Living White: A Personal Challenge and Responsibility

Robert S. Griffin

Recently, I wrote an article entitled “Rearing Honorable White Children,” in which I reported on the parenting practices of racially conscious white parents whom I had encountered while writing a book on the white nationalist William Pierce.¹  That article reflected what I have privately come to refer to as a “living white” perspective, by which I mean the piece was essentially about racially aware white people engaging in activity that reflects their racial beliefs and commitments.  It is this living white perspective that I explore in this writing. 

The living white perspective, or construct, shines a light on the nature and quality of the lives of individual white people—this one, that one, and that one over there, and you and me.  How are we doing?  Day to day, month to month, year to year, are we doing what is natural and right for us?  Are we living with integrity, in alignment with our deepest insights and highest values?  Are we living proudly and openly and courageously?  Are we getting important things done?  Are we healthy and happy?  Are we loved and supported?  Are we living honorable white lives?

This concern for the circumstance of individual white men and women and boys and girls reflects a “small picture” in contrast to a “big picture” frame of reference, the latter being more abstract, theoretical, and impersonal.  By big picture I mean analyses of what is happening in society overall, what is going on politically, what ideas and ways ought to prevail in the culture, that sort of thing.  In this white racial area, a big picture orientation might result in a consideration of what is happening with immigration in America, or interracial crime, or white nationalist political strategies.  At least potentially, small picture and big picture orientations are complementary, each informing and completing the other.  The ideal, it seems to me, is a white racialist worldview that harmoniously integrates “all-of-it”─matters of history, philosophy, analyses of the cultural and social context, visions of the future of the race, and so on—with “one-of-it,” which concerns the fates of particular, mortal white men, women, and children.

I see an imbalance at the moment, however: namely, too much focus on the big picture at the expense of the small picture.  That is to say, I think we are better at talking about how it all works than how our individual lives work.  My worry is that without greater attention to what I am calling living white─specific and realistic personal goals and down-to-earth, practical strategies and actions for achieving those goals—too many racially conscious white people will end up talkers rather than doers, and feel okay about that.  Too many will become reviewers, commentators, spectators in life, rather than participants.  Too many will come to assume that circumstances in the world and in their own lives are bigger than they can do anything about, and as a consequence they will live lives characterized more by coping and hiding out than by honest self-expression.  Too many will live with a significant discrepancy between what they know and value and the way they conduct their lives, and this will gnaw at them and, over time, take its personal toll on them.  Too many will have lives that are more frustrating than gratifying─“knowing the score” and “talking a good game” are poor substitutes for living with dignity.

The Challenge and the Responsibility

The living white idea says that if we want to improve the world we need to improve ourselves.  It says that we need to go beyond knowing the way and pointing the way to being the way.  It is not enough for us to understand what is going on in the world and to advocate the right things.  The measure of us as individual human beings is the extent to which we engage in a quest to live consistently with what is deepest within us and are at least reasonably successful at it.  The living white idea says we need to turn away from the big issues facing the race long enough to ask, “What am I doing with my time on this earth?  In the way I am conducting my life, what do I exemplify racially, what do I further racially?  What are some tangible things I can do to live a more honorable white life?”  The living white idea says that whatever answer we come to in response to the last of these questions, the one about what I can do, we need to get about doing those things—and not tomorrow, today.

Robert S. Griffin is the author of the book, The Fame of a Dead Man’s Deeds: An Up-Close Portrait of White Nationalist William Pierce, available at Amazon.com.  He can be contacted at Robert.S.Griffin@uvm.edu.