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No, not all white men are 'insufferable.' But all white supremacy is [1]
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Date: 2022-09-14
I quoted author Candice Benbow’s tweet because, while I spend the majority of my time reporting on tools of white supremacy, I believe it is also important to report on the effects of enduring years of that intentional dominance and accompanying microaggressions. Not everyone is going to respond by holding hands and singing "Kumbaya, My Lord."
Some activists did quite literally want to burn the house down after seeing a video of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by holding a knee to the Black father’s neck for more than nine minutes. Police brutality is a powerful tool of white supremacy that many people are just beginning to see as such.
But what is a less obvious reinforcement of the white supremacist power grab is a white man continuing to lay in front of a Black woman—even after she told him to end the skit in the most agreeable of ways.
Kimmel hasn’t apologized for his behavior, and mixed in with the tweets and comments of outrage were white people telling Black people the matter is too trivial to have justified offending them.
Those of us who choose not to turn away can find these instances of white supremacy at work every day, even if we are lucky enough to avoid the more overt examples ourselves.
I could spend my time talking about how problematic it is to deem white men “insufferable” because of their deeds, and for the purposes of this article, I will. But in large part, I choose instead to condemn the deeds that make so many white men literally and figuratively “insufferable” to Black people: the tools of white supremacy.
Benbow’s full tweet was: "Jimmy Kimmel owes Quinta an apology but the messed up part is every image of her accepting her award has his ass in it. White men really are insufferable."
Facing backlash, Benbow later said that her tweet had been reported; Twitter found her words did not violate any of its policies.
x Actually, it’s already been reported and Twitter found that it didn’t violate shit.
…and as for “if a white man posted a comment like this about Black women, would you allow it”, is this your first day on this app?
https://t.co/trss0wKqMN — Candice Marie Benbow (@CandiceBenbow) September 13, 2022
One Twitter user tagged Benbow and wrote: “As you know being a black woman, it's ignorant to include all white men into your insufferable descriptive.”
Benbow responded with this: “…yes because you telling me what I know as a Black woman proves my point in the best way possible and I appreciate it.”
Author and community contributor Ian Reifowitz wrote in the comment section of my story:
“At the end of the day, it’s wrong to stereotype. I’m not interested in the reasoning behind it. Stereotyping can’t just be wrong when it’s aimed at oppressed groups, and we progressives have no moral leg to stand on when we demand that people stop stereotyping oppressed groups if we stereotype white men. Those who think otherwise are either fooling themselves or are in a bubble of people who all think alike. All stereotyping is dehumanizing, it leads people to define others based on characteristics perceived to be shared by the members of the group. That road leads to hate far too often.”
I agree with Reifowitz that stereotyping is wrong. Only, I am wildly interested in the reasoning behind it. Stereotypes of Black men as violent and Black women as angry, for example, are often tools of white supremacy, a means of taking power from one group of people to enhance the power of another group believed to be inherently superior. That’s based on the misconception that the two groups can’t share power.
I am always going to be more inclined to say “stop white supremacy” than I am “stop stereotyping Black people,” because the root cause is important to me. My hope is that if we can strip away the belief in white supremacy, folks will no longer need the tools they use to carry it out.
Maybe then, we also won’t have to say, “stop stereotyping people.”
RELATED STORY: 'We learned violence from you': Activist Tamika Mallory captures heart of protests with vital speech
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