The White Alternative Does Not Exist
White alternatives do not exist. To be alternative is to be directly against the mainstream, to be against the grain. For a long time within white spaces, subcultures and scenes have sprouted to be alternative and rejecting modernity. Inevitably, though, they become a part of the mainstream because white people are the manufacturers of it. Being alternative is rooted in wanting to be deviant, which is behavior that departs significantly from the norms set for people in their social statuses. Through whiteness being the norm, white people can never really be deviant because they are the creators of the status quo, no matter what they do and/or the actions they choose to partake in. (It is important to note that the norm is meant to be understood as white normalcy, there is no point in always pointing out white normalcy because the norm is always in the context of whiteness.)
This is not something to be praised or idolized. Instead, it is an ode to how much social power and control they wield. A byproduct of systematic racism makes them the dominant race, which is also an acknowledgment of the social order that is in place. However, this position, much to their disdain, makes them lackluster in certain spaces, predominantly Black and POC-centered spaces. Black and POC peoples have to create spaces for themselves to defy the norm that is set by their white counterparts, making their spaces inherently deviant. It will never be possible for them to maintain the norm because they can never infiltrate whiteness, no matter their efforts. Once whiteness has slithered its way into a space created by Black or POC peoples, it loses its authenticity, sense of safety, credibility, and eventually its appeal to white peoples. This drives Black and POC people to create new spaces for themselves constantly but also fuels self-proclaimed alternative white people's hunger to be in constant search for these spaces.
While they might find them, their efforts to differ or deviate are futile because they will always fit the norm, as they are the ones in charge of creating it.
The other side of this double-edged sword is it also furthers the othering of Black and POC peoples and their existence and forms of expression. While within their own communities, they may just be existing, to white people, they are but a mere vessel of deviance, a pit stop on the way to truly being ''different,'' alternative. This, in turn, makes anything a Black or POC person does innately alternative and deviant, to the point of ostracization. Look at how self-proclaimed alternative white liberals are gagged by any form of culture produced by Black and POC communities, no matter how intentional or unintentional that portrayal was. They go out of their way to recognize these groups in the name of inclusion and recognition, but it is a thinly veiled plea to have us accept them. Our acceptance grants them a peace of mind that they think will alleviate them of their atrocious behaviors as a race; however, all it does is continue to pander to each other's needs and standards of anti-racist behavior that were created by themselves.
This is not to say that alternative spaces do not exist within Black and POC spaces because they absolutely do, but the metrics in which they form and exist are different. It is more to say that white people have no earthly idea of what it means to be alternative. So, the white people we grant access to within any of our cultural spaces, we need to be extremely cautious of any part they have already infiltrated to be cautious of because it is no longer only ours. We also need to practice the art of sanctity and gatekeeping so as to remain as authentic to us as possible. However, due to the pervasive and bone-deep nature of racism and colonialism, most people, amongst all groups, are unaware of the social consequences of their race and their actions. This lets this phenomenon go on under the guise of certain white people ''having good intentions,'' and while all parties involved may truly want to believe this to be true, the
construction of their race has made it so that close to none of their actions are inherently ever good. Specifically, they interact with nonwhite people. Unfortunately, this sort of outlook is seen as cynical and counterproductive, making it a discouraged practice within a lot of Black and POC spaces because, as a subconscious form of self-preservation, some Black and POC people want to be within the mainstream and receive all the benefits that come from it. This behavior, in turn, grants white alternative wannabes the access they are friends for. Creating a poisonous social exchange that inherently harms Black and POC peoples while giving white people access to something they arguably have no right to is a further exemplification of the shelter colonialism has provided white people. So the very thing they are constantly yearning for will constantly be out of their reach because they are the destructors of it. The destructors of Black and POC culture, sanctity, safety, and spaces, taking on the role that their predecessors created for them and cementing it into place for those who come after them.
Tiobista Kidane
