First, a Working Definition of White Supremacy:
An interlocking, hierarchical, and constantly adapting system where whites receive "both material and psychological benefits for surveilling [a] racialized system [that serves as] an opportunity structure for European ethnics" (McIntosh, 1997; Allen, 2004). It is the sum of the intergenerational theories and practices that delineate, reinforce, and recreate white privilege through the utilization of codifiable and re-presentable frameworks, styles, and stories (Bonilla-Silva, 2003).
The reason I feel compelled to publicly engage in potentially controversial reflection is because, as a white heterosexual male of upper-middle class background I have distinct, intersecting, and unearned privileges that "allow" me to challenge White Supremacy more intimately than someone with multiple, intersecting, unearned disprivileges. In other words, because of these privileges I have more avenues by which I can escape professional dismemberment and personal persecution for my rhetoric and actions than are available to (for example) a Black impoverished lesbian.
Therefore, rather than continue to support White Supremacy and, by association, the benefits I receive as a result, I have chosen to use my unearned privilege to challenge the system that "gifted" them to my person. I believe the most effective way for me to do this is to reveal the structural realities of White Privilege from a position of whiteness to other Whites and with Persons With Color who have been forced to internalize White Supremacist ideology in order to survive its effects.
I do not wish to assert that I am making some amazing sacrifice, engaging in great risk, or that I deserve a "People of Color enjoy my company" merit badge. (I personally doubt anyone who comes to me with their "But I don't see color" bullshit.)
I have the privilege to cease my antiracist leanings at any time. Unlike Persons With Color, if I can’t take the heat, I can always opt out of the kitchen. Therefore, I understand and agree that my physio-temporal locus as an antiracist White should and will always be in question as to its authenticity; my transformation into an antiracist will forever be incomplete.
By arriving at this keyboard with the sum of my lived experiences informing my writing, acknowledging them, examining them, and sharing them, perhaps I can- in some small way- illuminate a small piece of the White Supremacy that chokes our Democracy. I know that I can't change the world, but aim to change myself and challenge my unearned privileges in this process.