That poor misunderstood (not) Dilbert dude... Yes. Good riddance.
I so appreciate your voice and clarity and challenging questions. Thanks for this response - I haven't read Wise's book yet, but I think white allyship will be a big theme in any response.
I would not want you to hold back in any criticism of me. I need a thick skin if I am going to persist in trying to dismantle white supremacy culture in myself and the wider society. And I do want that!
In terms of money or fame, I want neither from my writing. This might make me hold back from catchy headlines and provocative openings. I see Walter Rhein out there provoking white people, and I either don't have the guts to draw that much attention, or I don't want the attention at all. I don't know.
Speaking of money, I go back and forth over monetizing my stories. Most of my stories that are only about being white are not monetized, but few of my essays are only about race. Most of my ancestry stories also touch on race and identity and so far every book group has been about race. Both of these categories are 90% monetized. One publication I submitted to asked me to monetize because they only publish stories that are in the partner program. At this point it is only a few dollars, but I don't want to fall into a trap where I get seduced by the popularity of essays about race and (consciously or subconsciously) try to make money off of that. I also have to assume that if I keep writing good essays that eventually I will find some popularity. Then my intergrity (or lack of it) around money will come to the front.
When I write about race, I try to write mostly about my experience of being white. I am an expert in my own experience, and it is laughable how little expertise I have outside of that.
It is always going to be weird to me that I need to claim my own whiteness and see it, in order to clean it up and throw it out.
I do want to embody John Brown's fire for justice - and not because I want to help others, but as you say, for humanity's sake, but I think I will always need to keep my day job, so I don't know how militant I can afford to be.
