It's Not Always White Supremacy. Sometimes It's Just a Deadline.
How to Use Tema Okun's Characteristics of White Supremacy As A Tool (Not A Weapon)
When we have power, we have resources, voice, visibility, access to basic needs, and safety. To me, believing in social justice means that we believe that everyone should and can have the makings of power - regardless of identity.
This rejects scarcity and embraces a belief in abundance. It also requires that we acknowledge past and current conditions that have denied people power based on identity.
Tema Okun’s seminal work, (divorcing) White Supremacy Culture, in collaboration with Kenneth Jones and many others since 1999, looks at the legacy of racial oppression. This work asks us to examine the cultural, institutional, and systemic ways that power has been bestowed on and denied to people, based on racial identity. Okun's original article and subsequent webpage outline how we can perpetuate white supremacy culture (WSC) and how we can both recognize and divorce ourselves from it.
For years, the characteristics of white supremacy culture (outlined by Okun here) have been studied, repeated, adapted, and applied in workplaces, often by racial justice advocates as a way to understand and change organizational culture.
But often Okun’s list is used in a way that can sometimes undermine its intention: to inspire self-reflection and adopt new ways of thinking and being.
One of my colleagues recently pointed out that people often refer to the issue of white supremacy culture (WSC) separate from systemic analysis: an acknowledgement that we all participate in WSC to survive. Thus, we run into problems when we use Okun’s work for individual critique rather than collective transformation.
My deep reading of Okun’s thoughtful work on WSC has taught me some of the ways we’re socialized in systems to uphold white supremacy as individuals and within the collective - which impacts everything from our psyches to interpersonal relationships.
Common (Mis) Uses of the Text
Let’s explore some problems with how the characteristics of white supremacy culture have been examined in the workplace (and how to re-examine them with a shared power lens).
1. Pointing out characteristics of white supremacy culture is not a substitute for a performance assessment.
Using Okun’s work to show coworkers “how white people act” or how they’re “being racist” is an unhelpful — and potentially destructive — approach.
The WSC characteristics were not intended to be used as a rubric for assessing who’s “good” and who’s not. It is also not wise to use them as a framework to determine who gets promoted or fired.
When I hear Okun discuss the work, it is clear to me that the characteristics were written to help us understand better how we can internalize and demonstrate ways of being that reinforce and uphold racial capitalism. They were not shared to be wielded to shame or excuse the actions of people who exhibit them.
2. It is not always white supremacy. Sometimes it is just a deadline.
The characteristics Okun details are not solely functions of white supremacy in every circumstance.
For example, I was shocked a couple of years ago when a fellow board member implicitly accused me of upholding white supremacy values when I asked if we could decide on a date for finishing our bylaws.
However, being expected to meet a reasonable and mutually agreed-upon deadline is not the “sense of urgency” perpetuating white supremacy culture. Rather, it’s a way to respect people’s time and give everyone involved an expectation for when their work should be done.
Maurice Mitchell also warns against an absolutism approach to using the characteristics and their perceived opposites. Mitchell notes that Okun’s work “has at times served to challenge accountability around metrics and timeliness or the use of written language. Yet metrics and timeliness—and the ability to communicate in writing—are not in and of themselves examples of white supremacy.”
Adhering to previously established deadlines and other agreements is a healthy group norm — not a way of protecting the feelings of a powerful few. These norms allow us to be accountable to each other and create a respectful workplace where everyone feels comfortable, safe, and understands the stakes.
3. For reflective transformation, we seek to understand white supremacy culture starting not by examining others, but ourselves.
When we use the characteristics out of context to shame or dismiss attempts at accountability, they lose their power as a tool to connect behavior and culture to systems of oppression.
However, when we use them to see how we as individuals can exhibit ways of being that undermine work for justice and equity, we open the way for critical self-reflection and transformation.
The characteristics are harmful when they show up in ways that assume power - resources, voice, visibility, and safety - can only be accessible to some and not everyone. It follows that we must examine our ways of being when they serve to divide people by valuing some ways of being above others.
Why Learn the Characteristics?
We study the characteristics of white supremacy culture because they’re all rooted in an assumption that power is scarce.
Seeing power for some and not for all is the foundation of systemic oppression.
The work needed to uphold the characteristics of WSC is done at the expense of the work required to build relationships. It is impossible to build solidarity across race, gender, and religion when we are invested in one “right” way of doing things and myths of objectivity.
I believe taking a shared power approach is foundational to work toward justice and equity.
Shared power is an ongoing, intentional, and concerted effort to ensure that everyone in a community has power - regardless of their identity.
The practice of shared power holds that everyone -
Has access to needed resources
Is recognized as inherently valuable and for making contributions (visibility)
Has input in decision-making that affects them (voice)
Is able to make choices about their lives and bodies
Is physically and psychologically safe
When, in diverse communities, we expect perfection from ourselves and others, perpetuate a false sense of urgency, or value the written word over other forms of storytelling and communication, we are displaying characteristics of WSC.
This is because, in diverse communities, there is no one way. There are multiple ways to communicate effectively
Yet, operating in a way that is as diverse as our communities, and includes and values everyone, takes time. But when we use Okun’s list to do self-reflective work, identity markers, like race, gender, and religion, no longer become deciding factors in determining whose ideas get heard and who gets resources. Instead, everyone is heard, and everyone gets resources. This is sharing power.
What Does This Look Like at Work?
For many years, I have regularly worked with others to build spaces that share power. At Freedom Lifted, all of my collaborators take turns facilitating our team meetings, which not only relieves me of the responsibility, but also models different facilitation styles. This means that it may take a little longer to figure out the rotation schedule than if it were just me chairing every single meeting, but the opportunity for everyone to practice leadership is worth it.
Further, I always try my best to be transparent when I’ve made a mistake, especially when it has impacted other people. I practice apologizing and actively incorporate the lesson I learned, and I encourage others on my team to do the same.
When we see mistakes as opportunities to learn, take our time, and accept multiple ways of solving problems, we bring people in and create opportunities for everyone to be powerful. This is sharing power.
On her website Okun notes, “While white supremacy culture does inform us, it does not define us.”
I deeply believe that Okun wrote her piece to bring us together, not tear us apart. She did not intend for us to use the characteristics to hoard or wield power, but to help us recognize when we get in our own ways of seeing power as an abundant resource to be shared.
Therefore, the purpose of studying the characteristics of white supremacy culture is so that we can intentionally eschew them, which helps us move from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.
The characteristics were designed as a tool for transformation, not as a weapon for destruction. With this in mind, when you study the white supremacy characteristics, I invite you to respond to the following prompts:
MY ROLE IN IT: Have I exhibited, supported, and/or witnessed this behavior?
RELATION TO SCARCITY: How is [characteristic] related to a power scarcity mindset, limiting resources, voice, and visibility of some in service to others? How does this undermine a belief that everyone can be powerful?
MOVING TOWARDS ABUNDANCE: What actions can I take that are rooted in a power abundance mindset? What actions towards abundance can we take as a community?
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