Me and White Supremacy

by Layla F. Saad

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Me and White Supremacy Themes

The main themes in Me and White Supremacy are allyship, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness.

  • Allyship: Saad encourages white readers to reflect on whether they have engaged in acts of performative allyship and discusses concrete actions they can take to become better allies in the fight against racism.
  • White supremacy: Though many people think white supremacy is a fringe ideology, Saad argues that it is pervasive in our society and asks white readers to rethink how they contribute to and benefit from white supremacy.
  • Anti-Blackness: Saad demonstrates how widespread stereotypes about Black people translate into real harm on both an individual and a systemic level.

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Allyship

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Ultimately, the aim of Me and White Supremacy is to teach people with white privilege how to become a good ally to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Even though Me and White Supremacy was designed to last its reader only 28 days, Saad repeatedly emphasizes that practicing anti-racism is a lifelong commitment.

While simply reading texts on race and racism (such as Me and White Supremacy) is practicing anti-racism itself, Saad devotes Week 3 of the book to educating her readers on allyship and the common white supremacist beliefs and behaviors false allies practice. These beliefs and actions include white centering, tokenism, white saviorism, optical allyship, and responding inappropriately to being called out/called in. Saad argues that these behaviors stem directly from white supremacy, whether the perpetrator is conscious of it or not. For example, certain organizations or events might practice tokenism in an effort to appear more progressive, diverse, or anti-racist, without actually being willing to incorporate racial equality into their policies. 

In the past, practicing anti-racism meant supporting and involving oneself in movements that pushed for racial equality—such as the abolitionist movement and the civil rights movement of the 1950s–60s. Saad emphasizes the need for every ally to take real action, and she enumerates specific and concrete ways in which one can become a better ally. This includes being responsible for one’s anti-racism education and seeking out anti-racist educators, mentors, and coaches, as well as consuming books, podcasts, films, and other resources on race and anti-racism. Saad also emphasizes the importance of moving beyond the personal realm to enact meaningful systemic change—whether by showing up at marches, rallies, and fund-raisers for BIPOC or by supporting anti-racist or BIPOC leaders and politicians. 

White Supremacy

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The very focus of Me and White Supremacy is white people, or people holding white privilege, and their relationship with white supremacy. What Saad chooses to engage with in Me and White Supremacy are the modern-day effects, consequences, and implications of racism and white supremacy, and she aims to show how one can recognize and correct the many manifestations of white supremacy—both in oneself and in others. While Saad does not conduct a historical investigation of racism and white supremacy, she nevertheless acknowledges that these ideas are deeply rooted in European colonialism, imperialism, and historical inequalities of power. The concept of white supremacy can be traced back to as early as mid-1600s Europe, where Enlightenment thinkers first attempted to draw distinctions between large groups of people, thus leading to what we now know as “race.” What led to the inception of white supremacist thoughts and beliefs, however, was the assertion of these thinkers that certain qualities, virtues and vices are inherent to race. Swedish physician and zoologist Carl Linnaeus, for example, theorized that the Europeanus were gentle and intelligent while the Afer or Africanus were lazy, lustful, and capricious. These Eurocentric views that lent false scientific “credibility” to white supremacy still impact our society today, despite having been discredited time and time again.

Saad traces certain modern-day manifestations of white supremacy back to their historical roots. In “You and White Saviorism,” for example, Saad acknowledges that the cultural phenomena of the “white savior” is rooted in the same white supremacist thoughts and beliefs once used to justify colonialism and imperialism in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. By “volunteering” in these countries in order to position themselves as a savior figure, white people often—whether intentionally or not—perpetuate a harmful, outdated, and racist worldview. The “white savior” narrative can also be seen in popular mainstream films such as The Help

(This entire section contains 358 words.)

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The Help, The Blind Side, and The Great Wall. By connecting the modern manifestations of white supremacy to the racism of the past, Saad reveals the dominance of white supremacy—an ideology many white people think is dead—in modern-day systems, institutions, and the public consciousness.

Anti-Blackness

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While Me and White Supremacy addresses the damaging and dehumanizing effects of white supremacy on all minorities (such as the Hispanics, Asians, and Muslims), it dedicates three whole sections to Anti-Blackness specifically: “Anti-Blackness against Black Women,” “Anti-Blackness against Black Men,” and “Anti-Blackness against Black Children.” As a Black woman herself, Saad recognizes how her and her peers’ experience of racism is markedly different from that of other minorities. Because of America’s brutal history with Africa, she finds it important to address the ways in which Black people specifically have been oppressed, marginalized, and dehumanized in both historical and present-day America.

The theme of anti-Blackness is explored primarily through the harmful cultural representations and negative stereotypes of Black men, women, and children in America. Saad argues that Black men in America have been historically portrayed as unintelligent, belligerent, and sexually aggressive, and that these harmful representations and stereotypes are often weaponized and used to justify racially motivated crimes against Black people. As an example, Saad cites the famous case of the Central Park Five, five young Black men who were falsely accused and convicted of sexual assault in 1989. Sadly, a more recent example of Saad’s argument occurred only a few months after Me and White Supremacy’s original publication, with the unjust killing of Black civilian George Floyd by a white police officer Derek Chauvin in May 2020.

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