[Laura Berwick]

We keep having this conversation here and there, so let’s HAVE this conversation, here and now.

https://laceonrace.com/2021/03/16/deconstructing-this-tired-accusation/

Read the post, which elaborates slightly on what’s been placed as a comment/reply, and return here. Remember to personalize without centering.

Deconstructing this Tired Accusation

Discussion

[Emily Holzknecht]

I was talking to someone I am close to one day and she expressed something along the lines of “I don’t know why they do that!?” referring to some action by people she knows that is frustrating her. Because of my time walking with Lace on Race I could see the connection to the behavior she was referring to and white supremacy, so I said so, just in the same casual conversation way that we had already been talking, just adding to the discussion. There was a defense response in reply, something like, “it’s not just them” which in context I heard as “You can’t single them out. They’re no worse than anyone else”, as if the participation of others in the same harmful behavior absolves them and makes their behavior okay. And I responded that of course it’s not just them and I’m not singling them out as “bad people” or something. The origin of the behavior was questioned and I am commenting on the origin of the behavior, not the quality of the person. We all have white supremacist behaviors because we all were socialized in the same white supremacist country. It’s the “soup we swim in” (quoted Lace).

And then we come to the reason I’m telling this story because when this conversation took place, I had already been in the Lace on Race community through Jim and Kate and TCL and all those cult leader accusations from angry outsiders wanting to harm Lace and the community for their own protection. So I was well familiar with this cult accusation meant to disrupt the work. So the response to me in this conversation from the person I am close to was “When you talk like that, I feel like I am being forced to join a cult or something.” Now I wouldn’t say I’m ever in this person’s face about the Lace on Race community. Maybe I should be more in her face about it, but I haven’t been. Occasionally I have contributed to a conversation in what feels to me like a natural way that people do – or at least that she and I do when it comes to other topics – adding some information/a perspective that I have to contribute to the conversation. I have not been chanting phrases from the community at her or encouraging her to join. I know she isn’t going to join. I know she isn’t going to do the work. I haven’t talked to her about financially engaging anywhere (I am thinking about the idea of cults getting people to give them all their money). If I was recruiting for a cult, I have been doing a super lousy job at it. And yet this cult comment which felt so out of the blue and yet fit right into the pattern of cult accusations in regards to the Lace on Race community. She went on to say that “I feel like I just have to agree with what you’re saying. Like I don’t have any choice.” I told her that I’m not telling her to join anything, and that I can’t be in conversation and not bring the perspective of white supremacy to the table in a conversation where it is relevant. Telling me it’s not okay to participate in a conversation that way is telling me not to participate in the conversation. She responded by saying that that’s fine, but not to be dictating how she should “do these things” (address racism?) and that she has to do it her own way and not my way. She seemed to feel really threatened by the idea that someone else might dictate for her how she should work to address racism or that she might be judged for “doing it wrong”. Meanwhile what I had said that put her on the defense had nothing to do with her “doing” anything. I was just talking about how the behavior in other people that she is frustrated with is connected to white supremacy.

I don’t know how many of the Lace on Race posts pop up on her Facebook feed when I comment on them and the cult idea was related not to the conversation at hand, but to conversations in the community she has seen on her feed? I doubt the ones I had shared would warrant a “cult” descriptor any more than anyone else’s posts about racism.

So in this cult accusation situation, out of Laura’s list, I am seeing “shared ethos” or agreeing with each other seen as an assault on individualism, as being the surface reason for the “cult” accusation. But that can’t be all of it, right? Because there are so many other topics of conversation than white supremacy where I would have contributed something I have learned or a perspective I have to a conversation in the same way that I did here and there is no way she would have “felt like she was being forced to join a cult.” I have talked about things from the perspective of particular parenting or education philosophies in the past quite avidly and no one has ever said they felt like they were being forced to join a cult. I even had chanted phrases in those areas. It wouldn’t happen for a diet and exercise regimen. So the agreeing is the surface reason, but there is a deeper reason that fuels this accusation that isn’t just agreeing. That reason, as Laura says, has to be white supremacy itself.

I have been thinking about Laura saying she is not isolated by the Lace on Race community and that is evidence that this is not a cult. Interestingly though, something that is isolating is whiteness. White supremacy isolates white people from everyone else in society. Perhaps white supremacy is the cult and since reframing is a major tool of white supremacy, it makes total sense that white supremacy would reframe efforts to dismantle white supremacy as being the cult. Whether white supremacy is actually a cult seems irrelevant to me as that wouldn’t change anything about the need to or methods of dismantling it. For discussion’s sake though,

1) white people isolate themselves because of white supremacy,

2) white people feel financially dependent on white supremacy and fight efforts to change the financial situation of Black and brown people out of fear for their own finances, in other words, white supremacy manipulates white people financially,

3) white supremacy imposes rigid rules and regulations for behavior on everyone in society and when those rules are broken, white people make sure the rule breakers are punished,

4) white supremacy practices deception, withholding tons of information, distorting information and flat out lying to maintain control,

5) non-cult (non white supremacist) sources of information are suppressed and discouraged,

6) white supremacy makes extensive use of cult-generated (white supremacy-generated) information and propaganda,

7) white supremacy requires people to internalize white supremacist doctrine, over-simplified binary thinking as truth

8) white supremacy uses loaded language and clichés which constrict knowledge, stop critical thoughts, and reduce complexities into platitudinous buzz words

9) white supremacy manipulates and narrows the range of feelings—some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.

10) White supremacy teaches emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of doubt

11) White supremacy makes people feel that problems are always their own fault or the fault of a marginalized group, never the leader’s or the group (white people’s) fault.

12) White supremacy instills fear, such as fear of immigrants, enemies, marginalized people or being shunned by the group.

[Laura Berwick]

@Emily, damn, there is some doctoral thesis level work in this list you present. I think you’ve nailed it. White supremacy as a cult may be an even more over-all way of thinking about it than white supremacy as addiction, or the combination of the two may be more illumination than the sum of the illumination of those parts.

I’m glad you pulled out that notion of individualism, and anything that speaks against our individual sufficiency being seen as approaching cultishness. We don’t… hardly any of us… inhabit a world without human contact. If we all approached society our own ways, we wouldn’t have… society as such. Is society a cult for requiring us to share certain standards of behavior? Yeah, just… yeah.

There is a LOT of amazing stuff here. I’m going to need to reread and keep reflecting when I’m off the clock. But thank you for this.

[Shara Cody]

I’ve noticed people throwing around the idea that their right to free speech is being taken away in response to explanations of how something causes harm to BIPOC which is part of this addiction to and protection of individualism over hurting others. Besides the fact that free speech is about the government restricting what you can say therefore has nothing to do with other people letting you know what you’re saying is hurtful or inappropriate so this defence/argument doesn’t apply, what Laura said about standards of behavior in society stands out to me. If something isn’t for me, it’s against me, seems to be behind the thinking and defensiveness which easily gets turned into accusations and cause to fight.

[Marlise Flores]

White supremacy is the cult. This is something I’ve interrogated since the first time someone threw that at LoR. I am always incredulous how well white supremacy and, really, American culture in general (which is built on it) fits.

1. Promote dependence and obedience. All one needs to do it take a look at the educational system.

2. Modify behavior with rewards and punishments. Oof! Take a look at this one with a race lens. How deep does the good vs bad narrative go for you? Were you raised thinking that life is going well because you are good? And if people of color struggle, it must be because they did something wrong?

3. Dictate where and with whom you live. Oh hey. Redlining. Segregation.

4. Restrict or control sexuality. White supremacy pairs pretty damn well with toxic patriarchy. Think about all the tropes thrown at Black women. Cardi B, anyone? Meanwhile, white women are painted as chaste, innocent, good.

5. Control clothing and hairstyle. Go to google. Look up professional hairstyle. Now look up unprofessional hairstyle.

6. Regulate what and how much you eat and drink. Here is another area white supremacy pairs with shaming in broad culture. Think about the number of ads about diet and exercise? The push against plus sized bodies. Now think about how that is based in degrading Black body styles.

7. Deprive you of 7-9 hours of sleep. Grind culture. Forcing primarily BIPOC to hold multiple jobs to survive.

8. Exploit you financially. Emily, you covered this one.

9. Restrict leisure time and activities. This combines with #7. Hard labor jobs are least paid, longest hours, lowest benefits, and primarily held by BIPOC. Same for care jobs.

10. Require you to seek permission for major decisions. This one, I want us to think about how much control goes into dictating how BIPOC live. Education, housing, profession. How many levels of permission a Black student has to seek out in order to take a college class? Think about gatekeeping. How hard is it for BIPOC to apply for a mortgage?

I used a list from a site regarding identifying cults. White supremacy *is* the cult.

[Christina Sonas]

You too, Marlise – I’m c&p’ing these.

[Emily Holzknecht]

I love that you have this list that is so similar and also takes a different approach. I started to think about sleep deprivation and being overworked, not prioritizing self care that would allow one to sleep, but you have a lot of additional behavioral control aspects here that I didn’t consider at all.

[Christina Sonas]

Unlucky 13) White supremacy destroys, literally, the lives of millions upon millions of people. Billions when I consider the descendant generations that are never allowed to be.

Laura and Emily, this is some amazing, deep work. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts in such detail.

White supremacy, once again, projecting.

[Emily Holzknecht]

With this comment I am now thinking about how a method of control of people to ensure loyalty is… I am trying to think of the right word, not “collusion” but something similar meaning that if an individual shares in the guilt of a group (example might be hazing requiring a crime to be committed), then that individual will be more loyal to that group. White people all have caused harm and have all benefited from harm to Black and brown people making it hard to abandon white supremacy, because that is what protects us from our guilt.

[Shara Cody]

You nailed it here, Emily, thanks for listing this out to make it plain. lt feels like some heavy projection of white supremacy to attack with cult accusations.

[Jen Scaggs]

Wow, interesting perspective comparing white supremacy to a cult. There are some powerful parallels here.

There’s definitely something familiar about your friend’s response to your conversation. I think you’re right that people can feel really threatened when they realize their entire life is built on white supremacy and racism, especially if they’re not ready to commit to dismantling it. Maybe they feel like they don’t have a choice to agree or disagree because if they disagree they are afraid they will be judged and labeled a racist. I think a lot of people are more afraid of being called a racist than they are of actually doing and saying racist things.

[Shannon Brescher Shea]

As other people noted, I think she’s spot-on in terms of seeing white supremacy as a cult. It’s like growing up in a cult in general, in the sense that any change in it inherently feels like a threat to the people who are in it. In addition, the people in it have the impression that “everyone” is like that because the cult prevents them from learning about alternatives.

[Rhonda Freeman]

I am shamed by these tonight, Emily, and I couldn’t articulate them earlier today.

9) white supremacy manipulates and narrows the range of feelings—some emotions and/or needs are deemed as evil, wrong or selfish.

10) White supremacy teaches emotion-stopping techniques to block feelings of doubt

11) White supremacy makes people feel that problems are always their own fault or the fault of a marginalized group, never the leader’s or the group (white people’s) fault.

I work for a hispanic man (his description) and we have been working together for about 25 years. We are co-workers and I think he considers me a friend, but the cult of white supremacy is hard to break and I know I manipulate with my white woman feelings and I do not hold my slosh. Some days I do well, but some days…I do not. I am sullen. I am sad. Frankly, I am unprofessional – and I am just now beginning to unpack this.

[Kelsi Watters]

I spent so much of my life trying to force down or suppressemotions that society considers “bad,” especially anger, conflict, and confrontation. This has been one of my biggest clenches in antiracism work. I feel frustrated with myself for the many times I’ve shrunk away from confrontation or not s’poken up – then I feel ashamed. That’s my white ⠎⠥⠏⠗⠑⠍⠁⠉⠽⠲

[Shannon Brescher Shea]

>>> There will always be people who want to put other people on a pedestal and demand perfection of them. There are probably people here now who WANT to be in a cult, because that’s something they seek to fill a need, and maybe they see the tools we use and those tools fill that need on their end.

There are loads of reasons why Lace isn’t a cult leader, but if nothing else, the fact that Lace constantly is trying to get people to not put her on a pedestal shows she’s not. As she’s pointed out over and over, putting Black women on pedestals is dehumanizing. It feeds into the Strong Black Woman stereotype. It also reinforces the power of the white people (usually women doing it) because there’s a sense of “well, if we put her there, we can take her down too.” Because as soon as Lace and other Black women don’t match some standard, white women tear them down off of that pedestal. Lace is constantly encouraging us to walk eye-to-eye together, something that is humanizing for both parties.

>>>I’m… really solid in my friendships outside of this space, not at all isolated, and not dependent on approval here to like what I see in the mirror. I’m actually self-esteeming to the point of arrogance.

<font face=”inherit”>I think that’s another way we’re the complete opposite of a cult. Lace and the team are constantly encouraging us to stay in relationship, both here and elsewhere. She emphasizes the importance of staying in the car and with people, in </font>conversation<font face=”inherit”> and connection. Cults cut you off from </font>people<font face=”inherit”>. If people are cutting you off because of anti-racism work, it’s likely because of what’s going on with them and how they are having difficulty confronting </font>their<font face=”inherit”> own racism and participation in racist systems.</font>

[Marlise Flores]

That dehumanization point is a big one. I’ve been mulling over what exactly it is in white supremacy that provokes the tendency to pedestal place….what is at the root of dehumanization because I think it explains another ground shift we do. I am thinking over how often I was told or raised or read about “changing the world” and how people of history were propped up as idols. Not only does this allow for avoidance of digging deep into how we have all caused harm, but it also sets up and reinforces the dynamic of good/bad, idol/demon. Which is to say, it makes durable relationship something that is never interrogated. We don’t know how to walk with someone during the boring bits, the painful bits, or the plain “you are doing this wrong but I’m not leaving” bits. We can just label someone and cut for the hills. *And* crucially, I can then do this for myself. I can use labels or boundaries to slip and slide out of accountability. “Oh, I was really anxious when I did that horrible thing. *Sliiiiide*” “well, I just volunteered for this big project so I can’t be wrong here. *Sliiiiide*” “I am not controlling, I’m just right. Black people are the ones trying to burn bridges. *Sliiiiide*”

The deeper root for me here is that pedestal placing also reflects how shallow my day to day relationships could be if I’m not willing to see eye to eye, which does mean even when someone sloshes, I don’t run away from them to avoid the appearance of slosh on myself.

[Shara Cody]

I’m glad you said “… when someone sloshes, I don’t run away from them to avoid the appearance of slosh on myself.” cause I felt it when I read it so I needed to hear it clearly and simply like this. It’s not about how I look or might look to others, it’s about standing up and sticking it out to lessen harm to BIPOC.

[Shara Cody]

Returning to my own comment to add that I don’t just need to hear or be reminded not to run away from someone who are sloshing to avoid looking like I’m sloshing, but that I need to DO it, to walk with those who are sloshing to put into practice what I’m learning in order to reduce harm to BIPOC.

[Kelsi Watters]

áMarlise, I appreciate your question here. What is it about whiteness that tends toward dehumanizing? Well, white supremacy is not flat and round. It’s a structure that depends on rank and superiority – so either whiteness dehumanizes people by placing them on a pedestal (the top rank, from which we can yank them down) or by regarding them as inferior. That is why white people do not know how to walk with people eye to eye, without daily practice and intention.

[Shannon Brescher Shea]

Yes, I think that’s exactly it. There’s this obsession with who has power and who doesn’t, which turns everything into a power struggle, not genuine relationship. I agree with Marlise as well in terms of the idolatry of historical figures. If we can see people as complex and flawed individuals instead of perfect or awful with nothing in-between, we will be able to hold people both historically and in our everyday lives in much more just ways.

[Rebecca McClinton]

A while back I watched a documentary on the seize of a religious compound/cult. The documentary told a different story than the one the sensationalized media and militarized law enforcement told, and pointed out how it was the media and the militarized law enforcement who were the actual cause of the destruction of life, not the ‘cult’. In thinking about that here, it makes me consider how it’s when people are throwing out attacks like ‘it’s a cult!’ that they are working hard to conceal their own violence, the violence of white supremacy that Emily and Marlise spelled out so thoughtfully above. I have (intentionally) fallen for the sensationalized and militarized rhetoric of supremacy far too often in my life and will continue working to build an Eagle’s eye to discern when that’s happening.

[Christina Sonas]

I have been thinking about how individuals and groups which are threatening to white supremacy are dealt with by the powers of hegemony. Billie Holiday, the Black Panthers, Rev Dr MLK Jr, all heavily policed, some murdered by the government, others murdered by private individuals who acted on government propaganda. More than anything, made a public example. What you say about the documentary and how the government / media created the narrative makes me think about that being a public example, too. So many aspects of our society are structured to make change-makers public enemy number one.

[Lacey Lipe]

All of this really resonates with me as I think of white supremacy as a cult and the state sanctioned arrests and killings that were supported by the vast majority of white people at the time.

I am currently reading Angela Davis for a class (with a forward written by Cornell West). I’ve also had the honor of being in a few Zooms featuring them throughout Covid.

Both have been sanctioned and demonized by their own intellectual/university community and by the United States government for believing in a world where Black and brown people are given equitable treatment by white people (like me) and by the systems that uphold white supremacy and no longer disproportionately subjected to harm and death.

In school in the 1970’s-80’s I wasn’t taught about Angela Davis, Cornell West, or the Black Panther Party. But I was taught about the Communist Party (of which Davis was a member). I was taught about “The Red Scare” and made to believe that Ronald Reagan would help rid us of the “cult-like spread of communism.”

My white supremacy contributed to the arrest and expatriation of someone whom I admire greatly. My white supremacy was a cult which I allowed myself to exist in by adopting the values of my peers, failing to question what I was taught, and not digging below a superficial understanding.

My failure to speak up quickly contributed to what happened here. My cult of white supremacy contributed to (and continues to contribute to) the pain and angst in this community, to Lace in particular.

[Lacey Lipe]

*finally given equitable treatment,

ie: lessening and mitigating the harm

[Rebecca McClinton]

Sounds like such a cool class and learning opportunity, Lacey! It must be one of the most painful things for Black and Brown people, being demonized by their own community for believing in something that benefits all. In relating that to this space, it reminds me just how much Lace gives in that regard, and the depth of the what that has cost her.

[Rebecca McClinton]

Yes, when LE and media police and stigmatize things as a danger, how easily the masses (including me, certainly by history) follow. This space has helped me think so much more critically in that way, to challenge that propaganda and public example you mention.

[Shara Cody]

By this thinking, all education and all sports are cults then. Repetition and having a teacher or coach point out what isn’t quite right is foundational to learning environments. Sayings, rhymes, and mantras are used in education and sports to help us remember foundational ideas and sequences and develop skills. The ethos and catch phrases used at LoR definitely help me focus on reducing harm and remind and guide me on how to do it/behavior changes I’m working on. Although we are following Lace’s guidance and method at LoR to interrogate our internalized white supremacy, develop better relational skills, and to become reflexive and reliable in our actions to support the North Star, I make my own decisions about my actions and can leave the community if I wish. I’m incorporating what I’m learning into my own life and learning to live it out as me and not in a strict, dogmatic way that requires me to stop being who I am.

I think all of the ideas around cult-like accusations are people centering their own feelings and looking to sabotage either their own commitment to LoR, the organization, or the work of anti-racism itself. The accusations are a direct assault on Lace and so incredibly untrue for all the reasons Laura outlined that it makes me need to hold my bucket pretty hard. Also because I know someone who was born into and raised in a cult and the extremely damaging effects it had. I think some people felt that Lace telling us that we needed to call Holly in on her behavior and to support Lace in the situation was authoritarian or some kind of abuse of leadership when really it was a person, a Black woman, telling us lines were crossed, she was harmed and asking that we stand with her and protect her from attack. Using Lace’s position as the leader of LoR to resist or withhold the exact things we are here learning to do is gross injustice to Lace as a person, to her time and guidance, and to our North Star. It really makes me think of the difference of feeling discomfort and being harmed and how white people, including me, can so easily think the 2 things are the same and throw around our feelings in violent accusations. I’ll continue to do the internal work, interrogate myself and my reactions, and listen to Black and brown people including Lace, to lessen harm to BIPOC by me, white people, and white supremacy.

[Marlise Flores]

You aren’t exactly wrong noticing cult behaviors in education and sports. Both are used to drive us vs them, false wars/narratives, etc.

To your point, from a purely communication human standpoint, culture is derived from shared phrases, meanings, language, moral rules etc. Using those as proof of a cult is odd, as that is just stuff humans do.

The key a cult is dehumanization. Removal of self in favor of an idol.

[Shara Cody]

Yes, using shared phrases as proof of a cult is a weak accusation, because as you said, it’s part of culture. It makes it feel obvious to me that the accusation is actually an attack because it’s just throwing punches with anything. If dehumanization is the main element of a cult, I can’t get my head around how someone could feel that Lace asking for support when she is being attacked is dehumanizing or harming those who are asked to support. How can one twist so far as to feel attacked by a request for support when Lace was the one being attacked and dehumanized? I guess white supremacy twists us away from relationships leaving us in the weeds.

[Rhonda Freeman]

When I think of white supremacy as an economic construct it is extremely easy to remember what you share here about twisting us away from relationships. So much about capitalist economics twists us away from relationships. The idea that commerce, capitalist commerce instigated all of this. That humans had to be defined as ‘not human’ in order for white humans to ‘get ahead’ and make more money and have more capital. It forces us to twist away from relationships.

[Shara Cody]

Money is the main object that people seek power through so you’re so right that it’s the main thing that twists us away from relationships. With capitalism rooted in us, relationships appear to have no value. This twisting keeps us from thinking of others needs or even looking at what’s going on for others.

[Rhonda Freeman]

I happened to come across a show on a business channel about a rich investor (appeared to be BIPOC, but obviously, I wasn’t there to ask:) who talked about a ‘new kind of Capitalism’. He called it ‘Social Capitalism’ and he suggested that his criteria for investment was that the company had to be working directly against climate change and, yet, be innovative and he had to believe it would make Monday. I didn’t see the whole thing and I wasn’t entirely convinced, but I thought it was interesting that he was trying in some way to do it a little differently.

[Jessie Lee]

I love this image of a vine being trained onto a different support. That is exactly what we are doing here. I think the word cult is a projection of people’s resistance to change. So many of us cling to this defense that we have been harmful because we didn’t know better, as if that lets us off the hook for actually repairing the harm done and changing ourselves so we don’t do it again to someone else. Like that recent video in the takeout window, once we become aware of how harmful we’ve been, are being, and will continue to be, we face a choice point: keep walking and train ourselves onto that different support OR keep doing things my way, knowing the harm it will cause and not caring.

Either way, once we are aware, that dissonance is here to stay, and demands that we deal with it somehow or it’ll eat us alive. So many of us try to ignore it- we ghost and try to go back to acting as if we don’t know better when we really do. We pick and choose which guidelines to follow and hope no one notices. Even if no one says anything, I’m quite sure our conscience notices. More dissonance. When others do confirm that our behavior is problematic, we get defensive and fight, flee, freeze, or fawn to escape the shame and self loathing.

I think the word “cult” gets leveled against LoR and “cult leader” against Lace because it’s externalizing. It makes us feel like our complicity and violence isn’t our fault. In fact, probably I’m the real victim here! That line of thinking is the old support we’ve been trained on. It’s so much easier and more comfortable to lob those accusations than it is to change who we are. It’s less devastating (to us white people) to think, “yeah I said I was All in but I’m opting out of LoR because it just wasn’t for me. Too culty” than to tell the truth, “I said I was all in but opted out because I’d rather not change my ways. I’m comfortable is more important.”

With the tools Lace teaches here, I’m training myself to to grow up a new support. Part of that has been learning to read my discomfort and defensiveness as a signal that I need to dig in with curiosity and intentionality, North Star front and center.

I know I’m not in a cult. I’m part of a community that is doing revolutionary new things in new ways through becoming new people together. Yes, I can see how that would sound “cult-ish” when twisted and divorced from context. But it’s the responsibility of all of us who opt in here to do the work of learning that context and applying it.

Crossposted from the website

[Marlise Flores]

Im the real victim here. Oof. Talk about a white woman pattern.

[Kelsi Watters]

There is so much here in this discussion that I appreciate. I will probably have to read through it all again and continue absorbing. I especially appreciate the lists that some of you constructed to support the idea of white supremacy as a cult. I had not thought of this initially, but it makes sense. As I was reading Laura’s original post and your comments, I thought of a few other ways that white supremacy is a cult.

(1) The pattern of idolizing in cults: Marlise and others brought up white people’s problematic pattern of putting Black women on pedestals, as well as Lace’s constant reminder not to do this. It is dehumanizing, yet a common pattern in white supremacy. Look at MLK, and how most of us grew up and entered our adult lives only knowing the whitewashed version of MLK, the parts of him that white people considered good enough to put on a pedestal. Cults also have a pattern of idolizing their leaders, or even certain ideas or beliefs. So here, white supremacy is the cult.

(2) Prescribed Norms: Anyone who asks questions or attempts to think for themselves is perceived as a threat or cast out. Anyone who does not conform to the prescribed standard of appearance, behavior, beliefs, etc., is a perceived threat. There is extreme fear and resistance toward change, and toward new ways of thinking. We see this all the time with white people, conforming to the “norm” of whiteness. White supremacy is so deeply engrained that we consider whiteness the “norm” and rarely realize it. Yet when someone challenges us to think in new ways, outside of that prescribed norm, we resist hard. On the other hand, at LoR we are New People doing New Things in New Ways. So, as others have said, white supremacy is the cult, not LoR.

(3) The “only one” Mentality: Cults like to insist that theirs is the only space or the only way to do things. Lace does not do this when she encourages those who are not willing to do the work at LoR, to find another racial justice space. She places more importance on the higher purpose (lessening harm to Black and brown people) than on staying in her space in particular. Nobody is forced to remain at LoR but those who do will be simultaneously challenged and met lovingly eye to eye.

[Megan Parmar]

I agree with everything written and flipping white supremacy as the cult really resonated with me. My reaction to this was more… superficial? When I think of actual cults I think of a shared belief that no one else has that people are… overcommitted too. While tragic endings for almost everyone involved in a cult, usually they are openly mocked. Given those observations, calling Lace a cult leader came off as a white supremacist flex to shame and embarrass people into leaving and help ease the minds of those saying that they were on ‘the right side.’ With the points listed above, nothing about LoR qualifies as a cult. It was a punch down to undermine the work being done and the high quality of the woman running it.

[Grace Bannerman]

I really appreciated the point about celebrities, sports stars, or social media influencers not being called cult leaders. That term seems reserved for people who have the potential to directly challenge the status quo – in what I’ve seen here, largely white people using the term to attack Lace and discredit her work. There is also encouragement to self-questioning here and questioning of the tools and methods, if it’s done eye to eye with kind candour (which seems un-cult-like to me). I can critically evaluate what is or would be “taking it too far” and who might be harmed by that and how while recognizing that the methods and content here may be unfamiliar to me, and feel different from previous ways of thinking. As always, it’s important for me to examine the difference between discomfort and harm in each situation, between stretching muscles and tearing them. It’s good to learn and recognize common reasons (as laid out here) that I might also give myself to reassure myself and avoid the work, the examination and changing oneself and acting on those changes.

[Author]

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