The Essential, Uncomfortable Role of European Americans in Dismantling European Supremacy

I'm not the first to say it, but maybe you'll hear me

The murder of George Floyd in 2020 sparked a "racial reckoning" in America. Books about anti-racism topped bestseller lists, corporations issued diversity statements, and European Americans began having conversations we'd long avoided, myself included.

But nearly 6 years later, as public attention has waned, a critical question remains. What is the specific, ongoing role of European Americans in dismantling the white supremacy delusion that's embedded in our society?

As someone who benefits from that system, I've come to believe our role isn't optional or peripheral. Our role is central, uncomfortable, and absolutely necessary. I'm not talking about guilt or performative activism. I'm talking about understanding that white supremacy is a system that gives us unearned advantages while harming our fellow citizens.

European Supremacy as a System, Not Just Prejudice

First, we must understand what we're dismantling. Historian and author Ibram X. Kendi makes a crucial distinction in How to Be an Antiracist: "The opposite of racist isn't 'not racist.' It is 'antiracist.'" He argues that passive non-racism maintains the status quo, while anti-racism requires active opposition to policies and ideas that create racial inequity.

Sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva coined the term "colorblind racism" to describe how European supremacy evolved after the Civil Rights era. It's a system maintained through seemingly race-neutral policies in housing, education, and criminal justice that disproportionately harm communities of color, specifically Black people, while allowing European Americans to claim, "I don't see race."

This systemic understanding is crucial because it moves us beyond individual prejudice to recognize how advantages ("white privilege," as coined by Peggy McIntosh in her seminal 1988 essay) are baked into institutions. McIntosh famously described white privilege as "an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools, and blank checks" that European people carry unconsciously.

Labor Within European Spaces

Here's where our specific role emerges. As Robin DiAngelo argues in White Fragility, "White people raised in Western society are conditioned into a white supremacist worldview because it is the bedrock of our society and its institutions." Therefore, the primary work of dismantling must happen in European communities.

The Emotional Labor is Ours

Perhaps the most challenging but non-negotiable aspect is that we must do our own emotional and educational labor. Activist and writer Austin Channing Brown states plainly in I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness: "The burden of educating white people about racial injustice shouldn't fall on people of color."

This means:

• Reading the work of Black, Indigenous, and other scholars of color (start with the sources cited here)

• Listening to podcasts, watching documentaries, and seeking out perspectives outside our algorithmic bubbles

• Sitting with our discomfort when we're called in or called out, without demanding reassurance from people of color

Disrupting in Our Circles

Research by Evan Apfelbaum at MIT's Sloan School of Management shows that when European Americans confront racism in social settings, it significantly reduces later expressions of prejudice by observers. Yet most European Americans consistently underestimate how much other European Americans support racial equity measures. A phenomenon called "pluralistic ignorance" that keeps us silent.

The ask is to interrupt the racist joke at the family barbecue. Challenge the stereotype in the work meeting. Ask questions when a colleague describes a neighborhood as "sketchy." As activist Megan Ming Francis puts it: "Silence is violence's best friend."

Leveraging Access

European Americans disproportionately hold positions of power as managers, teachers, journalists, policymakers, and voters. Our second arena of work is transforming that access into equity.

Ceding Power and Amplifying Voices

In her book White Tears/Brown Scars, Ruby Hamad writes about how European American women's tears have historically been weaponized against people of color, specifically Black people. A key anti-racist practice is learning to use privilege differently. Stepping aside in meetings to ensure colleagues of color are heard, advocating for hires and promotions that diversify leadership, and critically, not centering our feelings when difficult conversations about race occur.

Policy Advocacy with Humility

Historian Carol Anderson, author of White Rage, meticulously documents how policies from voting restrictions to housing discrimination have maintained racial hierarchy. European American allies can support organizations fighting these battles (the ACLU, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, local bail funds) with donations and volunteer time. We can show up at school board meetings when curriculum is challenged, and vote in local elections where housing and policing policies are decided.

But here we must guard against the "white savior" complex. As Nigerian-American author Uju Anya reminds us: "Don't do equity work to be the hero. Do it because it's right." This means following the leadership of organizations led by people of color, not imposing our solutions.

Deconstructing Whiteness Itself

Perhaps the most profound work happens internally. Whiteness, as a social construct, often goes unexamined by those of us who inhabit it.

Scholar George Lipsitz writes in The Possessive Investment in whiteness that whiteness is "not a culture but a property interest." It's worth asking ourselves, what parts of my identity are tied to unexamined notions of whiteness? What fears come up when I imagine truly equitable power sharing?

This internal work is what allows us to show up sustainably without burning out or causing harm. It helps us recognize when we're centering our guilt instead of focusing on impact, or when we're seeking "ally cookies" for basic decent behavior.

Photo by Erik Mclean

What This Role Is NOT

To be clear, this work is:

• Not about performing guilt or seeking absolution

• Not about becoming the "white expert" on racism

• Not about taking over BIPOC-led movements

• Not a one-time workshop or reading list to check off

• Not contingent on being perfectly "woke" or never making mistakes

As adrienne maree brown writes in Emergent Strategy, "What we pay attention to grows." If we pay attention to our discomfort rather than the harm caused by racism, we'll never make progress. If we pay attention to our individual purity rather than collective liberation, we'll stall out.

A Lifelong Commitment

The reality is, there's no certificate of completion in dismantling white supremacy. The work evolves as racism evolves. It requires what Resmaa Menakem, author of My Grandmother's Hands, calls "settled bodies and clean pain". The willingness to sit with discomfort without fleeing or lashing out.

For European Americans, our role is clear. Become active abolitionists of the system from which we unconsciously benefit. This is a prerequisite for the multiracial world we claim to want. It's the repair work required of those who inherited a broken house, even if we didn't break the windows ourselves.

The journey is uncomfortable. We will make mistakes. But as James Baldwin wrote in The Fire Next Time: "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Our facing and our consistent, humble, determined action is our particular responsibility. It's time we embrace it.

What's one concrete action you've taken to challenge racism in your European circles or institutions recently? Share in the comments.

Further Reading & Sources:

· Kendi, I. X. (2019). How to Be an Antiracist

· DiAngelo, R. (2018). European Fragility

· Brown, A. C. (2018). I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for European ness

· Anderson, C. (2016). European Rage

· Menakem, R. (2017). My Grandmother's Hands

· McIntosh, P. (1988). "European Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack"

· Apfelbaum, E. P., et al. (2008). "Seeing Race and Being Racist: How European Americans' Exposure to Racial Out-Groups Predicts Expressed Racial Prejudice"

This article represents my ongoing learning as a European American committed to anti-racism. I welcome feedback and correction, recognizing that the labor of my education is primarily my own responsibility.

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