Eleanor, I think sitting with yourself in the uncomfortable, bizarre, grotesque realities of this world, honestly investigating how you uphold it, where it lives within you and learning the most objective retelling of history is best. And then begin unmaking yourself psychologically and spiritually (seriously good luck). "Overturning the Culture of Violence" by Penny Hess is a great source as well. Be accountable in ways accessible to you. I cannot tell you what that is. That is something you'll have to discover with people in your region. You can be an ally and not even really have so much engagement with the people you are being an ally to. But if so, allow them to lead should they seem capable and in a position to. Reprogramming the people in your own family, educating your white counterparts as you learn, doing the violent work of divesting from the world views that have been imposed on us all is a start. Definitely avoid being in any position of leadership of the people you seek allyship with. I will paste a previous reply. "Despite my hostility and clear disdain for white people, no I don't believe in genocide for anyone. I think white people should be honest with themselves, about who they are, who they are the mutations/extensions of and what they are doing with the world in the present tense in terms of power, influence and control. And how that negatively affects everyone and everything alive. What that all implies about their pathologies, worldviews, standards, beliefs about themselves and what they might be capable of doing to evolve into better human beings. And most importantly face the consequences of an uninterrupted timeline of death and destruction, pay whatever price (including but beyond financially) is determined due to pursue justice so that we can restore order to the realm." If you are earnestly seeking justice, atonement and healing, you will be supported by the invisible forces of our reality. Best of luck.
If you are white, there is a VOID inside you. You need to learn to heal that VOID, or you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to fill it.
If you have any questions about this specifically, please do ask! Everything Erika said should come first (and continue habitually, as this will)—understanding these systems and unlearning your own biases to the best of your ability.
I’m white and I agree with this 100%
I mostly agree with what you're saying. The is a spiritual void at the heart of white western culture and so much harm perpetrated. I don't exactly agree that it is whiteness per se that is sociopathic though I see where you're coming from. But as many people in the comments have pointed about there were and still are earth based indigenous white peoples such as the Sami today. Also historically non white civilisations have also scoured the land and caused ecological devastation and hardship for their people. But I recognise that the modern predominantly white western civilisation is ravaging the earth and harming it's peoples in an unprecedented way due to industrialisation and globalisation, the spreading of this sociopathy as you put it.
Tyson Yunkaporta writes well on this. He says it is not whiteness that is the problem but civilisation, which he defines as any group that creates cities and hierarchies and decimates the surrounding environment. Which by definition is unsustainable and requires an underclass to prop up. I will agree though that white Europe does seem to be the petri dish from which this particularly virulent from of sociopathy has spawned and so we as white people do have a reckoning with ourselves to do. It is true there is a sickness of spirit at the heart of much of the western world but some white folks are trying to purge themselves of this sickness and also despair and weep at the state of the world and long for justice harmony and the enchanting of the world and recognition of spirit.
COMMENT OF THE CENTURY 👏
Selah! 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾
"we are an earth-based people": this is exactly what is missing in my culture of origin and why I feels so untethered as a someone reckoning with my white identity. There has to be a way to get back to the land, community, and spiritually connected joy!
It is the coloniality of white leftists.
We tend to either learn to appropriate, or become atheist materialists.
We have to investigate our own spiritual lineages to find what is salvageable and was meaningfully used against empire- not in efforts to spread it..
That's what I've been doing, reconnecting with cultural/spiritual roots, while continuing to work on deepening solidarity & learning. Check out Rune Rasmussen's work on Nordic Animism for a great example of this. He's on YouTube.
Yep. Im English, Welsh, Irish and German.
It is good to understand more deeply what happened to the people under empire and feudalism to see the replications our ancestors imposed and continue to try to enforce in the “new world.”
I came here to say the same- this is actually the focus of my writing (ReRooting). We forget in our thinking of Decolonization, that the 1st peoples lands, stories, traditions & rituals (how they connected/ communicated with the land & each other FOR SURVIVAL) were the Celts, Slavs, Illyrians... we cannot "heal" until we come to terms with our own lost Traditional Ecological Knowledge
The course, Before We White, is an illuminating experience on this path.
This is so good! I completely agree and I think the desire to “cleanse” movement work of spirituality wreaks of eugenics. That puritanical desire for one definition of rightness, goodness and ultimate authority is another expression white supremacy.
Yes! The eugenics piece is so real, and I think especially with white supremacies obsession with purity culture, the objective and being the sole arbiter of truth, spirituality and enjoy are a direct thread
I don’t know if you’ve ever read The Colour of God by Ayesha Chaudhry, but I remember there being a specific section in that book about how puritan “spirituality” focuses on the abstract spirit while disdaining the physical body — how so many religious rules govern how people are allowed to bleed, fuck, and die — because of the idea that becoming closer to an abstract and all-powerful God means getting further and further away from being human, and all the joy and mess that life entails. It’s an amazing book!
This is great, and I’m enchanted by the synchronicity ✨ I’m re-reading Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic imagination (1978), in which he points to Moses as a helpful example of what it means to embody the call of all prophets: to criticise, awaken and energise.
“His work was nothing less than an assault on the consciousness of empire, aimed at nothing less than the dismantling of empire, both in its social practices and in its mythic pretensions […] there is no freedom of God without the politics of justice and compassion, and there is no politics of justice and compassion without the freedom of God.”
Oh, this is good! I’m gonna add this to my list!!!!
Oooooo MAN so glad to see Brueggemann in the comments.
YES! Thank you, Jamila.
I think for most white folks in the United States (including myself here), we've been indoctrinated to think of joy as an object, not a movement. It lacks sensuality and presence. It's moving up in the workplace, a new house, or the amount of likes you get on an IG post. When we've been taught this view of joy and then we wake up to the injustices in our world, we jump to cleansing ourselves by suppressing joy. We think that's the only way to be "serious leftists." We can't imagine joy that dances with discomfort at the same time. So we continue to avoid getting our hands dirty and then also avoid joy. Most of us have really never "let ourselves go" to tap into the world beyond the individual. We like to talk and write about this, but how many of us white folks have just shut up and started dancing?
Really enjoyed this and felt like I needed to hear it. Curious what guidance you can give on how to build this into my life. I’m a white, gay, leftist from Utah who grew up Mormon. I’d argue the majority of white leftists in Utah also grew up Mormon. I can’t speak for them, but for me, spirituality and ritual was used for control and manipulation over empowerment and celebration. For that reason, I have a distrust for the spiritual. I’m definitely guilty of leaning too far into fact/discourse and taking the soul out of the work. I can tell my own spirit yearns for it, though, but I’m not sure how to build that trust. Thanks again for a great read. You’ve given me a lot to think about.
Reconnect deeply with nature, not as other, but as kin.
Agreed. The book Braiding Sweetgrass was food for my soul. Kimmerer speaks to the urgency of becoming indigenous to place, wherever we are, and especially for the descendants of settler-colonists. After all, we are destroying the planet.
I also recommend cross-cultural shamanism. Authentic European indigenous practices have been repressed for thousands of years, and white Americans live thousands of miles away from these roots and landscapes. We need spiritual practices that are in the here and now.
Sylvan, I love this. Thanks for a thoughtful and concise piece of advice.
You shouldn’t have encouraged me, because now I won’t be concise! 😂 I highly recommend the work of David Abram (@riverspell), especially Becoming Animal. And spend as much time listening to trees as you can manage. I have found them to be wise, patient, generous, and abundantly joyful teachers.
Thank you for this. I've been waiting to see something like this for ages.
This is such a beautiful compliment, I’m so glad that you liked it
Thank you for this. And so happy I found you on here! I’m a fan!
Welcome! Thank you so much. I’m so glad that this resonated with you.
Oh, this is making me think! Thank you!
I love this so much. Thank you.
Thanks for the great read. It's refreshing to see writing that inspires hope. While it’s easy to be critical, it often feels hollow if there's no alternative offered to the nihilism gripping public discourse these days.
Spirituality, in particular, tends to be frowned upon—especially within the dominant culture shaped largely by white, cisgender, and heterosexual norms, which often reinforce narrow definitions of identity and success.
As artists, we engage in spiritual practices all the time—whether through mindfulness, meditation, curiosity, or asking questions whose answers only lead to more questions.
In The Awakened Brain by Lisa Miller, PhD, she explores the clinical and psychological impact of spirituality on depression, particularly the role of belief in the unknown.
If you haven't come across her work, I’d recommend checking it out. It offers a spiritually validating lens that fits within the framework of the dominant culture.
I really relate to this. I am an indigenous person raised among devout Catholics who had to journey beyond my culture and community to find Spirit and restore my faith in God and humanity. Along this journey I identified the strains of whiteness and Western hegemony that you touch on here. Like the same punishing mindset of the Puritans can be seen in the fixation on regimented physical fitness like gym culture and marathon runners. In the typical leftist circle it's the anal retentive hyper intellectual need to be logical and rational (while denying the truths of embodied reality). Anyway, I found this book really insightful in tracing these lineages - which helped me free myself and disown them as a white-adjacent person: Coming to Our Senses: Body and Spirit in the Hidden History of the West by Morris Bernan.
So much to say and unpack, so I'll just say thank you for describing something so painful and difficult at times to express 💗
This is amazing. I think a spirit that isn't fed with joy can't survive the struggle for revolution in the first place. The forms of celebration are a reminder of the past, the present, and the future. The past is something that we don't want to forget because it's part of our identity, the glimpse of the future we could have for the next generations, and the present, where we also want to find happiness with our loved ones while we are alive. This thought reminds me of that iconic scene in Sinners when all the times and forms of cultural manifestation cross in a moment. I´m from Brazil and I was so excited by the example you brought! Terreiros are such a good representation of the joy that strengthens the community. The Orixás come and dance with their people. This reminds me of that phrase attributed to Nietzsche “I could not have faith in a god that doesn't dance”. There are so many other cultural manifestations here that only exist because of black and indigenous folk. Even catholic celebrations such as our “June feast” exist because of their influences. Christianity made a sin of every source of joy possible. The idea of the “pleasures of the flash that clouds our better judgment” seems to live on with an intellectual facade. And we (white people) are still influenced by it even when we think we are not. You know what's even sadder? I´ve read an article talking about how the Umbanda and Candomblé terreiros are being more and more attended by white people while the pentecostal protestant churches are being more attended by black people. That's a consequence of religious intolerance towards afro religions and how spiritual joy is considered less “dangerous” when lived by a person with a lighter skin tone. And how the lack of cultural connection that white people feel leads to cultural appropriation in most cases (I see the plot of Sinners here again).
I’ve been saying this and posting on my IG stories. It started as a feeling a while ago. Something seemed to be missing in the White leftist circles and it felt like it was oriented towards deconstruction. No joy for my people, for Black people. And I know joy, real joy has always been at the center of Blackness; and African diasporic culture. We resist. We dance. We laugh. We eat together. Growing up back home it was very common to eat Suya, drink, and talk politics/how to make living conditions better. It’s what is missing from these spaces. We need to orient towards life!
I am grateful for this message finding me today. Since the election I have been thinking about joy as resistance and learning even more about Black history. I'm a white leftist who has always felt most connected to spirit through dance. I didn't want to take classes because I didn't want to do what everyone else was doing and my Mom could not understand that. I was happiest in my life when I was at the club or warehouse parties 3-4 nights a week and we called it church. I recently discovered Ecstatic Dance and, for me, it is time travel and pure joy. Yesterday during the session, I had a vision of block parties and dance parties rising up in every city and town square across America on the 14th. Dancing, singing, connection, unity, and JOY. He closed the dance with Rise Up and I cried. I got in the car and a song titled Purpose was playing. And now here are your beautiful words greeting me. It all feels aligned. I'm not an organizer or a leader and I have no following to make it happen but that's what I'll be doing that day. Hopefully with community. Thank you for sharing this and for being a celebrationist. I have a feeling that is exactly what the resistance needs. ✨💕
What an excellent call-in. I hope this gets out and they take time to sit with this masterclass in emotional intelligence.