Embrace race treason, let your inner libertroph shine

Dear friends of Libertroph,

Our editor, Alyssa, recently started reading the Summer 1993 edition of Race Traitor journal. Holding it in her hands and paying close attention to the words brought her a profound sense of peace, somehow, to know that as she was turning 4 years old in rural white PA, a cadre of radical white folks were out there unveiling a foundational text that would come to shape her organizing 33 years later.

We assumed the analysis offered in Race Traitor would feel aligned with that of Libertroph, but the essay Alyssa read was even more relevant than we thought it would be. You can sense this even from the epigraph on Page 1: “We were not able to choose the mess we have to live in—this collapse of a whole society—but we can choose our way out.” —C.L.R. James

The first essay of the Summer 1993 edition goes on to uplift poor and working class people for their ongoing contributions to shaping a freer U.S. society, juxtaposing their spontaneous, experimental efforts that resulted in the Los Angeles Rebellion of 1992 with the rigid, disconnected strategies of “the Left.” It was a reminder to continue resisting the “reformist slant” of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, and instead embrace “united struggle and mutual aid.”

Holding Race Traitor in her hands also sparked Alyssa’s imagination: she saw someone who’s a young white person today holding Libertroph Magazine 33 years from now and finding inspiration and validation for their organizing. That’s the power of a print publication. It becomes an archive and an affirmation. It tells people that despite what the government might have you think, we are here. We are people racialized as white leaning toward liberatory action to end the violence of racism. We are Libertrophs 🌻💥🤗

If you are committed to being part of this journey, please pre-order a print copy of Libertroph Issue 02 by becoming a Libertroph Member before Sept 16!

Libertroph Issue 02 features a piece by “race traitor” Kate Davis Jones. In it, Kate unpacks the origins of the Race Traitor journal, its founders, and its applicability to her organizing in Durham, NC. She unveils the utility of the concept in her own shift from being embroiled in white guilt to claiming responsibility for disrupting the violence of white supremacy.

Reading “Race Traitor” **reshaped the way I thought about my own whiteness. In 2020 when I was standing on that grassy hill [where protestors were holding a “die-in”], I knew about “How The Irish Became White” [by Race Traitor co-founder Noel Ignatiev], but I hadn’t read it. I knew about white privilege, and I knew a hell of a lot about white guilt, but I didn’t know about race treason. At the time, I didn’t like being white. I never expressed this because it felt ridiculous and naive. (Oh, poor me!) I had felt that “stifling conformity,” and at the same time, felt a deep isolation from my larger community. My shame around my race had made me feel small and afraid to act. I felt I had been forced into a club I despised, and I saw no way forward, no way to heal the wounds white supremacy had caused.

“Race treason” felt like the opposite of “white guilt.” It was a practicable internal orientation toward my own whiteness. Instead of seeking ways to mitigate the damage I was doing to the world by existing as a white person, I was suddenly empowered to disrupt harmful institutions because I was white. It became a lens through which I could understand activists I admired, like Rachel Corrie, Joan Mulholland and other Freedom Riders, and John Brown.