“The racial disparities between white suicide and Black homicide did not exist in a vacuum. Rather they are, in many ways reflective of ways that Americans talk about race, violence, and mortality more broadly”
-Johanthan Metzl, Dying of Whiteness
Since the beginning of the conception of the American ideology, its thought process leaned toward a depraved sensibility. It has, for centuries, assumed a position that diminished the being of those it deemed its “other”. It has thrived on the “otherizing”and “thingifying” of those it deemed itself superior to.
Supremacy has been an integral part of this society since this society began. Never before, in American history, has there been the capacity for a progressive, collective discussion of a politics of conversion that dismantles the supremacist ideology that has had a stranglehold on the American mind.
Supremacy is a depraved narcissism that destroys the self concept of those it “others” to prop up the impotent intellect it stands on. Through the move toward a less depraved sensibility, the body politic has experienced historic moments of tumult and upheaval that culminate in a demonstrative shift of energy; a new form of balance in a changed landscape, on a new frequency of existence. The dialogue can become a bit metrical in its dimensions, but there is realism in its context.
These moments form the scaffolds that lead to historical revolutionary changes. The conjuncture as the historical scaffold that lead to these changes, form the basis for understanding how these energetic shifts can and have happened; and possibly how to temper the wave of chaotic energy that accompany these changes.
The conjuncture that has become the scaffolds of revolutions that serve as breadcrumbs from the past to the present moment, gives context to the present rise in extremist rhetoric and behavior.
The growing capacity for transracial coalitions of solidarity is a point of contention for supremacist ideology. The reaction to this is the past and present rise of extremist rhetoric and behavior.
“The ways we define crisis allows us to attach the language of calamity to whiteness, men, or other seemingly dominant groups while at the same time making it harder to see the suffering of others… merits a crisis of authority —because they are supposedly built for it, or because they have lived with crisis all along. This logic suggests that men need to be on top because they embody no skills for acting otherwise.”
-Jonathan Metzl, Dying of Whiteness
To understand the history of America it is important to acknowledge how its ideology was conceived and allowed to exist to the detriment of people who are unable to ingratiate themselves fully into the mechanisms that control American racial hegemony.
I posit that the lie of supremacy can be countered by the truth of collective unity. Supremacy seems to want to not be held accountable for its wrongs. Supremacy is an ideology that people latch onto for whatever comfort it brings them to the detriment of everyone else around them.
If one begins to honestly consider how we got to where we are, we can begin to move to ward the worthy and progressive ideal that supremacy has denied us the opportunity to reach.
-Yogabrofessor
Metzl, J. M. (2024). Dying of whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America’s Heartland.
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