Sam White a.k.a “Sam Whiteout” has stood on the throne of white allyship for several years. The New Jersey native, who first went viral for shimmying at a party as a white member of the historically Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi, recently sauntered into the field of academia.
On Thursday he shared a “report” he was invited to write this summer for the Harvard Kennedy School Journal of African American Public Policy. He titled the piece, “Popularizing Wokeness.”
https://twitter.com/samwhiteout/status/1068225613557915648
The subject matter he took on: “wokeness,” Drake, and the mega-blockbuster, Black Panther (Harriet Tubman and Booker T. Washington did not die for this).
White’s tweet spurred an immediate response from Twitter, divided over White’s authority to speak on these matters, because shimmying does not an activist/ally make.
Folks were also upset that a respected outlet would one, let someone pontificate on this subject in such an elementary way, and two, allow a non-Black person to lead the charge.
https://twitter.com/yesmahlet/status/1068390519217287168
But it all went left after the blame was placed squarely on the shoulders of Black women when writer Torraine Walker tweeted this:
And of course, multiple members of the hotep tribe rose up out of the ashes of Egypt, seeing this as their in.
Black women across social media collectively put on their “not today” capes to explain that the “womens” had nothing to do with this.
https://twitter.com/FeministaJones/status/1068506816127086593
After being pressed like a panini, Walker has since doubled back from his initial comments, saying that he’s surprised by how many “hit dogs hollered” (which was still a deeply troubling analogy of what he created with his tweet). He’s now tweeting about what should’ve been the topic of conversation, how Black creatives are often left out of the landscapes made for them and by them.
While there are many layers to the Whiteout report and the subsequent fallout, let’s state facts. Black men are the only ones who hold leadership roles in Kappa Alpha Psi–the same frat that allowed White’s membership. Black men are also editors of the publication that ran White’s story. Black men (Marc Lamont Hill, DeRay Mckesson) were among some of the biggest influencers who supported and touted White’s name.
And its overwhelmingly valid that discussions about whether or not White is accurately reflecting allyship, along with analyzing who gets to speak for the culture, need to happen.
But when BLACK MEN come into the fold and throw a misogynoir covered wrench into the discussion we need to ask, “who’s really the hit dog that hollered?”
Because it definitely was not Black women.
