Look Inside

July 5, 2022 10:59 AM

In the essay [PDF], Moss is not so much describing that we hate in the third person plural, but how we come to do so. Moss doesn’t argue that only white people have what he calls Parasitic Whiteness, but he notes that white people are much more susceptible to it. What is it they’re sick with? Moss metaphorizes how this particular psychic complex — a way of being, of categorizing the other, and of understanding the self — comes to take root in an individual via the social. He traces how it comes to live inside them, and how, once inside, it “infiltrates our drives” — the drives of its “host.” Once there, writes Moss, “Parasitic Whiteness generates a state of constantly erotized excitement, a drift toward frenzy. Fix, control, and arouse; want, hate, and terrorize.” from Unfree Associations [Archive] by Hannah Zeavin [CW: racism, antisemitism, fascism, neonazis, nazis, death threats, alt-right, white supremacists, Tucker Carlson, Fox News, Daily Mail]
posted by chavenet (9 comments total)

Very interesting set of links, thanks for posting. There are many, many things to parse here and I know it will take me some time to read through everything properly.

At first glance, though, I guess I can still be shocked at the vitriol that can be heaped on somebody for expressing a set of ideas, and the ways the "outrage machine" kicks into action. It makes me wonder how we are ever going to get to a point where we can find solutions to any of the incredibly complex issues we're all facing now.
posted by rpfields at 12:08 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

very interesting main link. I don't have any substantive analysis to add, but it's a lot of food for thought...
posted by supermedusa at 1:51 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

this is interesting, I think approaching Whiteness as a parasitic memetic organism that takes over its hosts is going to be a useful framework

possibly my fault for not reading thoroughly but I'm super confused as to how the "pink monkey" tied in?
posted by taquito sunrise at 4:20 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's worth taking a second read to see how the pink monkey arc resolves. It's a really nice tale of long years of hard psychoanalytic work leading to a pretty extraordinary breakthrough.
posted by supermedusa at 5:40 PM on July 5, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am not getting the concept of verticality vs the horizontal, unless it has to do with holding the self higher than ones deemed the others; and horizontal is where everyone negotiates humanness on a plane, of the now, in a stage of dynamic equality. Very interesting read.
posted by Oyéah at 6:23 PM on July 5, 2022 [1 favorite]

The pink monkey isn't white. It represents a lesser urge to her partner, that threatens his sexual supremacy, it is her sexuality which threatens his narcissistic pleasure, because her pink monkey has needs he must learn to gratify. Because she isn't the narcissist, she is ancillary in every way, her body must conform to his exact needs or be othered. I am sure we have entered the blowback era of thwarted, white male supremacy, in which even children can't abort the children of rapists. Not meaning to wander into the minefield of this time,
Brown male supremacists
White male supremacists
Black male supremacists
Male supremacists
White supremacists
Theological supremacists
White theological supremacists
Brown theological supremacists
White ideological supremacists
Brown ideological supremacists
Ideological supremacists
Same planet, same resources, same bad solutions, same species, same delusions. Getting sane in an insane species is hard work against the entrenched entropy of fear, hatred, and the ensuing violence. This not to mention theft of resources, withholding of resources, war, murder, and rape. The harming of women and children knows no color barrier; just like kindness.
posted by Oyéah at 6:44 PM on July 5, 2022 [5 favorites]

I am not getting the concept of verticality vs the horizontal, unless it has to do with holding the self higher than ones deemed the other

That was how I understood it - that, having conceived of yourself as being superior to others, you are then able to be opportunistically invaded by Whiteness, especially if you are white (presumably Parasitic Masculinity would work the same way, and Parasitic Ableness - which was his original condition - and so forth, but verticality is at the root of all of them). I think, it is as if verticality is a condition and then Whiteness is a comorbidity to that condition. I hope I am understanding the article correctly.
posted by joannemerriam at 6:12 AM on July 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

is there a description somewhere of what exactly is even meant by 'hate in the first personal plural' or 'hate in the third person plural?'
posted by auggy at 8:18 AM on July 6, 2022 [1 favorite]

Get up, come on, get down with the whiteness
posted by othrechaz at 11:22 PM on July 6, 2022 [2 favorites]