I really think that people need to stop equating whiteness with being WASP because it allows non-WASP white people (especially white immigrants) to absolve themselves of racism. I don’t know if this is coherent but I feel like white immigrants encounter tons of xenophobia from WASP “assimilated” people in the UK/Canada/USA etc that they feel very alienated from WASP people until they give up their culture to assimilate. However, when you people equate white=WASP it allows white immigrants to valid their own victimhood and distant themselves from whiteness by saying “ah it’s THOSE white people that are the bad ones (because they victimized me) and therefore I’m not the problem!” about racism. Like they distance themselves by blaming “those white people who were mean to me” meanwhile they continue to be racist.
There is also such a mentality of “well, I had to give up all my culture and community and assimilate to stop the xenophobia I experienced and gain white privilege, so if we dismantle white privilege, then I lost everything for nothing!” that white immigrants project on immigrants of colour ALL THE TIME and then turn it around with white immigrants saying “but we experience the same thing!” to immigrants of colour about xenophobia/racism, meanwhile! Immigrants of colour can’t just opt out of racism! But white immigrants bring their homegrown racism but because white immigrants have distanced themselves from whiteness (and therefore racism) in this new country (but only when it’s convenient) they just absolve themselves of racism
