White Guilt as Ritual, Not Praxis

When aesthetics are king, white people can lose sight of what truly matters midst overwhelming injustice.

From DC’s Women’s March on January 21, 2017. Courtesy of Liz Lemon on Flickr. Part of the Public Domain.

As a byproduct of our kind craving rapport, guilt is one of the most debilitating feelings any single individual can experience–as such, it is easily weaponized against those who see from it hardly any escape.

Relatedly intriguing has been the phenomenon of seeking personal accountability for systemic issues on social media on behalf of victims of prejudice–the posts often lay an unspoken path of redemption for those who wish to seek it, with gestures that can be at best marginally beneficial, and at worst completely useless.

This isn’t an uncommon occurrence on the internet–since it has come to consume more of our daily lives, we are so enmeshed in its machinations that any challenges to its tangibility become moot. I’d be remiss to regurgitate the old line of “social media isn’t real life”–we’re at the point where the two have become largely synonymous; but to imply that the enactment of very simple solutions on an individual scale might bring about the downfall of systemic injustices is wishful thinking at its finest.

You’ve seen what the posts advocate for–whether it’s calling the reception offices of corrupt bodies of legislature in…