“This promise – that you will get more because they exist to get less – is woven throughout our entire society. Our politics, our education system, our infrastructure – anywhere there is a finite amount of power, influence, visibility, wealth, or opportunity. Anywhere in which someone might miss out. There the lure of that promise sustains racism.

White Supremacy is this nation’s oldest pyramid scheme. Even those who have lost everything to the scheme are still hanging in there, waiting for their turn to cash out.”

– Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

I’m gonna leave this here and ask you to sit with it. Sit with the idea that in any situation where one person/group of people takes power there is a person/group of people who necessarily get less. Now think about who in this country has systemically been on the receiving end of less power, less influence, less visibility or wealth or opportunity. Yes, the poor. Think about what racial demographic makes up the greatest percentage of the poor in America.

Now move beyond academic thought about the concept and into the really uncomfortable personal work. If you’re white, how do you benefit from a society built on the promise that you will get more because they get less? We all benefit from it, and once you start questioning assumptions you’ll start to realize how each of these areas – politics, education, infrastructure – weave together into a system of White Supremacy.