Sacrifice, Ideology, The Symbolic Self, and Whiteness

So what’s up with white people?

Recently I was challenged, or encouraged, by a good friend. This friend sent me a text after the week of the Jacob Blake shooting, and the killing of protestors by Kyle Rittenhouse. In his text he asked, “what would it look like if every time these moments happened, we called on white voices to be representative voices for the white community and give an account for what is happening?” He went on, “Black voices often have the burden, the weight, of talking about the trauma impact and how the community is dealing with these issues of injustice. What if white voices had to shoulder the burden of acknowledging why some white people continue to be afraid of diversity or why they continue to live out the sins of their ancestors?” He went on to say “I heard Barkley say last night Black celebrities are always asked to be a voice for the black community and white players sit by silently.”

I took this as his nudge for me to not to be silent. So, I want to present a conceptualization of what might be underlying these acts of violence, more specifically the killings by Kyle Rittenhouse.

So I will be talking about Sacrifice, Ideology, the Symbolic Self, and whiteness.

Let’s start with Sacrifice.

Sacrifice has always had an existential importance. Going all the way back to the biblical story of Abraham & Isaac. Where God asks Abraham to sacrifice Issac. Here we are offered a narrative that offers a…