I am occasionally called self-hating or suffering from white guilt because I strive to be an anti-racist collaborator. It's as though people think I lose something by trying to reject privilege. What they fail to understand is that racism & white supremacy harm white people, too

Yes, white supremacy has handed all of us privilege that many of us don't want or need, but it has also worked to prevent us from being healthy people in a healthy community. Racism harms white people differently than nonwhite people, but it is an active poison in our bloodstream

Although I am an atheist, one of my favorite pieces of writing is a devotional. In it Donne argues we are all connected. Racism severs that connection.
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/23772/23772-h/23772-h.htm#Page_107

White supremacy diminishes us all. It severs us from the natural community we belong to.

So, we harm ourselves emotionally by cutting ourselves off the community. We certainly can never join the Beloved Community if we are racist. This is all metaphysical and spiritual, but friendship and community are very real and we reduce our community by refusing its fullness

But lets get down to concrete, objective harms that racism does to white people - not just the moral and psychic damage of denying our humanity, but concrete measurable harms.

13% of white Americans lack health insurance which increases their chances of dying by 25%. Why do we not have national health insurance - fear of insuring Black people. There is complete unwillingness to share the risk if it is shared with Black people.

Poor white people in red states don't even get Medicaid expansion because some Black people might get it. The cuts in SNAP, affordable housing, and all the safety net programs are rooted in the fear of Black people benefitting

Poor white people are very willing to forego food stamps and health insurance if that means they Black people won't get it either, just ask West Virginia.

We have oppressive militarized policing that kills white and Black people with impunity. That is because racism has convinced us we need a police state to control Black people.

We are ceding professionalism and democracy out of fear that Black people will elect another Black person. We have decided we would rather than a white dictator than a Black president. That is active harm.

Look at at all the people dying of COVID and our tepid response. America accepted the lockdown and restrictions until they learned that it had a disparate impact on Black, Indigenous, and Latinos. Then we had to open and suck it up and ride it out, letting people die.

Now this means in absolute numbers more white people will die but in relative numbers more Black people will die and that's all that counts. Open up the economy! Ride it out!

There are many policies that harm white people, but because white people see them as harming Black people MORE, they will take the hit.

So yes, white supremacy is killing white people. Being anti-racist is not selfless. It's self-defense.