The Oppressed Oppressor Complex
Something I’ve noticed of late is the consistency with which I hear relatively large quantities of white people talking about how bad and fundamentally racist all white people are, how bad and apparently non-existent white culture is, how ‘privileged’ white people are, and how that privilege hurts so-called ‘people of colour’. It seems bizarre on the surface to see such self-hatred manifest itself until you look a little bit deeper. And when you do, what you find isn’t all that surprising.
For those doubting my claim, I’d highly recommend watching TikTok or YouTube videos that pop up if you search white supremacy or white violence. These videos are impossible to miss.
When watching someone talk about how white children need to ‘unlearn’ white violence so they’re aware of the fundamentally racist nature of their identity all so they can ‘fix’ it, it makes me cringe inside out of frustration for the most obvious of reasons; it’s really legitimately racist and demonstrably wrong. But, instead of just getting frustrated, what I’ve started asking myself when presented with this type of language is, why would you say something so obviously awful? The answer, at least in part, lies with others’ perceptions of you.
What I mean by this is that the people making such claims and arguments aren’t doing it out of legitimate care for victims of actual systems of racial supremacy (like the caste system in India for example). They’re doing it because they are simply jumping on the bandwagon of hating on white people as it helps them come across as part of the highest-ranking social group in the contemporary West, the oppressed.
If you’re a member of the oppressed, it gives you the power to lecture and denigrate others. It gives you a sense of moral superiority that can become addictive and it clearly has for some. This is where the title of this article is perfectly placed, they believe themselves to be oppressed oppressors. To be such a thing is to be white but insult yourself and other white people in bizarre sadomasochistic rants. It’s to ‘acknowledge’ that white people have contributed nothing to human endeavours, literature, art, and culture other than ideas and styles stolen from people of colour.
To believe such ideas one would have to possess a level of ignorance that is honestly astounding. Or, and this brings me to my second point that, many of these people don’t actually believe in what they’re saying because, how could you? If you’re unable to even understand basic human history beyond what CNN or TikTok videos tell you, then how could you possess such a thorough understanding of European history as to make a claim like, ‘Europeans or their offshoot societies haven’t created anything organically’?
For example, to state the following, “My white guilt is so prevalent that I don’t feel comfortable with the idea of having 100% white children”, (which is a real statement in a recent TikTok) should honestly be seen as akin to having a mental illness. But instead, it’s likely to be seen as perfectly acceptable by many across the globe and far too few will speak out against the abhorrent nature of such a statement.
I do believe that some of these people probably believe that white supremacists are more prevalent than they really are and that groups overrepresented in prison don’t commit more crimes, it’s just the result of racist policing. So I can forgive such transgressions as many of these false narratives are mainstream in most media outlets and politicians’ speeches. But to display such racist hatred online to millions doesn’t seem genuine to me. It all seems very facetious if you watch the same person make the same points in different words again and again.
Is it really necessary to ‘call out the racists’ by being really racist towards white people? Of course not and the kind of person making such a statement isn’t interested in the accuracy of what they’re saying, hence the facetiousness. They’re far more interested in impressing other users through pathetic virtue signaling.
This type of system seems to create an arms race between these oppressed oppressors and others as to who can be the most vile and hateful (and therefore ‘loving and caring’ apparently) and we can see the results ourselves. But I do find it’s a little harder to blame them when they’re constantly told at school, university, in politics, and corporate settings that white people seem to be responsible for most of the world’s ills.
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