Why you should stop using the word ‘Unprecedented’
White supremacy in the covid era
The last few months, the refrain that plays constantly in my mind has been: “I have nothing to say.” How easily we are stunned into silence. How quickly we latch onto one talking point and let the others fall away. This was how covid was framed at the beginning, and for some rather uncreative news outlets, it still is: life in the covid era is “unprecedented.”
“Unprecedented.” That should be Merriam-Webster word of the year. That’s usually how these things go; a word becomes a word when the white middle class uses it. Suddenly, there’s “they.” But that’s another conversation altogether.
Given the global health crisis, environmental disaster and the cultural shift toward examining white supremacy, it’s unclear how I could have nothing to say. But my concept of futurity looks like a graph of the stock market in ‘08— like a roller coaster plunging to the ground. I am so drained by and engaged with each present moment that envisioning a life 2, 5 or 10 years from now is not only difficult, but contrary to the data at hand.
“I have nothing to say.” Deep down I know that’s untrue, but it’s much simpler to shrug off complex emotions and process them slowly rather than try to keep up with them in real time. I am deeply afraid of saying the wrong thing, and that’s even with extensive and ongoing training in…cultural competence? Emotional intelligence? Intersectional feminism? Yet here we are.
Having nothing to say should not be confused with listening. There is a massive value to the content being released by educators and activists, and educational platforms have exploded in popularity since quarantine began; information is there for the unlearning. LinkedIn Learning began doing what TED has been marketing for years: calling in the privileged for short, one-off training on topics like soft skills and general interpersonal competence. It’s not all top-notch content, and LinkedIn Learning materials are NOT activism. But it’s proof of a deep Boomer anxiety that they are, in fact, out of touch. The gap isn’t being addressed, but it’s being assessed.
“Unprecedented.” I would say I’m flabbergasted, but the word is too playful. That’s the point, though. I can say things like that because despite everything, I am statistically incredibly safe. Safe from covid, from police brutality, from all of it. Statistically, I am more of a threat than I am threatened.
White supremacy, which is as old as the concept of whiteness, has just become exceptionally obvious to the white upper-middle class. But we hardly talk about it in those terms. It’s usually “racist/anti-racist” rather than “white supremacist,” but I think for a lot of white people the latter is important.
Thinking in terms of white supremacy is important because it isn’t binary. It is a call without an answer. There is no moon for this sun. Instead, there are dozens of systems and by-products that orbit it like tiny planets. Ibram X Kendi famously argues that you are either racist or anti-racist. But there’s no ONE equal-opposite to white supremacy. Google wrings its hands when you type “opposite of white supremacy” and hit ‘Enter.’ The algorithm isn’t that smart yet.
Calling this year, the pandemic, and the police killing Black people and the protests in response “unprecedented” is a white neoliberal reaction to conditions that have been present for BIPOC since colonial projects began. It is collective trauma magnified by individual circumstance. The results vary greatly by class, race, gender, and location.
“Unprecedented,” then, is only true for people who have never been incarcerated, enslaved or detained for long periods of time. It’s for people who have always had access to nutritious food and potable water, people with resources and agency. It’s for people who have never had their lives threatened by an entire race who has systemic advantages in every aspect of every plight.
Whiteness sets a precedent through idealism and exclusion, both physical and cultural. It is not enough to engage is diaspora studies (the movement of people groups and their subcultures) or Transatlanticism (the logistics of colonialism and slavery) or Afrofuturism (the true and full liberation of Black people from white supremacy) or decolonization (the true and full liberation of Indigenous people from white supremacy).
Until white people engage with critical whiteness studies (i.e., How We Steal, Destroy, Or Copy Everything), any conversation about covid, racism, colonialism, homophobia, islamophobia, and the scope of current living conditions will be incomplete. Whiteness sets a precedent; its centrality is assumed. White people will study anyone and everyone else if it means the “I,” the implied white subject and viewpoint, remains centered.
Whiteness sets a precedent for the experiences of Latinx and particularly Mexican folks in ICE detention centres across the U.S. Legacies of slavery, including gentrification and generational wealth, looting and lynching, and media portrayals of unarmed Black men and Black trans folks…precedented.* The internment of Japanese people along the west coast of North America, including Canada, makes some covid restrictions precedented. And the Chinese Exclusion Act, among other racial and ethnic barriers built into immigration law. These are just a few examples of how, for anyone who isn’t white and/or middle class, the scope of possibility is actuated through white supremacy.
I spoke to a friend recently about the importance of seeing a way forward. Of finding or creating a path out of a bad situation toward circumstances that spark joy, emotional and physical security, and ultimately a sustainable lifestyle. I don’t know that a Democrat win this fall is a way forward, or that a vaccine administered to white and rich people first is a way forward. The fight for a universal basic income is a light on the horizon. Defunding the police is a slow, painstaking process that will not create the immediate relief BIPOC require. And yet time elapses whether or not we are creating a viable world.
I am late to this party, and by ‘party’ I mean riot. But I finally have something to say.**
*I know “precedented” isn’t really a word. I don’t care.
**Nothing here is particularly new information. See the work of Rachel Cargle, Audre Lorde, Roxane Gay, Ibram X Kendi, Alok Vaid-Menon, and many others.
Special thanks to Mary Walker, who helped me articulate this argument in its early stages.
