Whiteness
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in 2021 7,262 incidents were reported by law enforcement agencies across the country with 64.8% of victims being targeted by biased perpetrators because of their race, ethnicity, and ancestry (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022). Hate crimes against Black or African Americans hate remain the highest of all single- bias incidents at 63.2% compared to Asian and Hispanic groups (U.S. Department of Justice, 2022). Black hate crimes are a pillar of U.S. society and after the premeditated, white supremacist, terrorist attack on the Black community in Buffalo, NY on May 14, 2022, I began reflecting on whiteness and the foundations of America.
We are in an apparent hierarchical, polarized culture war that has been built since before the founding of this country when European colonizers set on their missions to conquer and civilize any land they landed upon. A quote from Cecil Rhodes a famous British imperialist in 1890, explains much about the motivations behind early colonialism when he stated, “We must find new lands from which we can easily obtain raw materials, and at the same time exploit cheap slave labor through the natives of the colonies. (Ellwood, 2010, p. 14-15). In order to realize this colonial vision, a hierarchy had to be established in which white Europeans were dubbed superior and through arbitrary categorization and dehumanization, native populations inferior. Though that is a very simplified account of the many dimensions of colonization that have shaped our present society, it is essential to remain cognizant of our colonial roots because the dichotomy fabricated between European and native peoples in the lands they conquered, is the foundation of the American system and the race war between black and white people that we have today.
Some white folks are hell bound on winning the war and protecting the system that privileges whiteness under defenses including meritocracy, religion, a half-told history, or just straight racial hate. Every time these events take place and through my studies, I am often left questioning what many have questioned before me, what is whiteness and why is it so blindly and ignorantly protected? James Baldwin (1984) offers his answer to this question in his essay “On Being White…And Other Lies” when he states, “by opting for safety instead of life. By persuading themselves that a black child’s life meant nothing compared with a white child’s life… By informing their children that black women, black men, and black children had no human integrity that those who call themselves white were bound to respect” (p. 2-3). What Baldwin is saying here is whiteness is something people subscribe to versus an innate nature. There are no natural laws in the universe that support being born into a white body makes a person superior. It is time for white people to wake up to our colonial history and the fact that the superiority of whiteness and the American dream are an illusion that kill innocent Black people with no purpose, direction, or reason.
As a white woman committed to change, I ask my fellow white people to reflect and question their understanding of whiteness, themselves, and their perceptions of Black people and those different from them. What are some stereotypes that you can challenge because you have no evidence that proves them to be true? What are some implicit and explicit biases that you have? How do you choose safety and comfort over other people’s livelihoods? How can you educate yourself to better understand history, and the experiences of marginalized communities, and white privilege?
Changing the system is a slow process and I believe that through education, reflection, conversation, and collaboration, we can begin to shift our consciousness and face our fears, hatred, and ignorance that are fueled by misinformation and misunderstanding. Truly, someday, I believe we will see ourselves as one human race, and our differences will be celebrated rather than used as ammunition to exploit, divide, hate, murder, and, control.
Resources:
Baldwin, James. (1984). “On Being White ... And Other Lies,” Anti-Racism Digital Library.
Accessed May 17, 2022, https://sacred.omeka.net/items/show/238.
Ellwood, Wayne. (2010). The No-Nonsense Guide to Globalization 5th Edition. Oxford,
England: New Internationalist.
U.S. Department of Justice (2022, December 14). 2021 Hate Crimes Statistics. Accessed January 17, 2023.https://www.justice.gov/crs/highlights/2021-hate-crime-statistics.
