i wish

how white people got this way

how white people got this way
Written by Cathoel Jorss,

Hey Europe! It’s like this. We stole the whole world from everyone. Retired behind desks to administer the plunder, lost our fitness. So we envy the godlike build of men who spent generations labouring enslaved. Fantasise about their sexual prowess/accuse them of rape. Racism is envy.

Now we mistrust everyone because they ‘want what we have,’ retreat to gated communities and single-person households. We imagine ‘them’ envying our riches and ignore that the reverse is also true: we are most of us longing for connection and family, searching for purpose and meaningful service. So we spend our days whining in five-bathroom houses with a pool table, “I’m so lonely. So depressed. So bored.” Consuming and disposing of the little left of everything that has not already been ruined — for comfort. The End.

6 comments on “how white people got this way

  1. paul fogarty says:

    genau. this view has disbarred me from many a cosetted gathering. Thank goodness.

    • Cathoel Jorss says:

      Ahhh, I hear ya. I have also been abruptly unfollowed & unloved (that’s like unfriended, but it stings for longer) because I pointed out that when we label Donald Trump ‘a subhuman sh*tstain’ or wish rape on a child rapist when he’s jailed we are doing what he’s doing: dehumanising.

  2. renu says:

    love this Cathoel xxx

  3. Karen L says:

    Short and right to the point. Very accurate. In my own country, the big ‘ole imperial USA, I’ve spent my life serving the well-heeled close enough to see they’ve made a miserable bed and they are most unhappy in their lives.

    Then you see the closeness and tight knit communities of people of color from all over the globe and they spend their time together, living, and creating, and I’m jealous of that because I’ve no community or family or shared culture with people.

    I don’t want to appropriate anyone’s culture, but I am sad I’ve grown to be an adult in a place where white people live in isolated sadness and xenophobic terror. I find solace in animals and nature but it’s strange to be on Earth and to feel like an island.

    Thank you for being a bridge to people, and for reminding not to become dehumanized in that way that causes us to become what we oppose. Anger can blind me sometimes because it’s so hard to stay centered and grounded.

  4. Cathoel Jorss says:

    Thank you Karen. It’s absolutely gripping to see the long and deep injustice which has founded and built your country, just as it founded and colonised ours, foaming over en masse and people just can’t seem to take it anymore. We all knew we were putting up with it. Some of tried to know to some extent who we were benefitting. I really feel you when you mention islandism. It’s lonesome and it feels like such a waste. We are communal creatures. Even us retiring introverts. We need each other and it pains me how we just can’t reach.

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