Racism and Distortions:
Exposing White Supremacy
by Tyehimba
January 13, 2003
Contrary to what the media often portrays, the large majority of white people are beset by superiority/racist complexes. The problem is that since it has become politically incorrect to be overtly racist, racism has taken on a far subtler edge than earlier on in history. Hollywood portrays racists/White Supremacists as being profane, being armed with guns and as having swastikas tattooed on their arms and chests. This representation attempts to put across that it is only a few isolated whites are racists, thus separating the perpetuation of racism and white supremacy away from the general population, which in itself is far from the truth. Those who manifest their ignorance very overtly are easy to spot but those who come disingenuously with polished rhetoric of 'one love', ‘unity' and 'we are all one people' are harder for the sleeping masses to spot. In spite of the proclamation by many Whites, that they are not racist, evidence to the contrary overwhelmingly exposes this charade. Whether people like it or not, racist/sexist superiority attitudes are imbedded and conditioned by media, family, friends, institutions, religions and the education system and thus racism and white privilege is the norm and not the exception.
Many Whites try to sidestep their complicity in the whole global system of White Supremacy, yet still continue to uphold and benefit from the plethora of white privileges that underlie the dynamics of White Supremacy. This automatic privilege and status given to White/light skin people is internalized and normalized by many, but to the non-whites who continually get the worse end of the stick, there is hardly any illusions about the existence of equality or justice. Unless Whites deal with themselves holistically, which involves them reasoning and coming to terms with their past misdeeds, the highest they can reach is to be patronising and subtly manifest their superiority complexes on those around them.
Centuries of existing in this Eurocentric framework has meant that the African psyche has been much bombarded by many false values and notions, and the resulting inferiority complexes has meant the perpetuation of ignorance, arrogance and racism. Thus, there are Black people (especially lighter skinned Blacks) themselves who have become neo-colonial agents of White Supremacy by perpetuating the principle of 'white over brown over black'. This reality has been very hard for Black people who are high up in this hierarchy of White Supremacy to come to terms with. This Colourism among Blacks occurs along a wide spectrum of complexion/features, with those with lighter/whiter tones and more European features are given preferences while those closer to the other end of the spectrum that is those with dark skin/kinky hair are discriminated against. Thus the lighter skinned more European looking person is given preferences over the dark skinned, kinky haired African, who is often automatically hit with the worse that White Supremacy has to offer. This ignorant conditioning of ‘lighter/whiter skinned people are superior' and more beautiful is very pervasive and reinforced constantly by friends, family, media and the education system.
Then there are those who prescribe the mindset of colorblindness to deal with the scourge of racism. This attitude represents real blindness as it is ignorant of the fact that race in itself is not the problem(does not cause racism) but rather ignorance. Thus, since people being of different races is not the real problem, then being colorblind won't solve racism, which is a manifestation of conditioned ignorance. People coming to terms with their own role in the global system of racism, gender discrimination, injustice and inequality, will be an important step in overcoming a lot of such societal ills. It is vastly erroneous to think that the ideals of peace, love, unity and equality could ever exist in the absence of truth and justice, which can only come as a result of reasoning through certain critical issues.
There are many Whites and even some Blacks who cannot understand how Black people could be angry at Whites for the centuries of slavery, colonialism, racism and outright brutality meted out to Black people across the globe. Anger in fact, can be legitimate response, especially given the history of Eurocentric oppression and the day-to-day reality of racism, media propaganda and miseducation that Blacks face presently and have faced for centuries. African people have a right to be angry just as they have a right to stand up against the continued Eurocentric hegemony and the blatant arrogance and ignorance of Western Civilization. Any attempt to stand against the Eurocentric mindset with its inherent characteristics of racism, gender discrimination and cultural chauvinism, is often deemed angry, ranting, racism, emotional, hateful and/or divisive. This conditioned response ignores the real issues and realities that Black people have to deal with from day to day and implicitly supports the status quo of blind faith, inequality, oppression and injustice that has become so acceptable.
Reasoning and resolution of such issues such as gender discrimination, racism, class and other social ills will benefit all, as slavery not only enslaves the slave, but also enslaves the slavemaster. Thus it in the interest of all humanity that these issues are dealt with and not continually swept under the carpet and ignored, as is done now by those that hold power and perceive that the revelation of such truths will affect their greedy accumulation and monopolistic control of wealth, media and resources. The higher up the pyramid shaped social structure, the more motivated people are to maintain the current social order as long as it remains the source of, and reinforces their high societal status and false privileges. The knee-jerk reactions of those who have a vested interest in veiling the truth, or by those who are conditioned to blindly follow the status quo should in no way prevent the truths and legitimate experiences of many from surfacing and being discussed thoroughly in society. It is only when people realize that reasoning about issues such as race and gender discrimination is necessary and is not divisive, racist or irrelevant, that people can engage these issues and transcend them.
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