HETEROPATRIARCHY AND THE THREE PILLARS OF WHITE SUPREMACY RETHINKING WOMEN OF COLOR ORGANIZING by Andrea Smith – Cherokee intellectual, feminist, and anti-violence activist

Scenario #1 These incidents, which happen quite A group of women of color come together frequently in “women of color” or “people of to organize. An argument ensues about color” political organizing struggles, are often whether or not Arab women should be explained as consequence of “oppression included. Some argue that Arab women are olympics.” That is to say, one problem we “white” since they have been classified as such have is that we are too busy fighting over who in the U.S. census. Another argument erupts is more oppressed. In this essay, I want to over whether or not Latinas qualify as argue that these incidents are not so much the “women of color,” since some may be result of “oppression olympics” but are more classified as “white” in their Latin American about how we have inadequately framed countries of origin and/or “pass” as white in “women of color” or “people of color” the United States. politics. That is, the premise behind much “women of color” organizing is that women Scenario #2 from communities victimized by white In a discussion on racism, some people supremacy should unite together around their argue that Native peoples suffer from less shared oppression. This framework might be racism than other people of color because represented by a diagram of five overlapping they generally do not reside in segregated circles, each marked Native women, Black neighborhoods within the United States. In women, Arab/Muslim Women, Latinas and addition, some argue that since tribes now Asian American women, overlapping like a have gaming, Native people are no longer Venn diagram. “oppressed.” This framework has proven to be limited for women of color and people of color Scenario #3 organizing. First, it tends to presume that our A multiracial campaign develops involving communities have been impacted by white diverse communities of color in which some supremacy in the same way. Consequently, participants charge that we must stop the we often assume that all of our communities black/white binary, and end Black hegemony will share similar strategies for liberation. In over people of color politics to develop a fact, however, our strategies often run into more “multicultural” framework. However, conflict. For example, one strategy that many this campaign continues to rely on strategies people in U.S.-born communities adopt, is to and cultural motifs developed by the Black join the military. We then become complicit Civil Rights struggle in the United States. in oppressing and colonizing communities from other countries. Meanwhile, people

1 from other countries often adopt the strategy commodifies most people – the logic of of moving to the United States to advance slavery applies a racial hierarchy to this economically, without considering their system. This racial hierarchy tells people that complicity in settling on the lands of as long as you are not Black, you have the indigenous peoples that are being colonized by opportunity to escape the commodification of the United States. capitalism. This helps people who are not Consequently, it may be more helpful to Black to accept their lot in life, because they adopt an alternative framework for women of can feel that at least they are not at the very color and people of color organizing. I call bottom of the racial hierarchy – at least they one such framework the “Three Pillars of are not property; at least they are not White Supremacy.” This framework does not slaveable. assume that racism and white supremacy is The logic of slavery can be seen clearly in enacted in a singular fashion; rather, white the current prison-industrial complex (PIC). supremacy is constituted by separate and While the PIC generally incarcerates distinct, but still interrelated, logics. Envision communities of color, it seems to be three pillars, one labeled Slavery/Capitalism, structured primarily on an anti-Black racism. another labeled Genocide/Colonialism, and That is, prior to the Civil War, most people in the last one labeled Orientalism/War, as well prison were white. However, after the as arrows connecting each of the pillars thirteenth amendment was passed – which together. banned slavery, except for those in prison – Black people previously enslaved through the SLAVERY/CAPITALISM slavery system were re-enslaved through the prison system. Black people who had been One pillar of white supremacy is the logic the property of slave owners became state of slavery. As Sora Han, Jared Sexton and property, through the conflict leasing system. Angela P. Harris note, this logic renders Black Thus, we can actually look at the people as inherently slave-able – as nothing criminalization of Blackness as a logical more than property.1 That is, in this logic of extension of Blackness as property. white supremacy, Blackness becomes equated with slaveability. The forms of slavery may GENOCIDE/COLONIALISM change – whether it is through the formal system of slavery, sharecropping, or through A second pillar of white supremacy is the the current prison-industrial complex – but logic of genocide. This logic holds that the logic itself has remained consistent. indigenous peoples must disappear. In fact, The logic is the anchor of capitalism. That they must always be disappearing, in order to is, the capitalist system ultimately commodifies allow non-indigenous people the rightful claim all workers – one’s own person becomes a over this land. Through this logic of genocide, commodity that one must sell in the labor non-Native peoples then become the rightful market while the profits of one’s work are inheritors of all that was indigenous – land, taken by someone else. To keep this capitalist resources, indigenous spirituality, or culture. system in place – which ultimately As Kate Shanley notes, Native peoples are a

2 permanent “present absence” in the U.S. indigenous peoples have disappeared. colonial imagination, an “absence” that rein- forces, at every turn, the conviction that ORIENTALISM/WAR Native peoples are indeed vanishing and the conquest of Native land is justified. Ella Shoat A third pillar of white supremacy is the and Robert Stam describe this absence as “an logic of Orientalism. Orientalism was defined ambivalently repressive mechanism [which] by Edward Said as the process of the West dispels the anxiety in the face of the Indian, defining itself as a superior civilization by whose very presence is a reminder of the constructing itself in opposition to an “exotic” initially precarious grounding of the American but inferior “Orient.” (Here, I am using the nation-state itself....In a temporal paradox, term “Orientalism” more broadly than to living Indians were induced to ‘play dead,’ as it solely signify what has been historically named were, in order to perform a narrative of as the Orient or Asia.) The logic of manifest destiny in which their role, ultimately, Orientalism marks certain peoples or nations 2 was to disappear.” as inferior and as posing a constant threat to Rayna Green further elaborates that the the well-being of empire. These peoples are current Indian “wannabe” phenomenon is still seen as “civilizations” – they are not based on the logic of genocide: non-Native property or “disappeared” – however, they peoples imagine themselves as the rightful will always be imagined as permanent foreign inheritors of all that previously belonged to threats to empire. This logic is evident in the “vanished” Indians, thus entitling them to anti-immigration movements within the United ownership of this land. “The living States that target immigrants of color. It does performance of ‘playing Indian’ by non-Indian not matter how long the immigrants of color peoples depends upon the physical and reside in the United States, they generally psychological removal, even the death, of real become targeted as foreign threats, Indians. In that sense the performance, particularly during war time. Consequently, purportedly often done out of a stated and orientalism serves as the anchor for war, implicit love for Indians, is really the obverse because it allows the United States to justify or another well-known cultural phenomenon, being in a constant state of war to protect ‘Indian hating,’ as most often expressed in itself from its enemies. another, deadly performance genre called For example, the United States feels 3 ‘genocide.’” After all, why would non-Native entitled to use Orientalist logic to justify racial peoples need to play Indian – which often profiling of Arab Americans so that it can be includes acts of spiritual appropriation and strong enough to fight the “war on terror.” land theft – if they thought Indians were still Orientalism also allows the United States to alive and perfectly capable of being Indian defend the logics of slavery and genocide, as themselves? The pillar of genocide serves as these practices enable the United States to the anchor for colonialism – it is what allows stay “strong enough” to fight these constant non-Native people to feel they can rightfully wars. What becomes clear then is what Sora own indigenous peoples’ land. It is okay to Han states – the United States is not at war; take land from indigenous peoples because the United States is war.4 For the system of

3 white supremacy to stay in place, the United and Asian peoples are promised that they will States must always be at war. economically and politically advance if they Because we are situated within different join U.S. wars to spread “democracy.” Thus, logics of white supremacy, we may people of color organizing must be premised misunderstand a racial dynamic if we on making strategic alliances with each other, simplistically try to explain one logic of white based on where we are situated within the supremacy with another logic. For instance, larger political economy. Thus, for example, think about the first scenario that opens this Native peoples who are organizing against the essay: if we simply dismiss Latinx or Arab colonial and genocidal practices committed by peoples as “white,” we fail to understand how the U.S. government will be more effective in a racial logic of Orientalism is in operation. their struggle if they also organize against U.S. That is, Latinx and Arabs are often situated in militarism, particularly the military recruitment a racial hierarchy that privileges them over of indigenous peoples to support U.S. imperial Black people. However, while Orientalism wars. If we try to end U.S. colonial practices logic may bestow them some racial privilege, at home, but support U.S. empire by joining they are still cast as inferior yet threatening the military, we are strengthening the state’s “civilizations” in the United States. Their ability to carry out genocidal policies against privilege is not a signal that they will be peoples of color here and all over the world. assimilated, but that they will be marked as This way, our alliances would not be solely perpetual foreign threats to the U.S. world based on shared victimization, but where we order. are complicit in the victimization of others. These approaches might help us to develop Organizing Implications resistance strategies that do not inadvertently Under the old but still potent and keep the system in place for all of us, and keep dominant model, people of color organizing all of us accountable. In all of these cases, we was based on the notion of organizing around would check our aspirations against the shared victimhood. In this model, however, aspirations of other communities to ensure we see that we are victims of white that our model of liberation does not become supremacy, but complicit in it as well. Our the model of oppression for others. survival strategies and resistance to white These practices require us to be more supremacy are set by the system of white vigilant in how we may have internalized some supremacy itself. What keeps us trapped of these logics in our own organizing practice. within our particular pillars of white For instance, much racial justice organizing supremacy is that we are seduced with the within the United States has rested on a civil prospect of being able to participate in the rights framework that fights for equality under other pillars. For example, all non-Native the law. An assumption behind this organizing peoples are promised the ability to join the is that the United States is a democracy with colonial project of settling indigenous lands. some flaws, but is otherwise admirable. All non-Black peoples are promised that if Despite the fact that it rendered slaves three- they comply, they will not be at the bottom of fifths of a person, the U.S. Constitution is the racial hierarchy. And Black, Native, Latinx, presented as the model document for which

4 to build a flourishing democracy. However, as can appropriate it without being accountable. Luana Ross notes, it has never been against Angela P. Harris and Juan Perea debate the U.S. law to commit genocide against usefulness of the black/white binary in the indigenous peoples - in fact, genocide is the book, Critical Race Theory. Perea complains law of the country. The United States could that the black/white binary fails to include the not exist without it. In the United States, experience of other people of color. democracy is actually the alibi for genocide - it However, he fails to identify alternative is the practice that covers up United States racializing logics to the black/white paradigm.5 colonial control over indigenous lands. Meanwhile, Angela P. Harris argues that “the Our organizing can also reflect anti-Black story of ‘race’ itself is that of the construction racism. Recently, with the outgrowth of of Blackness and whiteness. In this story, “multiculturalism” there have been calls to “go Indians, Asian Americans, and Latino/as do beyond the black/white binary” and include exist. But their roles are subsidiary to the other communities of color in our analysis, as fundamental binary national drama. As a presented in the third scenario. There are a political claim, Black exceptionalism exposes number of flaws with this analysis. First, it the deep mistrust and tension among replaces an analysis of white supremacy with a American ethnic groups racialized as politics of multi-cultural representation; if we nonwhite.”6 just include more people, then our practices Let’s examine these statements in will be less racist. Not true. This model does conversation with each other. Simply saying not address the nuanced structure of white we need to move beyond the black/white supremacy, such as through these distinct binary (or perhaps, the “black/non-black” logics of slavery, genocide, and Orientalism. binary) in U.S. racism obfuscates the racializing Second, it obscures the centrality of the logic of slavery, and prevents us from seeing slavery logic in the system of white supremacy, that this binary constitutes Blackness as the which is based on a black/white binary. The bottom of a color hierarchy. However, this is black/white binary is not the only binary which not the only binary that fundamentally characterizes white supremacy, but it is still a constitutes white supremacy. There is also an central one that we cannot “go beyond” in indigenous/settler binary, where Native our racial justice organizing efforts. genocide is central to the logic of white If we do not look at how the logic of supremacy and other non-indigenous people slaveability inflects our society and our of color also form “a subsidiary” role. We thinking, it will be evident in our work as well. also face another Orientalist logic that For example, other communities of color fundamentally constitutes Asians, Arabs, and often appropriate the cultural work and Latino/as as foreign threats, requiring the organizing strategies of African American civil United States to be at permanent war with rights or Black Power movements without these peoples. In this construction, Black and corresponding assumptions that we should be Natives play subsidiary roles. in solidarity with Black communities. We Clearly the black/white binary is central to assume that this work is the common racial and political thought and practice in the Aproperty@ of all oppressed groups, and we United States, and any understanding of white

5 supremacy must take it into consideration. to Native lands. “Whiteness” operates However, if we look at only this binary, we differently under a logic of genocide than it may misread the dynamics of white supremacy does from a logic of slavery. in different contexts. For example, critical Another failure of U.S.-based people of race theorist Cheryl Harris’s analysis of color in organizing is that we often fall back on whiteness as property reveals this weakness. a “U.S.-centrism,” believing that what is In Critical Race Theory, Harris contends that happening ”over there” is less important than whites have a property interest in the what is happening here. We fail to see how preservation of whiteness, and seek to deprive the United States maintains systems of those who are “tainted” by Black or Indian oppression here precisely by tying our blood from these same white interests. Harris allegiances to the interests of U.S. empire simply assumes that the position of African “over there.” Americans and American Indians are the same, failing to consider U.S. policies of forced Heteropatriarchy and assimilation and forced whiteness to American White Supremacy Indians. These policies have become so Heteropatriarchy is the building block of entrenched that when Native peoples make U.S. empire. In fact, it is the building block of political claims, they have been accused of the nation-state form of governance. being white. When Andrew Jackson removed Christian Right authors make these links in the Cherokee along the Trail of Tears, he their analysis of imperialism and empire. For argued that those who did not want removal example, Christian Right activist and founder were really white.7 In contemporary times, of Prison Fellowship Charles Colson makes when I was a nonviolent witness for the the connection between homosexuality and Chippewa spear-fishers in the late 1980s, one the nation-state in his analysis of the war on of the more frequent slurs whites hurled when terror explaining that one of the causes of the Chippewa attempted to exercise their terrorism is same-sex marriage: treaty-protected rights to fish was that they Marriage is the traditional building block of had white parents, or they were really white. human society, intended both to unite Status differences between Blacks and couples and bring children into the Natives are informed by the different world...There is a natural moral order for economic positions African Americans and the family...the family, led by a married American Indians have in U.S. society. African mother and father, is the best available Americans have been traditionally valued for structure for both child-rearing and cultural their labor, hence it is in the interest of the health. Marriage is not a private institution dominant society to have as many people designed solely for the individual marked “Black,” as possible, thereby gratification of its participants. If we fail to maintaining a cheap labor pool; by contrast, enact a Federal Marriage Amendment, we American Indians have been valued for the can expect not just more family breakdown, land base they occupy, so it is in the interest but also more criminals behind bars and of dominant society to have as few people more chaos in our streets.8 marked “Indian” as possible, facilitating access

6 Colson is linking the well-being of the naturalize hierarchy through instituting U.S. empire to the well-being of the patriarchy.13 In turn, patriarchy rests on a heteropatriarchal family. He continues: gender binary system in which only two When radical Islamists see American genders exist, one dominating the other. women abusing Muslim men, as they did Consequently, Charles Colson is correct at Abu Ghraib prison, and when they see when he says that the colonial world order news coverage of same-sex couples being depends on heteronormativity. Just as “married” in U.S. towns, we make this patriarchs rule the family, the elites of the kind of freedom abhorrent - the kind they nation-state rule their citizens. Any liberation see as a blot on Allah’s creation. We must struggle that does not challenge preserve traditional marriage in order to heteronormativity cannot substantially protect the United States from those who challenge colonialism or white supremacy. would use our depravity to destroy us.9 Rather, as Cathy Cohen contends, such As Ann Burlein argues in Lift High the Cross, struggles will maintain colonialism based on a it may be a mistake to argue that the goal of politics of secondary marginalization where Christian Right politics is to create a theocracy the most elite class of the groups will further in the United States. Rather, Christian Right their aspirations on the backs of those most politics work through the private family (which marginalized within the community.14 is coded as white, patriarchal, and middle Through this process of secondary class) to create a “Christian America.” She marginalization, the national or racial justice notes that the investment in the private family struggle takes on, either implicitly or explicitly, makes it difficult for people to invest in more a nation-state model as the end point of its public forms of social connection. In addition, struggle - a model of governance in which the investments in the suburban private family elites govern the rest through violence and serves to mask the public disinvestment in domination, as well as exclude those who are urban areas that makes the suburban lifestyle not members of “the nation.” Thus, national possible. The social decay in urban areas that liberation politics become less vulnerable to results from this disinvestment is then being co-opted by the Rights when we base construed as the result of deviance from the them on a model of liberation that Christian family ideal rather than as the result fundamentally challenges the right-wing of political and economic forces. As former conceptions of the nation. We need a model head of the Christian Coalition, Ralph Reed, based on community relationships and on states: “The only true solution to crime is to mutual respect. restore the family,”10 and “Family break-up causes poverty.”11 Concludes Burlien, “The ‘family’ is Conclusion no mere metaphor but a crucial technology by Women of color-centered organizing which modern power is produced and points to the centrality of gender politics exercised.”12 within anti-racist, anti-colonial struggles. As I have argued elsewhere, in order to Unfortunately, in our efforts to organize colonize peoples whose societies are not against white, Christian America, racial justice based on social hierarchy, colonizers must first struggles often articulate an equally

7 heteropatriarchal racial nationalism. This ordered on the basis of the nuclear family model of organizing either hopes to assimilate structure - it is the result of colonialism, not into white America, or to replicate it within an the antidote to it. equally hierarchical and oppressive racial In proposing this model, I am speaking nationalism in which the elite of the from my particular position in indigenous community rule everyone else. Such struggles struggles. Other peoples might flesh out these often call on the importance of preserving the logics more fully from different vantage points. “Black family” or “Native family” as the Others might also argue that there are other bulwark of this nationalist project, the family logics of white supremacy that are missing. being conceived of in capitalist and Still others might complicate how they relate heteropatriarchal terms. The response is to each other. But I see this as a starting point often increased homophobia, with lesbian and for women of color organizers that will allow gay community members construed as threats us to re-envision a politics of solidarity that to the family. But, perhaps we should goes beyond multi-culturalism, and develop challenge the “concept” of the family itself. more complicated strategies that can really Perhaps, instead, we can reconstitute transform the political and economic status alternative ways of living together in which quo. “families” are not seen as islands on their own. Certainly, indigenous communities were not

1. Angela P. Harris, “Embracing the Tar-Baby: LatCrit Theory and the Sticky Mess of Race” Critical Race Theory, eds. Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, second ed., (Philadelphia: University Press, 2000), 440-7. I also thank Sora Han and Jared Sexton for their illuminating analysis of Blackness. 2. Ella Shoat and Robert Sham, Unthinking Eurocentrism, (London: Routledge, 1994), 119. 3. Rayna Green, “The Tribe Called Wannabee,” Folklore 99, no. 1 (1988): 30-55. 4. Sora Han, Bonds of Representation: Vision, Race and Law in Post-Civil Rights America. ____Cruz: University of California B Santa Cruz, 2006). 5. Juan Perea, “The Black/White Paradigm of Race,” in Critical Race Theory, ______and Stefancic, second ed. 6. Angela P. Harris, “Embracing the Tar-Baby.” 7. William McLoughlin, Cherokee and Missionaries, 1789-1839 (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995). 8. Charles Colson, “Societal Suicide,” Christianity Today 48, no. 6 (June 2004): 72. 9. Charles Colson and Anne Morse, “The Moral Home Front,” Christianity Today 48, (October 2004): 152. 10. Ralph Reed, After the Revolution (Dallas: Word, 1990). 11. Ibid. 12. Ann Burlein, Lift High The Cross (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2002). 13. Andrea Smith, Conquest, Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide (Cambridge South End Press, 2005). 14. Cathy Cohen, “The Boundaries of Blackness,” (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 19).

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