Stay the Fuck Home: White Entitlement, Anti-Blackness, and COVID-19
I am in the Facebook group called, “Women on the Road” which is facilitated by She Explores. A question was asked in the public discussion: “What are your thoughts on slowly getting back out there? I have not been driving more than 5 miles from my house, rarely even going to the preserves super close by. Is it acceptable to start taking smaller trips, less than two hours away and getting gas/ supplies at home? Hope everyone is navigating this temporary reality okay and staying safe and healthy!!!”
First of all, this reality is not temporary. This reality is cisheteropatriarchal, white supremacist, capitalism and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon because white men, and white people in general, have this heinous track record of not giving up our power.
This is not a “temporary reality,” but an ongoing reality that has been long in the making since the first colonizer set foot on Turtle Island (so-called North America). The reality we are currently living in is a consequence of ongoing colonization and capitalism. According to an article published by YES! Magazine, “Don’t Blame Bats or Pangolins. Human Actions Caused the Coronavirus,” John Vidal writes:
…a number of researchers today think that it is actually humanity’s destruction of biodiversity that creates the conditions for new viruses and diseases such as COVID-19, the viral disease that emerged in China in December 2019, to arise—with profound health and economic impacts in rich and poor countries alike. In fact, a new discipline, planetary health, is emerging that focuses on the increasingly visible connections among the well-being of humans, other living things, and entire ecosystems.
Is it possible, then, that it was human activity, such as road building, mining, hunting, and logging, that triggered the Ebola epidemics in Mayibout 2 and elsewhere in the 1990s and that is unleashing new terrors today?
It is not anything new to those who have been bearing the brunt of environmental racism for centuries that human health and environmental health are inextricably linked. Winona LaDuke, bell hooks, Rigoberta Menchú, Rose Brewer, Wangari Maathai, Vandana Shiva, Alice Walker, Arundati Roy, and so many more have written about how the oppression of the land is a reflection of the oppression of the people, particularly, women, femmes, non-binary, two-spirit, and trans folks.
In this interview, Alice Walker discusses the effort to restore the soil in Kenya, and the violence of colonization/imperialism:
The colonial powers cut down all the trees, and that’s why [the late Nobel Peace Prize–winning environmental activist] Wangari Maathai planted millions of trees to try to save the soil. But when I was there as a teenager, really, what struck me was how the corporations, even then, had taken the land to grow things like pineapples. So there we were, trying to build a school out of the only thing we had, which were sisal stalks, and there were hundreds of acres of pineapples that the indigenous people were not allowed to eat. And they had been forced into the corners, living in little shacks with thatched roofs, which looked like our shacks in Georgia, though ours had tin roofs.
So I really got it, that the African people were horribly exploited, as laborers, as producers of food for Europe, and unfortunately that is still happening an awful lot as Europe buys up more and more African land. China is doing the same thing. It is dizzy-making to contemplate, and it’s frustrating. What can you do about it? Part of doing something is to know that it’s happening.
This new discipline of “planetary health” that Vidal talks about in YES! Magazine is completely absurd since Black and Brown people, particularly women and femmes, have been speaking about this connection since the beginning of colonization.
Also, it’s important to make a distinction about who Vidal is bringing to account for the new coronavirus. Don’t blame humans in general on COVID-19. Because it is white, upper class, wealthy, cis men who hoard power and resources who are directly responsible for the spread of the coronavirus and we need to take care and be specific about addressing white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy as the fueling forces behind this virus and the spread of any disease.
White supremacy is the disease. Greedy billionaires are the disease. White men abusing their power is the disease. As many indigenous educators, like Allen Salway remind us, for time immemorial indigenous communities have lived in mutual relationship with the earth and all sentient beings. Colonialism is to blame. Not humans.
I come from a long line of entitled mediocre white men, and I’m currently living with some right now. They are acting so relaxed about this whole situation and it’s because they know their lives are going to be prioritized if they get hospitalized.
They know because their whole, entire lives have been an insulated little bubble of comfort and ease, and the only stressor ever to come their way is a raging feminist like me to call them on their bullshit and their trash behavior. So, I know that the people who are fucking up the world right now — the people who are most responsible for this virus — are entitled mediocre white men who run our country.
And it’s also the entitled, mediocre white men who are doing three trips to the grocery store a week, and going camping, and going shooting, and going to the golf course. I don’t need to visit a golf course to know that there are white men out there practicing their range. We can’t rely on the messages the government is telling us because when has trusting a bunch of old, mediocre white men ever gone well for us?
When has a white man in a position of power and authority ever been a good thing for anyone who’s not a cis white man? So let’s stop listening to the cis white men on the news and start thinking with some anti-oppressive sense.
In response to the question that was posed in the Facebook group, I want to point out that it's mostly white people who are being extremely lenient, liberal, and lackadaisical about this whole situation. Just because the government says it’s okay to go outside and frolic in a public park, just because the parks or specific outdoor sites are not closed, doesn't mean we should go out there. It doesn’t mean it’s truly safe for everyone to do this. It’s not.
The need to travel to support family members or get to a job is real and understandable. But going out of your town/city limits for the pleasure of escaping to "get away from it all" right now is an entirely selfish idea. Stay close to home. If anything were to happen to you that would require a trip to a hospital it would put an unnecessary strain on the already incredibly strained and stressed hospital staff of whatever area you are visiting.
Our white entitlement is out in full force right now. People are traveling to tourist "destinations" like so-called Moab, Utah, and Payahuunadu, so-called Bishop, CA to continue with their spring vacations. Jolie Varela has spoken out about this frequently on her Instagram sharing a Tweet with the image of a white person canoeing on a river surrounded by forest. The tweet reads,
“White people are finally getting a taste of what it’s like to have their access to land be denied. At least y’all aren’t being murdered and relocated to reservations for it.”
In the caption, Varela writes,
“During the stay at home order people are asked to stay in their own counties. We’re still seeing travelers here— first it was the entitled climbers now we’re seeing entitled anglers. With fishing opener being delayed we are seeing threats online from people who say they will ignore the order and come anyway. Not taking into account our limited access to ventilators and even the supplies in our stores.
There is so much entitlement to land. These closures to land also impact Indigenous communities by cutting off access to our sacred sites. Which is what we’ve been living through since colonization. A reminder for white people to sit with this feeling. Your climbing, fishing, recreation may be delayed to protect everyone during this time but it does not compare to the hundreds of years that Indigenous folx were murdered and removed from the lands to designate them as public lands.Your access is a privilege that Indigenous people are still feeling the impacts of.”
A global pandemic is not permission to "escape from it all." And we need to think about the privilege, power and entitlement that comes with this idea/narrative. Black and Brown people are dying at the highest rates right now and white people are treating this like it's all going to “blow over.” This makes sense though because police officers — the right hands of white supremacy — are arresting Black folks for being outside, but letting white people take over public parks in the masses.
Tamika D. Mallory posted about this on her Instagram recently writing, “Wow... so let me get this straight...@NYPD is out here distributing masks to white people, while literally beating black folks over the head. Nah! @nycmayor we will not allow this shit to continue. Something MUST be done. You just might have to lock some of us up as well. 😡 We will not sit back and take this. 📷: @welcome2thebronx
Capitalism and white supremacy are the true cause of this virus and we are only ramping it up by traveling outside and not staying put if we have the privilege to do so. Being white right now means that the hospital staff will prioritize our lives over Black and Brown lives because anti-Blackness and racism are alive and well in emergency rooms, and the medical-industrial complex at large. If we have the choice and ability, stay the fuck home. This is not a fucking joke. This is not something to take lightly.
Some Tips:
Try your best to only go to the grocery store every two weeks if you can.
Wear a mask at all times when in public spaces.
Wash your hands a shit ton.
Give more than six feet to people you pass as much as you can because the CDC and the government are making arbitrary standards about a deadly as fuck virus that they don't even fully understand yet.
Stop shopping at Whole Foods, Amazon, Target, Wal-Mart, and any corporation that is not supporting their workers, that are not giving them proper protective equipment, health benefits, and increased hourly pay right now.
Stop ordering non-essential items online to be in solidarity with FedEx and UPS workers.
Give appreciation to your postal service workers right now who are mostly Black femmes doing the work.
Listen to Hoodrat to Headwrap. Ebony Donnley and Ericka Hart just put out a searing and informative podcast episode that gives a thorough analysis of how anti-Blackness and COVID 19 go hand in hand.
You're not staying home just for your own safety, more importantly, you're staying home to not be a burden on an already burdened medical system that was designed to kill Black and Brown folks. The LEAST we can do as white people is stay the fuck home if we can.
