I wanna talk bout skin
Mela-nin
and the race-
ism
that takes so much space
in this Sick-Ass place
called amerikkka…
I start this story by stating the obvious and not so obvious. I am the very light-skinned daughter of a strong, beautiful, disabled Black/Indian mama who dealt with racist (and classist) hate her ENTIRE very HARD life- in foster homes, orphanages and on the streets as the unwanted, “illegitimate” daughter of Black/Indian/Roma, Irish immigrants. Because of my mamas teaching-her love, art, anger, consciousness, and our endless poverty, I can tell you in the deepest sense RACISM IS VERY alive in Amerikkka..
I am the success story of the pure race scientists, and the tears of my many KKKolinized ancestors.
I don’t make sense to most people because I appear wite but my culture, soul, spirit and heart are Black, Brown and Red. But in reality in this wite-supremacist nation I walk thru the world invisiblized- cloaked in this twisted shade seen as privileged, most of the time un-profiled and no longer criminalized and therefore must speak on that space between wite-ness, blackness and me.
To be clear, it wasn't always like that-I have spent most of my childhood houseless in Amerikkka with my po mama of color and therefore was incessantly profiled, po’liced, harassed and eventually incarcerated for sleeping in our car, selling/vending unlicensed products on the street and other survival “crimes” in the US. And then after my son was born and my mama became ill, the struggle started again.
When I was 11 my mama got laid off her “welfare to work” job for questioning wite-supremacist psychiatric theories of individuation and the myth of the “bootstraps”, we ended up literally on the street, houseless. We started working really hard in several underground economies to raise enough money for the exhorbitant amount of 1st last and security deposits required to get another apartment , but now that we were houseless and we had no “credit”, my mama had no more job references to make her look “responsible” and my po’ mixed race looking mama could not get approved for an apartment to save our life. Every time she showed up, they would have an excuse about why we couldn’t qualify.
That’s when my ghetto fabulous survival by any means necessary mama decided to flip the wite-supremacist hateration on its own ugly head and use its weak profiling against itself.My Survival-Queen-Superbabymama hatched a plan.
We went to K-Mart (in LA) and got me the cheapest suit we could find, a fake ID stating I was actually 25, combed my hair into some kind of wite way and “rent-starter”, my new underground identity was born.
Lo and behold it worked. I filled out applications stating all kinds of stories about my yearly income, my jobs and my lengthy credit references and every landlord, from South-Asian to Wite happily granted me access to their precious (stolen land) apartments.
This is but one example of wite-gurl looking me needing to use my “skin privilege” to get us stuff. From money to favors, to credit to loans to apts to jobs. I have pimped and played my own wite-ness to keep our family of color alive within a deeply racist society throughout my childhood and even now. And only one example of the depth of the wite-lie of safety granted within a wite-supremacist nation which was built on the back of Black, Indigenous and migrante peoples labor, lives and genocide.
And to be VERY clear, I am not boasting about these poverty crimes. They are but one example of my multiple degrees acquired in the skool of hard knocks at way too young of an age, experienced and lived through because there was no other way for us to stay housed for the few times we were able to get inside, and acquired housing because telling the truth for poor, single parent women of color on the streets isn’t always an option.
It wasn’t until me and my mama became conscious through understanding our indigenismo, our POC consciousness, our African consciousness, our mama-daughter consciousness and our collective poverty struggle that we began to speak up on all of this rampant racism, colonization and hate which allowed us eventually to launch the poor people-led, self-determined media, art and education which is POOR Magazine.
As the national conversation gets louder around wite peoples and other peoples of color understanding or being challenged to understand that black Lives matter, I would like to add that all these assertions are powerful in terms of a collective consciousness which needs to be shifted in this racist nation but only a passive beginning.
For peoples with race, class and/or education privilege there should be a drastic change. It is time to stop passively benefiting from wite-supremacy. The lie of integration and affirmative action is played out and done.
Every day folks with these privileges casually rent apartments or rooms, don’t get harassed by po’lice, approved for jobs, access to credit, a home loan, or more covertly a credit card approved before you ask for it, the ability to walk down the street without a second glance or a police tail, the ability to not have your child profiled in the wite-supremacist skool systems we live within. These are just a few of the seen and un-seen privileges of this wite-supremacist nation. And if you are truly conscious, you would reverse them now. Begin the conversation about what I call Community Reparations. Begin understanding the concepts of decolonization and de-gentrification.
Recognize first that poor folks, African Peoples, Raza, Indigenous peoples need to self-determine our own futures, and that the role of wite peoples and peoples with privilege is not to save us, or create a non-profit for us, or a study to prove something to us, but rather to support us in our own poor and indigenous-led movements.
Begin the conversation on Afrikan peoples Reparations and/or what I call Community Reparations. Debunking the myth of independence and co-dependence and all these other wite-psychiatry notions that give all colonized people directions to only be consumed with their own individual happiness, to not burden themselves with the “messiness” of family and elders and care-giving. And that if you continue to benefit in these covert ways from the depth of wite-supremacy you are actually indebted to your fellow community member, to support them, kick down to them or depending on your access to wealth or privilege, support them.
And that other light-skinned peoples who may not have access to wealth, need to stop passively accepting their embedded skin privilege and begin reversing the theft of land, resources and space. Both of these ideas are VERY complicated and I would refer you to enroll a semester in peopleskool to help activate this process. But in the mean-time acquaint yourselves with the work and words of POOR Magazine’s Solidarity Board who is practicing Community Reparations
Cause/start conversations in colonizer-controlled spaces like stolen land art museums, “archives” and memorials where lies about indigenous peoples herstory and history are promoted and perpetuated. Stop funneling billions of dollars into academic institutions and academic studies on peoples of color. Stop moving into cities cause you think it would be more “interesting” to live there. Stop starting projects to “help” us and instead support self-determined poor and indigenous people-led movements like Peoples Community Medics, Black Riders Liberation Movement, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, WRAP, street newspaper vendors, HANC, KRIP Hop, Kenny Harding Foundation and POOR Magazine’s HOMEFULNESS project.
In the end I speak as someone who practices these ideas, I took care of my mama til the day she transitioned, no matter how hard it got, while raising my sun alone as a single parent. After my mama transitioned I started two Mamahouses for me and other poor single parents who needed support and care. I live inter-dependently always, worrying and working to activate change, un-packing the lies of the poverty industry, the po’lice, wite-supremacy and the hoarding of wealth for every poor and privileged person alike. I walk the world every day being very aware of what isn’t happening to me and I work hard to ensure less abuse and more power comes to my fellow melanin-blessed brothers and sisters in Amerikkka.
If you are a poor people-led, indigenous people-led group or organization- contact us so we can come out and help your group learn how to integrate the model of Community Reparations iinto your project. If you are a person with race, class or education privilege consider attending PEopleSkool's upcoming Fall semester-