Light skinned does not automatically equal white passing. White passing is white skin, Euro features, being viewed (and treated) by society as white (before they know your ethnicity).

Being WP does not negate your culture, heritage, and ethnicity.

Glad we cleared that up.

Note: This tweet is for those who are offended by the "if you look white, you're white" tweet and don't understand that WP people hold privilege. That thread of tweets is nuanced and requires an understanding of the white supremacist structure within the United States especially.

White supremacy is a global issue. However, I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on how that manifests in Arab counties and elsewhere (see OG tweet for context). But what I can speak to is the U.S.

A lot of oppression & injustice occurs because of how *you* are *racialized*

Police do not ask if you're mixed before they harass (kill) you. They make calls based on if you *look* like a BIPOC. This, again is a more nuanced conversation involving colorism & the disproportionate number of *predominately Black* and Natives killed by police.

Additionally, this is a very nuanced conversation including where you live. WP Natives who live on reservations have a different experience with racialization (especially in border towns) than WP Natives who live in cities.

I'm talking generally here. Please don't be obtuse.

WP people do not and will not ever face that same level of systematic oppression because so much is rooted in racialization. Being told that looking white, being perceived as white, being racialized by police, supremacists, etc. as white is not oppression or colorism. Full stop.

Colorism is not about WP people. It's not about me as a lightskinned person. And we both can be active in it.

Colorism is unique oppressions faced by *darkskinned* people rooted in anti-Blackness. Attempting to hijack that discussion because you're WP is not it.

So stop it.

Furthermore, wearing tshirts with "Indigenous" on them do not automatically racialize you as a Native person. To the outside eye, you will always be racialized as white. You will always be culturally and ethnically Native, but racially? White.

And guess what? That. Is. Fine.

Are there complexities to this? Are there feelings about being mixed/perceived as a colonizer? YES!!!

However, pushing back against being referred to as what you are also (white) isn't how you explore those feelings. It comes off as entitlement, as white supremacist, frankly.

Finally for Natives I know this is unique in that we are not a race. We are citizens of sovereign Nations with significant cultural practices.

We have become a racialized group. It is naive to think that ethnically Native cancels out racially white. That isn't how it works now.

We *have* to look at this through a justice lens. We cannot choose to neglect how racialization & oppression work in this settler state. I know that isn't how we regard ourselves, but we must look larger than ourselves. We cannot ignore how the world has shifted since 1492.

Know the impact of telling a racialized BIPOC that you too experience their exact same oppressions while attempting to reject your whiteness, your shield to many injustices. Know the priviledge and power you hold and use it for good.

Let's stop having this conversation already.