You Can’t Optimize Your Way Out of Fascism (or White Supremacy)
Why Constant Self-Improvement Will Never Protect You
This morning, my mom sent me an Instagram video of a planned white supremacist rally in Minneapolis scheduled for later this afternoon. She lives in the Twin Cities —where I grew up—and as I’ve been closely following the ICE raids, I’m not only devastated about what’s happening to my beautiful state, but I’m concerned about her safety as she attempts routine activities.
I don’t have the perfectly polished political jargon to capture and the horror we are living under right now, but I’m going to assume you know. I’m going to assume you’ve seen the eyewitness videos, the news reports, and the accounts of those who have been personally attacked by ICE in Minnesota. And while this is not specific to Minnesota—ICE has been deployed across the country—what’s happening here is not only a targeted attack, it is a testing ground and blueprint of what’s to come as the United States continues its descent into fascism.
Before I go any further, I need to say this plainly: this fascism is only new to white America. State-sanctioned violence, authoritarianism, and disposability, has been the reality of Black and brown Americans since this nation’s founding. Fascism is simply white supremacy fully realized.
And yet, as we endure this collective trauma—living in a near-constant state of hyper-vigilance—we are still bombarded with pressure to embark on our new year glow ups, 75-hard challenges, and productivity regimes. It feels ignorant at best, and dystopian at worst, to scroll through Instagram and watch white supremacist violence seamlessly alternate with the next wellness trend.
But this has always been the American way: convincing us that perpetually optimizing ourselves is the path to safety—that if we become disciplined enough, productive enough, impressive enough, we can prove to this system that we are too worthy to be harmed. And when we inevitably fail under these pretenses, we’re taught to blame ourselves rather than interrogate the near-impossibility of self-optimization within a system that exists to exploit, extract, and discard us.
This self-blame is how white supremacy finds a way to quietly maintain its status quo so that when its violence intensifies, it oddly feels normal—or at least easier to blame on the individual or community who cannot, or refuses to, assimilate to the system.
Again, this has always been the reality of Black and brown people in this country. The system was built so that our survival depends on assimilation, while simultaneously ensuring that true assimilation is nearly impossible. We spend our lives pushing ourselves beyond human limits—enduring both overt and covert racism, contorting ourselves to meet shifting expectations, and running headfirst into systemic barriers deliberately placed the very survival and access we’re told to earn.
We exist in a perpetual state of generational exhaustion—bodies and minds worn down by the physical, structural, and psychological violence white supremacy has imposed on us.
And if you’re not Black or brown, there’s a strong change you’ve believed in—or at least benefited from— the system’s requirements as a form of protection in some way. In many ways, adhering to those requirements does offer a measure of safety. That’s not an accident; it’s how the system was designed. But that protection has never come without a cost. The cost is often burnout, slow and subtle dehumanization, and the creeping belief that you, too, are never quite enough.
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The biggest lie of white supremacy is that adhering to white supremacy culture will protect us from its harm.
Not only is this false—it’s dangerous.
The myth: self-improvement as safety
We are fed this myth from Kindergarten: hard work + self-improvement = safety. But let’s take an honest look at this for what it is:
A justification for racism toward Black and brown people
An incentive for you to buy into capitalism (as another tool to maintain the hierarchy of whiteness)
An excuse for state sanctioned violence as individual blame
Let’s break that down.
In a white supremacist society, “hard work” is not a neutral concept. It is defined by elite white men who created the system and continue to hold disproportionate power within it. Their definition of hard work has long been treated as the standard, while the labor that actually sustains society—often performed by middle and working-class people, disproportionately Black and brown—is devalued, ignored, and rendered invisible.
From the plantation economy to the Gilded Age to the Industrial Revolution, elite white Protestant men shaped not only how we define “hard work,” but who is deemed worthy because of it. They positioned themselves as the embodiment of worth and merit through either inherited wealth, political influence, and exploitative economic schemes—abusing laborers to hoard wealth and power.
And still, their version of hard work was elevated as ideal—the one to not only admire, but emulate, and ultimately, worship. America was sold as the place where “anyone” could achieve that level of value and status if they just worked hard enough, conveniently ignoring the fact that the system was designed to ensure that only some ever could.
This is the core logic of white supremacy: demand assimilation while making assimilation impossible, then use that “failure” as justification for control, punishment, and violence. We have been falling for these lies for generations—believing that if we just self-optimize correctly, our success, and ultimately our value, will finally be secured.
And, sometimes, it appears to work. There are people across races, genders, and classes who have found ways to maneuver within the system and benefit from it. But their success does not render the system harmless, fair, or non-existent.
We also have to be honest with what those successes often require. They rarely come without surviving trauma, harm, and violence from said system. And no amount of assimilation or self-optimization has ever guaranteed protection from white supremacy or state-sanctioned violence.
Just as no amount of obedience will protect you from an abusive partner—because abuse is not caused by disobedience but by the desire for control—no amount of productivity, excellence, or compliance will protect you from an abusive system. That system will always find new standards, new thresholds, new reasons to justify harm.
So let’s be clear:
Hyper-productivity doesn’t equal protection.
Excellence doesn’t equal immunity.
Assimilation doesn’t equal safety.
And compliance doesn’t equal freedom.\
(If you’re looking for a more decolonized approach to self-improvement, goal-setting, and life design—one that works with your humanity instead of against it—my guided workbook, Your Liberated Year, was created for you. You can explore it here.)
The development: self-improvement as the standard (and the hierarchy-justifier)
I always center my work around this core question: where do these ideas come from?
This is how my work began—with curiosity and a determination to connect the historic dots to present-day beliefs, behaviors, and lifestyle. So, where did this idea that self-improvement, hard work, and constant productivity are not just admirable, but required, actually come from?
When did climbing a social ladder become the measure of a life well lived? And are these ideals universal—shared across cultures and continents—or are they distinctly Western, shaped by specific histories and power structures?