There is only one reflective journaling prompt for this day. And it is yet another loaded question aimed right at me; “What have you begun to see and understand about your personal complicity in white supremacy that you were not able to see or understand before you began this work.” (me and white supremacy, p. 74)
What can I say - ‘I haven’t learned anything’ - I’m guilty of being complicit and uncooperative and harmful to BIPOC.
Can I say - I’m not complicit - My denial is proof of my guilt and white fragility and harm to BIPOC.
Can I say - Nothing - My silence is proof of my guilt and white exceptionalism and harm to BIPOC.
I’m caught in a trap - a ‘kafkatrap.’ Layla Saad has written a book that is based entirely on ‘kafkatrapping.’
What is kafka trapping? History News Network explains:
The term "kafkatrapping" describes a logical fallacy that is popular within gender feminism, racial politics and other ideologies of victimhood. It occurs when you are accused of a thought crime such as sexism, racism or homophobia. You respond with an honest denial, which is then used as further confirmation of your guilt. You are now trapped in a circular and unfalsifiable argument; no one who is accused can be innocent because the structure of kafkatrapping precludes that possibility.
Beware of Kafkatrapping, Aug 14, 2014 by Liberty and Power
Not only am I complicit but the only valid feeling that I should have is shame:
You may not have done, felt or thought anything wrong but you are still guilty because you benefit from a position of privilege created by others. In other words, you are guilty because of your identification with a group such as "male," "white," or "heterosexual." The accusation makes you responsible for the actions of strangers whose behavior you cannot control and who may have died long ago. [Eric S.] Raymond writes, "The aim ... is to produce a kind of free-floating guilt ... a conviction of sinfulness that can be manipulated by the operator [accuser] to make the subject say and do things that are convenient to the operator's personal, political, or religious goals." To be redeemed, you must cease to disagree with your accuser and condemn your entire identity group.
There is no way out of a Kafkatrap - so DON’T EVEN GO THERE!
The only good news is that Layla Saad’s Kafkatrapping contains the seeds of its own destruction. How so? Engaging in Kafkatrapping empties any cause of its legitiacy and authenticity. The self-serving nature of the exercise becomes evident to any one with the sense to see it. Further, Kafkatrapping, traps the trapper in an echo chamber that isolates them from the very people they claim to be reaching out to.
A movement becomes widespread because its voice is truth – at least, largely so – and its demand for justice is valid: For example, homosexuals have been hideously abused through much of history. When a movement discards the truth and justice that made it grow and favors abusive attacks instead, it is in decline. The abuse also quashes any productive discussion of real issues. Raymond observes, "[m]anipulative ways of controlling people tend to hollow out the causes for which they are employed, smothering whatever worthy goals they may have begun with and reducing them to vehicles for the attainment of power and privilege over others."
A separate problem arises if the accuser honestly believes the kafkatrapping. . . . A kafkatrapper true believer becomes increasingly isolated from people who are seen as "the enemy" because they disagree; the true believer becomes increasingly unable to even communicate with or have empathy for a broad spectrum of people. The kafkatrapper 'wins' the argument but loses a shared humanity.
Poor Layla Saad, who will release her from the very trap she has set for whites?
My compassion illustrates the I am becoming a good ancestor!