Dismantling the Mythos of Supremacy:
1. Introduction: The Anatomy of a Living Myth Audio
The persistence of white supremacy in the twenty-first century presents a paradox to the rationalist observer. Despite decades of civil rights legislation, diversity initiatives, and scientific consensus on the non-existence of biological race, the structures of racial hierarchy remain stubbornly intact. They manifest not only in economic disparities and judicial inequities but in the visceral, reflexive, and often unconscious behaviors of individuals and institutions. To understand this resilience, one must move beyond the sociological and political definitions of racism and engage with it as a psychological and mythological phenomenon. White supremacy functions as what Joseph Campbell termed a "living myth"—a public dream that shapes reality, organizes the collective psyche, and dictates the hermeneutics of the visible world.1
This report posits that white supremacy is a foundational mythology of the West, operating as a "cultural complex" in the Jungian sense. It possesses the collective unconscious, structuring identity, perception, and somatic response.3 It is not merely a set of prejudiced ideas but an ontological structure—a "white supremacist unconscious" (WSCU) that supports and is supported by the myth of autonomous individualism.4 In the Campbellian framework, a living myth serves four primary functions: mystical (reconciling consciousness with the mystery of being), cosmological (presenting a coherent image of the universe), sociological (validating a specific social order), and pedagogical (guiding the individual through life stages).1 White supremacy has historically usurped these functions, offering a distorted mysticism of "manifest destiny," a cosmology of racial hierarchy (the Great Chain of Being), a sociology of segregation and extraction, and a pedagogy of domination.
Furthermore, this myth is not merely cognitive; it is somatic. As articulated by trauma specialist Resmaa Menakem, white supremacy is a visceral, reflexive response embodied in the nervous system—a "white-body supremacy" that acts as the supreme standard of humanity.6 It operates beneath the threshold of conscious thought, residing in the "primitive contents" of the American psyche that Carl Jung observed but failed to fully deconstruct regarding his own racial biases.8 The myth is encoded in the body's fight, flight, or freeze responses, making it impervious to purely intellectual deconstruction.
This report provides an exhaustive analysis of strategies to counter this living myth. It synthesizes Jungian theory on cultural complexes, Campbellian critiques of the "Hero’s Journey," and the somatic abolitionism of Menakem, alongside the counter-mythologies of Afrofuturism, the "Collective Journey," and the "Beloved Community." It outlines a comprehensive praxis for dismantling the mythos of supremacy, involving the deconstruction of the "Black Snake" of extractive capitalism and colonial thought 10 and the cultivation of "new myths"—narratives of interdependence, "carrier bag" storytelling, and rituals of repair—that can hold the complexity of a post-supremacist future.12
2. The Jungian Diagnosis: The Cultural Complex of Whiteness
2.1 The Architecture of the Cultural Complex
Carl Jung’s theory of the "complex"—a splintered, autonomous fragment of the psyche organized around a core of emotional charge—provides a critical tool for understanding the tenacity of racism. While Jung focused primarily on personal complexes, post-Jungian scholars like Thomas Singer and Samuel Kimbles have expanded this to the "cultural complex." A cultural complex is a dynamic system of relations that operates within the collective psyche of a group, engendering feelings of identity and belonging while simultaneously organizing hatred, fear, and projection onto other groups.3
Whiteness functions as a massive, overarching cultural complex. It binds awareness and blinds consciousness, creating a dissociated reality where the group’s self-image (innocence, nobility, competence) is maintained by projecting its shadow (violence, incompetence, "primitiveness") onto people of color.14 This complex operates autonomously; when triggered, it bypasses the ego’s rationality, resulting in collective emotional possession. This explains why factual arguments against racism often fail: they address the ego, while the racism is rooted in a cultural complex that functions as a survival mechanism for the group’s identity.16 The complex is "glue" that holds the group together, but it is also the lens through which the group perceives threats.
The "whiteness complex" relies on a specific form of dissociation. History that contradicts the myth of white benevolence—such as genocide, slavery, and systemic exclusion—is not merely forgotten; it is actively repressed and held in the cultural shadow. As noted in the analysis of the "missing white woman syndrome," the cultural complex of "innocence" is projected onto white women, creating a hierarchy of victimhood that renders violence against women of color invisible.17 This is not accidental bias but a structural defense mechanism of the collective psyche. The media's obsession with white female victimhood reinforces the archetypal innocence of the white tribe, while simultaneously casting the racial Other as the predatory shadow.
2.2 Jung’s Shadow and the Problem of the "Primitive"
To utilize Jungian frameworks effectively, one must first confront the racism inherent in Jung’s own theories. Jung often equated the "primitive" contents of the unconscious with Black and Indigenous peoples, projecting his own fear of "going black"—a fear of losing European rational consciousness—onto Africans and African Americans.3 He described the "American unconscious" as having a higher tension due to the "primitive soil" and the presence of the "Negro," suggesting that white Americans were psychologically "colored" by their proximity to Blackness.8 He famously stated, "Just as the colored man lives in your cities and even within your houses, so also he lives under your skin, subconsciously".8
However, this problematic framing contains the seeds of its own deconstruction. The post-Jungian critique, led by scholars like Farhad Dalal and Michael Vannoy Adams, suggests that what Jung feared as "primitive" was actually the projected Shadow of the European psyche—the vital, emotional, and embodied aspects of life that Western rationalism had repressed.3 By projecting this shadow onto Black bodies, the white psyche engages in a "phantom narrative"—an unconscious story that casts the Other as the carrier of unwanted psychic content.18
Strategies to counter this involve "withdrawing the projection." This requires white individuals and communities to recognize that the qualities they attribute to the racial Other (aggression, hyper-sexuality, laziness, or chaotic emotion) are actually disowned aspects of their own cultural psyche.3 The "phantom narratives" that Kimbles describes—generational stories of trauma and identity that haunt the present—must be made conscious. Until the "ghosts" of historical trauma are reckoned with, the cultural complex will continue to reenact the past.18 This "phantom" nature explains why racism feels spectral yet solid; it is a haunting of the American psyche by the unresolved traumas of slavery and genocide.
2.3 The "Psychological Wage" as Mythic Currency
W.E.B. Du Bois’s concept of the "psychological wage" of whiteness aligns with the Jungian concept of libido or psychic energy. Whiteness provides a status and privilege that compensates for economic exploitation, functioning as a "public and psychological wage".21 In the mythic sense, this wage is the promise of belonging to the "Chosen" or the "Hero" class. It is a form of narcissism granted to the group, allowing poor whites to align with elite whites rather than with their class counterparts across racial lines.
James Baldwin expanded on this, arguing that whiteness is a "lie" and a "metaphor for power" rather than a biological reality.23 Baldwin observed that white Americans are trapped in a "dream" of innocence and historylessness, unable to face the reality of their identity because doing so would shatter their mythic self-conception.25 The strategy here, using depth psychology, is to recognize that the "wage" is actually a debt. The price of the ticket for whiteness is "self-delusion and moral decrepitude".21 Countering this requires exposing the fragility of the white identity—showing that the "wage" is paid in the currency of dissociation and the loss of one's own humanity.
Baldwin's analysis suggests that the "Negro problem" is actually a "white problem"—a projection of the white psyche's terror of its own private self. "If Americans were not so terrified of their private selves, they would never have needed to invent and could never have become so dependent on what they still call 'the Negro problem'".25 This aligns perfectly with the Jungian concept of the Shadow; the "Negro" is the container for all that the white American cannot face in themselves. Therefore, anti-racism is a project of reclaiming the white soul from its own delusions.
2.4 The "Racial Complex" and the Silence of Analysis
Fanny Brewster, an African American Jungian analyst, has identified a specific "Racial Complex" that operates within the field of depth psychology itself. She critiques the "invisibility" of African Americans in the recorded history of Jungian psychoanalysis and the silence surrounding racial trauma in training programs.26 The "Racial Complex" is a specific knot of unconscious material related to ethnicity and power that affects personality development and social status.
Brewster’s work emphasizes that this complex is not just a problem for the individual but for the collective field. The "cultural clearing" of Jung’s thought did not originally include the psychological experiences of the oppressed.27 Therefore, dismantling the myth of supremacy requires an interrogation of the tools themselves—psychoanalysis, history, and sociology—to see how they have been shaped by the very complex they seek to diagnose. The strategy here is to "color" the theory—to introduce the specificities of the African diaspora experience (e.g., "cultural trauma," "intergenerational transmission") into the universalist pretensions of Jungian thought.26
3. Deconstructing the Hero: Campbellian Critiques and Narrative Shifts
3.1 The Hero’s Journey as Colonial Technology
Joseph Campbell’s "monomyth" or "Hero’s Journey" has become the dominant narrative structure of Western popular culture. While Campbell framed it as a universal human pattern, contemporary critics argue that his articulation of the myth is deeply Eurocentric, individualistic, and patriarchal.28 The classic Hero’s Journey involves a singular (usually male) protagonist who leaves the community, conquers an external "other" (monster/villain), seizes a prize (the boon), and returns.
In the context of white supremacy, the Hero’s Journey often functions as a colonial technology. It validates the narrative of the "Chosen One"—a figure who creates order out of chaos through dominance and violence.28 The "Road of Trials" and the "Conquest" stages reinforce the idea that nature and other cultures are obstacles to be overcome rather than relations to be engaged.29 This structure underpins the "White Savior" trope and the myth of American Exceptionalism, where the U.S. acts as the global hero bringing "light" (civilization/democracy) to the "dark" world.30
By positioning the white heteronormative male as the default hero, the monomyth relegates all others to the roles of sidekicks, damsels, villains, or magical helpers.28 Even attempts to subvert this by casting diverse characters often trap them in the same structural logic of domination and singular heroism.32 To counter white supremacy, we must dismantle the narrative architecture that necessitates a conqueror. The "Hero" implies a "Villain," and in the white supremacist imagination, that villain is invariably the racial Other or the "savage" wilderness.
3.2 The Carrier Bag Theory: Toward a Container Narrative
Ursula K. Le Guin’s "Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" offers a profound counter-mythology to the Hero’s Journey. Le Guin argues that the first cultural tool was not the spear (the weapon of the hero/hunter) but the container (the basket/sling/bag of the gatherer).13 The "spear story" is linear, conflict-driven, and ends in a kill (climax). It is the story of "Time’s killing arrow." The "carrier bag story" is nonlinear, collecting, and focuses on holding complex relationships and sustaining life.
Applying this to anti-racist strategy, the Carrier Bag Theory suggests moving away from narratives of "defeating" enemies and toward narratives of holding complexity, gathering community, and preserving history. This shifts the focus from the individual protagonist to the collective context.34 It allows for a "multicultural imagination" that does not seek to assimilate difference into a single monomyth but holds disparate stories in a loose, non-hierarchical collection.3
In practical terms, this means social movements should avoid the "Great Man" theory of leadership (a hero myth) and embrace decentralized, container-like structures that hold space for emergence. The "container" is capable of holding the "messiness" of humanity—beginnings without ends, initiations, losses, and transformations—which contrasts with the Hero's Journey's demand for resolution and victory. This aligns with the feminist and indigenous critique that life is maintained not by the "kill" but by the "gathering" of seeds, roots, and stories.33
3.3 The Collective Journey: Networked Narratives in the Digital Age
In the digital age, the Hero’s Journey is breaking down in favor of the "Collective Journey." Jeff Gomez argues that linear, binary (good vs. evil) narratives no longer resonate in a hyper-connected world where audiences can see multiple perspectives simultaneously.36 The Collective Journey posits that systemic problems (like climate change or systemic racism) cannot be solved by a singular hero but require a community acting in concert.
Key characteristics of the Collective Journey include:
No Singular Hero: The community itself is the protagonist.
Systemic Antagonists: The "villain" is not a person but a flawed system or ideology (e.g., white supremacy, capitalism).
Non-Linearity: The narrative does not follow a straight line to victory but involves recursive cycles of learning and adaptation.38
This framework is essential for countering white supremacy because it de-centers the individual ego (often the white ego seeking redemption) and centers the collective efficacy of the group. Movements like Black Lives Matter and the Standing Rock water protectors exemplify the Collective Journey, where leadership is fluid ("leaderful" rather than leaderless) and the goal is systemic transformation rather than the defeat of a specific "bad apple".36 The narrative shifts from "I alone can fix it" (Trumpian heroism) to "We are the ones we have been waiting for" (Collective agency).
3.4 The Myth of the "Chosen One" and Colonial Violence
The "Chosen One" archetype is a staple of the Hero's Journey, particularly in fantasy and sci-fi (e.g., Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker). However, critical analysis reveals that this archetype is often a site of colonial triumph and heteronormative white masculinity.28 The "Chosen One" narrative implies that a single individual is destined to save the world, reinforcing hierarchy and the idea that power should be concentrated in the hands of the "special" few.
In the context of race, this archetype often manifests as the "White Savior" who enters a "primitive" or "chaotic" culture and leads it to salvation (e.g., Dune, Avatar). Even when the "Chosen One" is a person of color (e.g., T'Challa in Black Panther or the protagonist in Buffy), the narrative often forces them into a colonial logic of the body—where their worth is determined by their ability to perform violence and maintain order.28 Countering this requires narratives that reject "destiny" and "chosenness" in favor of choice, collaboration, and the recognition that everyone has a role in the revolution.
4. Somatic Abolitionism: Addressing the Myth in the Flesh
4.1 White Body Supremacy and the Nervous System
Resmaa Menakem argues that white supremacy is not just an ideology; it is a "virus" that has infected the bodies of both white people and people of color.6 He terms this "White Body Supremacy" (WBS)—the unconscious assumption that the white body is the standard of humanity and safety, while the Black body is a site of danger or deviation. This is not a metaphor; it is a physiological reality.
The myth is maintained through the nervous system. For white people, WBS manifests as "white fragility"—a somatic constriction, defensiveness, or flight response when confronted with racial stress. The vagus nerve detects a "threat" (a challenge to racial worldview) and triggers a survival response (fight, flight, freeze, fawn) that bypasses the prefrontal cortex.6 For Black people and People of Color (POC), it manifests as "weathering"—the chronic physiological stress of navigating a hostile environment, leading to accelerated cellular aging and trauma retention.42 The "myth" here is biological: the white nervous system perceives the Black body as a predator (due to centuries of cultural conditioning), triggering a survival response that rational thought often cannot override.43
4.2 Clean Pain vs. Dirty Pain: The Alchemy of Healing
Strategies to counter WBS must involve "somatic abolitionism"—the practice of metabolizing racial trauma. Menakem distinguishes between "clean pain" and "dirty pain."
Clean Pain: The pain of facing truth, integrity, and growth. It is the discomfort of admitting complicity, of hearing hard truths without defending oneself, and of changing deeply ingrained behaviors. It is pain that mends.
Dirty Pain: The pain of avoidance, blame, and denial. It is the energy expended to keep the myth of innocence alive. It loops and creates more trauma.6
White supremacy thrives on dirty pain—the refusal to sit with the discomfort of history and complicity. Somatic practices involve:
Settling the Body: Learning to down-regulate the vagus nerve to stay present in racialized discomfort without fleeing or attacking.
Noticing the "Thrum": Identifying the vibrational response to race before it becomes a thought or action. "Notice the rage, notice the silence".7
Cultural Somatics: Creating "containers" (groups) where white people can work with other white people to unpack their racial conditioning without harming POC, and where POC can heal collectively.41
4.3 The "Wetiko" Virus: The Cannibal Spirit of Capitalism
The Indigenous concept of Wetiko (or Windigo) offers a powerful mythological parallel to Menakem’s somatic analysis. Wetiko is an Algonquin word for a cannibalistic spirit driven by insatiable greed and consumption.45 It is described as a "mind virus" that deludes its host into believing that consuming the life-force of others is moral and logical.
Scholars like Jack D. Forbes connect Wetiko to the psychology of colonialism and capitalism. The Wetiko psychosis is characterized by two main traits:
Insatiable Hunger: The initial act of consumption creates a residual, unnatural desire for more, leading to a cycle of addiction and destruction (infinite growth on a finite planet).45
The Icy Heart: The host carrier loses the ability for empathy and compassion, becoming emotionally numb to the suffering they cause. This is the "amputated" empathy of the colonizer.47
Treating white supremacy as a Wetiko infection reframes the racist not just as "evil" but as "infected" or spiritually ill. This aligns with the "cultural complex" theory but adds a dimension of spiritual pathology. The "Black Snake" prophecy at Standing Rock (referring to the Dakota Access Pipeline) acts as a physical manifestation of the Wetiko spirit—a force that consumes the earth and poisons the water.10 The antidote to Wetiko is not just political resistance but spiritual quarantine and cure: community care, generosity, and reconnection to the web of life—practices that starve the cannibal spirit.45
5. Counter-Mythologies and Future Casting
5.1 Afrofuturism as Counter-Memory and Prophecy
Afrofuturism is a strategy of "temporal reclamation." By blending science fiction, history, and fantasy, it disrupts the linear timeline of white progress that erases Black contribution and future.50 It is not merely an aesthetic but an epistemology—a way of knowing that centers Black subjectivity in the future.
Sun Ra: The musician Sun Ra created a "living myth" of himself as an extraterrestrial from Saturn, using this persona to critique the limited reality assigned to Black men in America. His "mythocracy" was a direct challenge to the "bad truth" of white supremacy.1 He used myth to "coordinate minds and souls with a transcendent super-reality," arguing that Earth had been "fed a bad truth" and needed a new vibration to survive.
Octavia Butler and Earthseed: In her Parable series, Butler created "Earthseed," a fictional religion based on the tenet "God is Change." This serves as a counter-myth to the static, hierarchical God of fundamentalist Christianity often aligned with white supremacy.53 Earthseed prepares the community for adaptation and survival, functioning as a "critical dystopia" that diagnoses the present while offering a pragmatic theology of survival.54 Butler’s work is a form of "anti-dissonance" praxis, unraveling the cognitive dissonance required to maintain white supremacy.56
5.2 Solarpunk and Indigenous Futurisms
Solarpunk emerges as a narrative aesthetic that rejects the dystopian inevitability often present in Western sci-fi. It envisions a future where humanity has solved ecological and social crises through decentralized technology and harmony with nature.57 It aligns with "Indigenous Futurisms," which view the apocalypse not as a future event but as something Indigenous peoples have already survived (colonization), thus positioning them as the experts in post-apocalyptic living.58
These genres function as "new myths" that reject the hierarchy of the "Black Snake" (petro-capitalism). They emphasize "naturecultures" (Donna Haraway)—the entanglement of human and non-human life—challenging the separation that underpins white supremacy’s dominance over nature.60 The myth here is one of entanglement rather than domination.
5.3 Ubuntu and the Beloved Community
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of the "Beloved Community" is a "political myth" in the positive sense—an aspirational image of a society based on justice and agape love.12 It is not a sentimental utopia but a rigorous conflict-reconciliation model that requires the integration of the "head and heart."
This aligns with the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu ("I am because we are"). Ubuntu offers a direct counter-myth to Cartesian individualism ("I think, therefore I am"), which underpins the white supremacist myth of the autonomous self.62 Ubuntu posits that one’s humanity is inextricably bound to the humanity of others. To dehumanize another through racism is to diminish one’s own humanity. This framework has been used in Truth and Reconciliation processes to heal the "cultural complex" of apartheid.62 It reframes justice not as punishment but as the restoration of broken relationships.
6. Strategic Implementation: Narrative and Ritual
6.1 The Race Class Narrative (RCN)
The Race Class Narrative, developed by Ian Haney López and tested by Lake Research Partners, is a strategic application of counter-mythology in the political sphere. It dismantles the "divide and conquer" myth that suggests racial justice is a zero-sum game that hurts white people.65
The Old Myth: "Undeserving" people of color are taking resources from "hardworking" white people (The Scarcity Myth / Scapegoating).
The Counter Myth: Certain politicians utilize strategic racism to divide working people, preventing them from uniting to demand fair resources for all (The Solidarity Myth).
RCN uses a specific narrative structure (the "sandwich"):
Shared Value: Start with a value shared across races (e.g., "No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all want our families to be safe").
The Problem: Name the specific villain (elites/politicians) who uses race to divide us ("Certain politicians try to divide us by fueling fear of immigrants...").
The Solution: Cross-racial solidarity creates abundance ("By joining together across racial lines, we can demand the schools and healthcare we all deserve").67
This narrative strategy effectively "rewrites" the cultural complex by shifting the antagonist from the "racial other" to the "manipulative elite," thereby allowing the white working class to align with people of color in a "Collective Journey".68 Research shows that explicit mentions of race ("White, Black, and Brown") actually increase support for progressive economic policies among persuadable voters, countering the assumption that "colorblind" messaging is safer.67
6.2 Emergent Strategy: Biomimicry as Organizing Myth
adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy adapts Octavia Butler’s fiction into a movement philosophy. It emphasizes biomimicry—learning from dandelions, starlings, and mycelium to organize in decentralized, resilient ways.69
Key principles include:
Fractals: "How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale." This counters the "Great Man" myth by validating small, local interactions as the site of transformation. If the small interactions are hierarchical and abusive, the large movement will be too.71
Interdependence: Moving at the "speed of trust" rather than the speed of production. This prioritizes relationship over efficiency, a direct challenge to capitalist/white supremacist temporalities.73
Adaptation: Embracing change as a constant force ("God is Change"). This allows movements to be fluid like water, rather than rigid like the structures they oppose.
Emergent Strategy provides a "pattern language" for movements that disrupts the rigid, hierarchical command-structures of white supremacy culture.72 It suggests that the "myth" of the movement should be modeled on the resilience of nature, not the machinery of the state.
6.3 Rituals of Repair and Resistance
Myths are sustained by rituals; counter-myths require counter-rituals.
Deep Canvassing: A ritual of connection where canvassers engage in 10-20 minute non-judgmental conversations with voters, sharing vulnerable stories to shift worldviews. It has proven effective in reducing transphobia and anti-immigrant sentiment where facts failed. It works by creating a "container" for the voter to process their "cultural complex" without shame. By asking voters to reflect on times they felt excluded or judged, canvassers build an empathetic bridge that overrides the "Wetiko" separation.43
Reparations as Teshuvah: Framing reparations not just as economic policy but as the spiritual ritual of Teshuvah (return/repentance) in the Jewish tradition. This involves confession, apology, and material restitution (Tzedakah) to repair the breach in the cosmos.75 Initiatives like "Coming to the Table" use the ritual of sharing food and stories between descendants of enslavers and the enslaved to metabolize historical trauma. The CTTT approach involves four pillars: Uncovering History, Making Connections, Working Toward Healing, and Taking Action.77
Black August: A ritual of "sacred resistance" initiated in the California prison system to commemorate Black freedom fighters like George Jackson. It involves fasting, study, and physical training, acting as a "reorientation of values" that breaks the myth of Black passivity and connects the community to an unbroken lineage of resistance. Participants fast from sunrise to sunset, refrain from drugs/alcohol, and study revolutionary works, engaging in a "somatic" discipline that strengthens the collective body for the struggle.79
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Policy Platform: The "Vision for Black Lives" acts as a new pedagogical myth, outlining a comprehensive future through six planks: End the War on Black People, Invest-Divest, Reparations, Economic Justice, Community Control, and Political Power.81 These demands are not just legislative; they are a ritual incantation of a new world, demanding the divestment from the "death dealing" institutions of policing and investment in life-giving community structures.
Table 1: Comparative Analysis of Mythic Frameworks
Table 2: Strategic Interventions by Domain
7. Synthesis and Conclusion: From Monomyth to Mycelium
The analysis indicates that white supremacy functions as a "living myth" and a "cultural complex" that is both psychologically autonomous and somatically embedded. Therefore, strategies to counter it must operate on multiple levels simultaneously. It is not enough to change the laws; we must change the "dream" that underpins the laws and the "body" that enforces them.
The Somatic Level: We must engage in "somatic abolitionism" to metabolize the "primitive" fears and "dirty pain" stored in the nervous system. Without this, cognitive strategies will trigger the "white fragility" defense mechanism, causing the myth to reassert itself violently.
The Narrative Level: We must shift from the "Hero’s Journey" (which privileges the individual conqueror) to the "Collective Journey" and "Carrier Bag" narratives. This involves validating complex, polyphonic stories where the community is the protagonist and the "enemy" is the systemic dysfunction (Wetiko).
The Mythic Level: We must cultivate counter-myths like Afrofuturism, Solarpunk, and the Beloved Community that provide a compelling vision of the future—a "super-reality" that makes the current reality of supremacy seem small and obsolete.
The Strategic Level: We must operationalize these myths through the Race Class Narrative and Emergent Strategy, using rituals of "Deep Canvassing" and "Reparations" to act as the liturgical practice of the new society.
Ultimately, the goal is to transition from a society organized by the "Black Snake" (a myth of extraction, separation, and linear dominance) to one organized like mycelium (a myth of interconnection, nutrient exchange, and resilience). This requires a "metacognitive awareness" of the cultural complexes that possess us 15, allowing us to wake from the "public dream" of whiteness and enter into a genuine relationship with reality and one another. The dismantling of white supremacy is not just a political act but a psychological and spiritual imperative—a retrieval of the collective soul from the grip of a cannibalistic myth.
Works cited
Sun Ra: His Myth, Music, and the Alter Destiny A dissertation submitted by Jesse Carsten to Pacifica Graduate Institute in part, accessed December 8, 2025, https://dublab-api-1.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2024/10/carsten-sun-ra-myth.pdf
“An' No Place to Lead 'Em”: The Grapes of Wrath and the Breakdown of Myth - ScholarWorks@UNO - The University of New Orleans, accessed December 8, 2025, https://scholarworks.uno.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3762&context=td
Jung and Racism - The British Psychotherapy Foundation, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/news/insight/jung-and-racism/
The White Supremacist Collective Unconscious 1-13-21[2] - Boston University, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.bu.edu/history/files/2021/01/The-White-Supremacist-Collective-Unconscious-1-13-212.pdf
The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society, accessed December 8, 2025, https://api.pageplace.de/preview/DT0400.9781135444877_A24927963/preview-9781135444877_A24927963.pdf
A White Body Elder Meets My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem, accessed December 8, 2025, https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/2021/03/01/a-white-body-elder-meets-my-grandmothers-hands-by-resmaa-menakem/
Resmaa Menakem: Somatic Abolitionism - Sounds True, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.soundstrue.com/a/resources/transcript/resmaa-menakem-somatic-abolitionism/?print=print
Jung on the Impact of the Negro - Jungian Center for the Spiritual Sciences, accessed December 8, 2025, https://jungiancenter.org/jung-on-the-impact-of-the-negro/
STATEMENT REGARDING JUNG'S WRITINGS ON AND THEORIES ABOUT AFRICANS - The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, accessed December 8, 2025, https://sfjung.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/NewLinksForWebSiteStatement-From-JB.pdf
North Dakota oil pipeline protesters stand their ground: 'This is sacred land' - The Guardian, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/aug/29/north-dakota-oil-pipeline-protest-standing-rock-sioux
#NoDAPL: Why the Black Snake Isn't Slain | Truthout, accessed December 8, 2025, https://truthout.org/articles/nodapl-why-the-black-snake-isn-t-slain/
Strength to Love - dokumen.pub, accessed December 8, 2025, https://dokumen.pub/download/strength-to-love-9780807051979-9780807051900.html
Multiple Discovery - Artist — Alexander Gouletas, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.alexandergouletasphotography.com/multiplediscovery
accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003311447-7/whiteness-complex-john-michael-hayes#:~:text=Whiteness%20is%20a%20cultural%20complex,as%20a%20basic%20psychological%20defense.
The Whiteness Complex | 7 | Breaking the spell | John Michael Hayes | - Taylor & Francis eBooks, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003311447-7/whiteness-complex-john-michael-hayes
When Imagination is a Killer: the Psychology of Racism, accessed December 8, 2025, http://w.lkti.lt/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/117-134-Juknevicius1.pdf
The Cultural Complex of Innocence: An Examination of Media and Social Construction of Missing White Woman Syndrome - The Aquila Digital Community, accessed December 8, 2025, https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/858/
Intergenerational Complexes in Analytical Psychology: The Suffering of Ghosts - Routledge, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.routledge.com/Intergenerational-Complexes-in-Analytical-Psychology-The-Suffering-of-Ghosts/Kimbles/p/book/9780367513269
Jung and Racism - The British Psychotherapy Foundation, accessed December 8, 2025, https://cdn.britishpsychotherapyfoundation.org.uk/old-site-assets/Jung-and-Racism-.pdf
The Suffering of Ghosts: Working with Traumatic Cultural Histories that Continue to Haunt Us, accessed December 8, 2025, https://extension.pacifica.edu/suffering-of-ghosts/
White | Keywords - NYU Press, accessed December 8, 2025, https://keywords.nyupress.org/american-cultural-studies/essay/white/
Becoming White in a White Supremacist State: The Public and Psychological Wages of Whiteness for Undocumented 1.5-Generation Brazilians - MDPI, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/10/5/184
Whiteness and the Return of the "Black Body" - Duquesne Scholarship Collection, accessed December 8, 2025, https://dsc.duq.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2402&context=etd
James Baldwin and the “Lie of Whiteness”: Toward an Ethic of Culpability, Complicity, and Confession - MDPI, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/12/6/447
James Baldwin and the Meaning of Whiteness | Common Dreams, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/02/20/james-baldwin-and-meaning-whiteness
The Racial Complex; A Jungian Perspective on Culture and Race, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.jungiananalysts.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/The-racial-complex-a-Jungian-perspective-on-culture-and-race-Fanny-Brewster.pdf
The Need to Increase Diversity in Jungian Communities: A Personal Journey, accessed December 8, 2025, https://jungianjournal.ca/index.php/jjss/article/download/177/120/307
Decolonizing the Body of the Chosen One: The Bodily Performance of Anakin Skywalker, Buffy Summers, and T'Challa, accessed December 8, 2025, https://digitalcommons.du.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2632&context=etd
One myth to rule them all and in the darkness bind them: a critical examination of Joseph Campbell's The Hero's Journey - ResearchGate, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/379279470_One_myth_to_rule_them_all_and_in_the_darkness_bind_them_a_critical_examination_of_Joseph_Campbell's_The_Hero's_Journey
Story Skeleton—Heart of Darkness - The Darling Axe, accessed December 8, 2025, https://darlingaxe.com/blogs/news/heart-of-darkness
Full article: Old Wine in New Bottles for Australian Readers: Captain Cook and Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey in Children's Picture Books - Taylor & Francis Online, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14443058.2025.2573628
Going In Circles: How And Why Are Particular Theoretical, Literary And Film-Based Attempts To Resist, Subvert Or Unravel The Hero's Journey Still Problematic, Problematised Or Only Partial In Their Success? – Coreopsis Journal Spring 2025 - Society for Ritual Arts, accessed December 8, 2025, https://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/spring-2025-issue/paper/going-in-circles-how-and-why-are-particular-theoretical-literary-and-film-based-attempts-to-resist-subvert-or-unravel-the-heros-journey-still-problematic-problematised-or-only-partial-in/
The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction (and Life) - Andrew Wille Writing Studio, accessed December 8, 2025, https://wille.org/2020/03/31/the-carrier-bag-theory-of-fiction-and-life/
Boat Stories - ribbonfarm, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2018/01/09/boat-stories/
Collecting Notions | Arts Scholars - University of Auckland, accessed December 8, 2025, https://artsscholars.blogs.auckland.ac.nz/2020/12/06/collecting-notions/
accessed December 8, 2025, https://blog.collectivejourney.com/the-collective-journey-story-model-comes-to-television-151bb4011ce2#:~:text=Hero's%20Journey%20stories%20are%20about,attempt%20to%20achieve%20systemic%20change.
Why is This Happening?. A New Narrative Model Explains It | by Jeff Gomez | Collective Journey, accessed December 8, 2025, https://blog.collectivejourney.com/why-is-this-happening-d1287d5ee4ee
The Hero's Journey is No Longer Serving Us | by Jeff Gomez - Collective Journey, accessed December 8, 2025, https://blog.collectivejourney.com/the-heros-journey-is-no-longer-serving-us-85c6f8152a50
The Collective Journey Comes to Television | by Jeff Gomez, accessed December 8, 2025, https://blog.collectivejourney.com/the-collective-journey-story-model-comes-to-television-151bb4011ce2
The Black Snake and the Row of Flags - Dark Mountain, accessed December 8, 2025, https://dark-mountain.net/the-mythos-we-live-by-the-black-snake-and-the-row-of-flags/
Resmaa Menakem — "Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence" | The On ..., accessed December 8, 2025, https://onbeing.org/programs/resmaa-menakem-notice-the-rage-notice-the-silence/
Evidence on: Anti-Racism in Health Care and Birth Work, accessed December 8, 2025, https://evidencebasedbirth.com/evidence-on-anti-racism-in-health-care-and-birth-work/
It is possible to talk someone out of bigotry. Experiments where "deep canvassers" engage in non-judgmental conversations where they share narratives about undocumented immigrants and transgender individuals reduced prejudice towards the groups (for at least three months). : r/science - Reddit, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ey7xc2/it_is_possible_to_talk_someone_out_of_bigotry/
Cultural Somatics Institute, accessed December 8, 2025, https://cultural-somatics-institute.webflow.io/
THE WORLD OF WETIKO: AN INVESTIGATION - Cosmos and History, accessed December 8, 2025, http://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/download/1008/1698/4511
Reviving Witiko (Windigo): An Ethnohistory of “Cannibal Monsters” In the Athabasca District of Northern Alberta, 1878–1910 - ResearchGate, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/31275278_Reviving_Witiko_Windigo_An_Ethnohistory_of_Cannibal_Monsters_in_the_Athabasca_District_of_Northern_Alberta_1878-1910
Seeing Wetiko: On Capitalism, Mind Viruses, and Antidotes for a ..., accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/seeing-wetiko-on-capitalism-mind-viruses-and-antidotes-for-a-world-in-transition/
'We must kill the black snake': Prophecy and prayer motivate Standing Rock movement | CBC News, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/dakota-access-pipeline-prayer-1.3887441
ITHACA ON FIRE: HOW THE WEST'S OBSESSION WITH THE HERO HAS LED US TO THE END OF THE WORLD by Rachael A. Vaughan A Dissertation - ProQuest, accessed December 8, 2025, https://search.proquest.com/openview/4bcaf4c6723b51a46e1394565f30ecc9/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750&diss=y
Afrofuturism Unveiled - Science for the People Magazine, accessed December 8, 2025, https://magazine.scienceforthepeople.org/vol26-2-ways-of-knowing/afrofuturism-unveiled/
Going “Black to the Future” - JSTOR Daily, accessed December 8, 2025, https://daily.jstor.org/going-black-to-the-future/
NEH Application Cover sheet Media Projects Production (TR-293344), accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.neh.gov/sites/default/files/2024-10/FOIA%2023-40%20Firelight%20Media%2C%20Inc..pdf
Parable Series (1993, 1998): Octavia E. Butler (Chapter 23) - The Cambridge Companion to the Twentieth-Century American Novel and Politics, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-the-twentiethcentury-american-novel-and-politics/parable-series-1993-1998-octavia-e-butler/84D9571FDAD2D3D5D04354973BFE7974
Parable of the Times - The University of Chicago Divinity School, accessed December 8, 2025, https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/articles/parable-times
The Anointed: Countering Dystopia with Faith in Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower and Parable of Talents - Americana: The Journal of American Popular Culture (1900-present), accessed December 8, 2025, https://americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/spring_2014/tweedy.htm
Octavia Butler and Creative Resistance - MOLD :: Designing the Future of Food, accessed December 8, 2025, https://thisismold.com/series/earthseed/octavia-butler-and-creative-resistance
No. 291 Summer 2020 Cover “Exomoon” by David Lunt - Vector and the BSFA, accessed December 8, 2025, https://vector-bsfa.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/vector-291.pdf
THE DIALECTIC OF MYTH: CREATING MEANING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE Moira Marquis A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the Univers, accessed December 8, 2025, https://cdr.lib.unc.edu/downloads/9306t523t?locale=en
Moving Beyond Survival in Twentieth-Century Canadian Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction - ERA, accessed December 8, 2025, https://ualberta.scholaris.ca/bitstreams/a50f7ab9-828b-44dc-a4a1-45bb59d27fae/download
Our latest blog posts - Page 3 of 47 - ClimateCultures - creative conversations for the Anthropocene, accessed December 8, 2025, https://climatecultures.net/our-latest-blog-posts-2/page/3/
In(di)visible Dream: Rhetoric, Myth, and the Road in America - UNL Digital Commons, accessed December 8, 2025, https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1031&context=commstuddiss
Resources: Books - Charter for Compassion, accessed December 8, 2025, https://charterforcompassion.org/news-events/special-events/ubuntu/resources/books.html
Ubuntu: Personal, Linguistic, Pedagogical and Indigenous Narratives of Words, Worlds and Wisdom - Ecoversities, accessed December 8, 2025, https://ecoversities.org/ubuntu-personal-linguistic-pedagogical-and-indigenous-narratives-of-words-worlds-and-wisdom/
Ubuntu Ethos: African Insights for Ethical AI - Diplo Foundation, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/ubuntu-ethos-african-insights-for-ethical-ai/
A NEW PARADIGM FOR JUSTICE AND DEMOCRACY | The Roosevelt Institute, accessed December 8, 2025, https://rooseveltinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/RI_A-New-Paradigm-for-Justice-and-Democracy_Report_202111-1.pdf
Race-Class Narrative National Dial Survey Report | Demos, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.demos.org/research/race-class-narrative-national-dial-survey-report
Research Highlights: Communicating About Race and Equity - Lumina Foundation, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.luminafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/existing-research-on-racial-equity-communications.pdf
BUILDING A BIGGER WE - People's Action, accessed December 8, 2025, https://peoplesaction.org/wp-content/uploads/PA-Deep-Canvass-Final-Report-v5.pdf
Emergent Strategy : Shaping Change, Changing Worlds book by adrienne maree brown, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/emergent-strategy-shaping-change-changing-worlds-9781849352604
Emergent Strategy: Organizing for Social Justice - Forte Labs, accessed December 8, 2025, https://fortelabs.com/blog/emergent-strategy-organizing-for-social-justice/
Emergent Strategy for Linear Thinkers | LeaderLab | UUA.org, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.uua.org/leaderlab/emergent-linear-thinkers
Emergent Strategy - The Commons Social Change Library, accessed December 8, 2025, https://commonslibrary.org/emergent-strategy/
Righting Abundance: An Emergent Strategy Primer for Funders | Nonprofit Quarterly, accessed December 8, 2025, https://nonprofitquarterly.org/righting-abundance-an-emergent-strategy-primer-for-funders/
Moving Beyond Polarization - Rite of Passage Journeys, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.riteofpassagejourneys.org/blog/2021/10/29/nn-psmca-ewx4f-azcry-haa4f-fwtj4
Reparations: The Difficulty and Bravery of Asking - Exploring Judaism, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.exploringjudaism.org/holidays/passover/passover-reflections/reparations-the-difficulty-and-bravery-of-asking/
The New-ish, Jew-ish Economy - Jewish Currents, accessed December 8, 2025, https://jewishcurrents.org/the-new-ish-jew-ish-economy
About Us - Coming To The Table, accessed December 8, 2025, https://comingtothetable.org/about-us/
For more information visit: www.comingtothetable.org - Coming To The Table, accessed December 8, 2025, https://comingtothetable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/CTTT-Printable-Handout-Time-article.pdf
Blog – BLAM UK CIC, accessed December 8, 2025, https://blamuk.org/blog/
How observing Black August renewed my commitment to the struggle and my community, accessed December 8, 2025, https://www.grassrootsthinking.com/how-observing-black-august-renewed-my-commitment-to-the-struggle-and-my-community/
POLICY PLATFORMS - M4BL, accessed December 8, 2025, https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/