My brother wrote this piece called "Anti-Racism at the Borderlands of Whiteness"

I really urge you to read it. It's a view on what whites need to do on anti-racism and fighting the system of white supremacy.

a little thread below w/ my thoughts... https://brooklynrail.org/2020/09/criticspage/Anti-Racism-at-the-Borderlands-of-Whiteness

I want to talk about this idea of "white enough most of the time" that Nassim uses in his post. But first let me say I am so proud of my brother, everything he does and who he is as a person and a teacher. (2/n)

Let me also say, like he does, that everything i am about to say about my experience with race pales in comparison to what many others, particularly Black and Indigenous but also other "visible" minorities have faced. (3/n)

I have always struggled with my position in society regarding race and ethnicity. I've been thinking about it even more recently both because I have taken on an EDI role in my faculty and recent events (George Floyd's murder but so much both before and since then) (4/n)

Growing up, i *never* considered myself white. Why? Well, the boys in my mostly white neighbourhood and schools were called John and Paul and Matthew. Not Hisham. They definitely did not eat tajine or zalouk. They looked kinda like me but not really. Etc. (5/n)

Funny side-story - summer 1996 got a job at a US gov facility. Got a diversity survey. "White/Caucasian" defined as people with origin in Europe, Middle East and North Africa. I was born in Morocco. I think my reaction was a joking: "Holy s**t, I'm white?" (6/n)

But I also remember thinking at the time (not many years after first gulf war and after seeing my fair share of Arab terrorists as bad guys in movies), there is no way most white people in America think Saddam Hussein or most Iraqis (or Moroccans for that matter) are white. (7/n)

But over the years, I have also recognized that I am "white enough most of the time" as Nassim puts it so well. What does this mean?

Traffic stop - white enough. Cops don't start with hands on guns.
Immigration - def not white enough.

Just one example. There are others (8/n)

Living in Canada again after many years (I grew up here but spent 10+ years in US for school and work) has also made me think hard about myself as an immigrant-settler. (9/n)

No, I am not descended from the original settlers (as I was reminded of more than once in Quebec as I am not pure laine though I speak french - see above about being white enough *most of the time*) (10/n)

But I definitely have benefited as an immigrant in all that Canada has had to offer and recognize that what it has to offer me is built on the history of colonialism and dispossession that the settlers imposed. That is something I continue to struggle with. (11/n)

At same time, I don't get to decide when I'm "white enough." Not something I can turn on and off. As my brother says: "we must think about our own race, and how race defines and determines our life. But white people like to think of themselves as outside of race, as neutral." 12

I've had conversations with people close to me and had to explain, I can't just ignore race because I don't get to choose when I am racialized. My name, my looks (somewhat), my birthplace all determine whether I'm seen as Arab, Muslim, Jewish or just ambiguously ethnic. (13/n)

BTW, just to complicate matters, all three of those identities (Arab, Muslim, Jewish) are true based on my family being mixed. True even if I don't follow either religion. I'm also Moroccan (by birth), American (by birth) and Canadian (by naturalization but grew up here). (14/n)

So, getting back to the original point of my brother's piece. Anti-racism and ending systems of white supremacy requires white people to do work that goes beyond the performative. It requires education, yes, but so much more than that. Please do go read his piece. (15/n)

It requires a full accounting of history and acknowledgement of history. Requires Empathy. Requires active intervention. But also requires white people to recognize they are not outside the system of race that has been established. They are the beneficiaries of it. (16/n)

And those of us that are "white enough most of the time" have role to play. Acknowledging our privilege while also experiencing the impacts of racism. As my brother says: "I notice this preferential treatment because, unlike many white people, I have also not been white." (17/n)

I'll leave you with this: "The abolition of white supremacy is not inevitable. The arc of the moral universe does not bend on its own. Whether generations continue to suffer or can breathe freely is our choice to make. There is only one right choice." (18/18)