White Sage? WHITE RAGE!

an overview of the way white modern witchcraft appropriates closed practices, feels entitled to open ones separating them from their original history, and how white people can -and should- do better.

I finally made a video discussing cultural appropriation in modern witchcraft, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/MIWBDCHliIo

As an Arab witch myself which was raised by the white side of my family I have been pondering a while on this. I am also an intersectionality educator in my day life so I tried to bring that lens here too covering basically:

Closed practices

The standard example are the most commercialised ways to “cleanse” present in every witchy shop: White Sage and Palo Santo.

I’ll leave Ari, the Oak Witch to explain to you why ecologically speaking you shouldn’t use those herbs, especially when you’re from a place (such as Europe) where those plants are not natives. Endangered Sacred Plants | White Sage and Palo Santo

The real point of this is discussing white exceptionalism and how white privilege seems invisible to those who have it making them feel entitled to everything because that’s exactly what colonialism was for: to make white people feel like the world was their oyster. There’s work of deprogramming that needs doing, and hopefully this discussion will help to get started on that.

Open but culturally specific practices (tai chi, yoga, Buddhism, etc)

What's this thing about taking spiritual practices even from open practices such as Yoga (square breath) or tai chi (energy ball) and NOT CREDITING WHERE IT COMES FROM?!?

You're important anyway to have shared info and writing a book, just stop editing and putting your name to things, it damages everyone because if we want to dig further and do further research now we can't cause you cut off the source making yourself look like the originator of it when you're not.

White exceptionalism and exclusivity.

“If people of colour have a right to practices that exclude me, then if I trace my bloodline enough I can find a practice that I can claim the same exclusivity.”

because whiteness exists not as a culture itself, but as placing itself in opposition by excluding those who do not belong.

That’s why white people see exclusivity where people of colour see preservation.

To understand the difference always follow the relationships of power and who has real systemic power over whom (that’s why we go into intersectionality, which studies relationships of power)

The importance of cultural exchange for cultural appreciation

"The scary alternative is that white pagans sink into their whiteness. Scared to call any brown gods, they only name white deities and employ practices from white european culture. While it is wonderful that some pagans are cautious of misappropriating POC religions, still I find nothing scarier than white people who have convinced themselves that the divine is white.”

this quote is from the essay Derailing the Conversation by Cecily Joy Willowe featured in the book “Bringing race to the Table” (find the full bibliography of the video here: https://ko-fi.com/post/Cultural-Appropriation-Full-Bibliography-I2I81B0WE2 and it discussed how White people can move out of their white exceptionalism and into Cultural Exchange to deprogram themselves from white supremacy.

Feel free to ask questions, that's how we learn and fight ignorance. (commenting on the video helps too)

Full Video: