The one issue whites have the greatest trouble with…
Is the idea that they might be racist.
So uncomfortable an image is this, that they will spin, twist, dodge and eventually throw back the accusation on the accuser.
But it is a simple undeniable fact of reality. Whites enjoy enormous privilege as result of pale skin. This privilege makes all of us, no matter how much we may struggle against it, stained with racism.
And it is time we owned up to it.
That of course is an uphill battle that whites have been refusing to fight for over 500 years. Since the first rise to power of White, Christian, Europe, the establishment of slavery, the expansion of Imperialist exploitation and the conquest of North & South America, whites have refused to recognize any of their actions as being anything less than “of best intentions.” The Whiteman’s burden to civilize the barbaric, pagan, coloured peoples of the world.
We have been refining and purifying this refusal ever since. We have crafted a very sophisticated and well rehearsed defense against facing the darkness each of us carries in our souls. It has reached the level of almost an art form.
Whites will now reinvent reality to avoid the possibility of being seen as racists. They will deny the existence of white privilege in a society largely owned, governed, policed and populated by whites. They will claim without a hint of shame that while “THAT person” may have had a privileged life, THEY certainly haven’t, and as they are white, that must mean of course that “white privilege” doesn't exist. In extreme cases, they will even go so far as to deny that racism itself even still exists in any effective way. A product of the bad old days that now has thankfully been consigned to the dustbins of history.
The reasoning of whites is perverse because it seems so sensible, so “common sense”; “not favouring one or the other”, “treating everybody as equals”. Sure there may be an odd ball here or there…in the South…on the fringes…crazy rednecks…aging Klansmen…who are racist, but nobody takes these whackos seriously. They certainly have no standing in the “white community”. Besides, so much of what is called “racism” these days is really based on little more than a misunderstanding or some loudmouth overreacting to an everyday occurrence. Hell, its gotten so bad that every time some black guy is pulled over by the cops, its not because he was going a hundred down a city street, its because he was black. Its not so much racism as political grandstanding, trying to score some points by exploiting an issue.
White justification for our racism is perverse. These have been rehearsed over centuries down to a fine art. Racism is after all; “a two way street”, “blacks can be just as racist as whites” , “respect has to be offered to be given” and besides “any criticism of a black person is automatically called racist”. In an act that is as outrageous as it is dripping with irony, whites will point to the use of racist language by African Americans towards other African Americans and decry the prohibition from whites using this same language towards...African Americans. Its a double standard, isn't it? “If it is all right for you to say it to him, why isn’t it all right for ME to say it….TO YOU?”
The cherry on the Sundae; the sickest of the sickest jokes played on people of colour by whites, is the “perfectly reasonable”, “sensible”, “fair”, “level playing field”, demand that, on the question of racism, whites be judged individually, on a person by person basis. Adding to the perversity of this joke, whites will inevitably quote Martin Luther King when making this demanding, insisting they be judged by the "content of their character and not by the colour of their skin."
Of course, we are to be considered innocent of racism until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, by a jury of our peers. So, of course, that judgment will only count if it comes from other white people. After all, a black person is liable to be prejudiced, overly sensitive or untrustworthy in making this type of decision. Naturally, then, when a person of colour does make the accusation; when they do declare someone or something racist; well then that just becomes an issue for debate and argument.
A word or a deed doesn’t actually become racist until white people agree that it is racist. If they don’t agree, well then, that black person is just being overly sensitive or worse, exploiting racism for their own gain. And whites have become unbelievably expert at proving that something or someone is not racist.
I will say here outright and clear; We are racist. We believe that we are not. We cling to the fantasy that he but not me judge others based on the colour of their skin. But in practice, we are all, everyone of us, racist.
We trust whites more than we trust non-whites. We believe white nations and white societies are more deserving than non-white societies. When factories are set up in some third world country, we decry the loss of white jobs and care nothing about the cruel exploitation of non-white workers. A thousand die in a disaster in a third world country and it makes page 15 of our evening edition. 10 die in a European avalanche and we are treated to front page headlines and dozens of photos. Don’t worry if you miss it, it will be on all the cable stations and the evening news for the next three days.
We are indifferent to tragedy in non-white neighbourhoods and non-white countries. The degree of our outrage or level of concern is dependent on whether other whites are involved or could possibly be threatened. In so many arenas where we profess to care about the lives and conditions of non-white peoples, if you peel back the layers of debate, you find at its heart only political self interest. If this white nation or that white political party can be attacked through this issue, we care; if not, then brown people die in obscurity.
Racism is part of the white psyche. It has been tattooed into our minds from birth. In much the same way as someone who has been born into wealth cannot help but notice that he is different, special from others, whites recognize that we are different from the vast majority of the world. Through accident and luck, our ancestors came to dominate this planet and bequeathed to us an automatic advantage over everybody else. We cannot help but be stained by the idea that somehow, for some reason, we deserve it; we earned it; it is ours by divine right or force of will, and we want to protect our privilege and power and position as an inherent right.
And if you doubt this accusation, imagine for a moment a world in which Asians are the dominate race, culture, ideal and power; a reality that is fast approaching. If you can sincerely accept without a sense of outrage or flicker of panic, the idea that your skin colour may actually be a hindrance to your education or work or success, or at the very least, be of no advantage to you in life, (something people of colour deal with almost every day), then you may truly claim that you are not racist.
If you cannot, then you must admit to what is being said and it is time we owned what our position in the world has made each of us.
