Dismantling White Supremacy

Resmaa Menakem (2017) writes about the somatic effects of internalized white supremacy living in the bodies of every person. White supremacy has infiltrated every part of our culture and the systems that form our society. Insidiously seeping into all our consciousness, white supremacy also resides inside our physical bodies (Menakem, 2017). Sonya Taylor says that because people of color don’t see themselves reflected in the world around them, they make judgments about that absence. The message is clear “You do not belong here.” The white supremacist ideal of“normal” or default body = white body, has become the pathway to beauty and worthiness (Taylor, 2021). Robin DiAngelo said that white progressives cause the most damage to people of color because they think they know, think they don’t have internalized biases and therefore do not do the work they need to to dismantle oppressive systems (Diangelo, 2018). 

Dr. Robin DiAngelo Discusses White Fragility, June 28, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ey4jgoxeU

Menakem, R. (2017) My grandmother’s hands: Racialized trauma and the pathway to mending our hearts and bodies. Central Recovery Press.

Taylor, S. R. (2021). The body is not an apology: The power of radical self-love (2nd. ed.) Berret Kohler.