Before I begin this post, I will once again give my standard disclaimer that says I understand “not all white people” and “not all white women.” It’s annoying that I have to do this every single time, but white people be forcing my hand, so here we are.
I’m going to take the time here to explain that in most cases when people say “white people,” they are referring to the structure of white supremacy and its byproduct, white privilege, as much as they are referring to the people who actively participate in or benefit from both.
When we talk about white women, we are referring to those who choose race over personal interest or the greater good. We are referring to those who would posit that they are allies but only stick around long enough to vote against the interests of those they claim to support.
There is nothing wrong with holding white women accountable for their actions. In fact, I would argue that it is imperative that we do so. So often they will commit these offenses and then fall into the white woman victimhood trope when called out on it.
Or not.
Yesterday, a white woman by the name of DC McAllister took to Twitter to announce that she is sick of black women’s shit, and she is not going to take it anymore. From now on, she is going to fight back.
“Anti-white woman rhetoric is revving up by black women and it’s getting ugly,” she wrote. “This was an inevitable outcome of intersectionality. Thing is, they have a surprise coming. White women aren’t going to cower to white guilt. We just see another woman dissing us and we’ll fight back.”
First of all, it is disingenuous to categorize valid criticism as “anti-white woman rhetoric.” It is a dog whistle of the worst type, and is a race-baiting tactic being used to deflect against what should otherwise be considered a plea for white women to get their act together.
McAllister claims intersectionality feeds racism. She said in a later tweet “Identity politics, white privilege, etc etc.—all racist. The claim of oppression by black people in America today is the height of disrespect to their forbears [sic]. Shame on you.”
McAllister posits that she has no white privilege and that anyone who says she does knows nothing about her life.
Except, we know that you are white, ma’am. That in and of itself makes you an automatic recipient of white privilege whether you want to claim it or not.
McAllister is on Twitter whining about how conservatives are the constant targets of threats and bullying, while somehow ignoring that their rabid fanbase is doing the same to women and people of color. Being able to be blithely oblivious to that is in and of itself white privilege in action.
She also told Bree Newsome, the black woman who scaled a flagpole at the South Carolina statehouse to take down a Confederate flag, that she is “not oppressed in America.”
“You have the same freedom from governmental obstacles that everyone has. Stop blaming your failures and lack of personal responsibility on others and labeling them racists when they confront you with the truth that you can’t handle liberty,” she said.
OK, girl.
It is worth noting that McAllister is a writer for the Federalist, so a lot of this is probably posturing and performative for her audience—but it is also harmful in that it skips over facts in order to make her sad and dishonest point.
Yes, on paper black people have all the same rights as everyone else in this country. This is fact. Where the problem comes in is in the exercising of those rights.
We have just seen several stories of widespread voter suppression during this last election. Black people continue to be killed with impunity by police departments that are not held accountable at the local or federal level.
Black people can’t breathe, shop, swim in a pool, go into their apartment building or sell water to earn money for a trip to Disneyland without white people—specifically white women—policing their every move.
So yes, we are calling you out. And it’s not anti-white women rhetoric. It’s anti-bullshit rhetoric. You know it, I know it and the whole world knows it. We are simply asking you to recognize the harm you do when you make statements like this, and the harm white women as a whole do on a daily basis through their various actions.
This is yet another instance of something I wrote about at the beginning of last year. What McAllister is experiencing is white fragility, and her white fragility may lead to white violence that will eventually lead to somebody getting killed.
She wrote on Twitter that she’s ready. She has her Glock. She wants y’all to beware.
She’s subtly throwing the violence out there and she knows what she is doing.
So here I am calling her out on that.
It’s not anti-white rhetoric. It’s not anti-D.C. McAllister rhetoric.
It’s the truth and sometimes that is a hard pill to swallow.
Especially for white people.