Debates often spring up between conservatives and liberals about white privilege and what it means. Liberals will tell you that it is obvious. America was founded, grew, and was sustained on the concept of white privilege. The discovery of a land that was already occupied. Traveling to another continent to enslave a free workforce and enforcing dominance with the constant manipulation of the law to maintain superiority: Dred Scott, The Fugitive Slave Act, Jim Crow, and the Black Codes. In response, Conservatives scream reverse racism. Most conservatives are not even willing to admit or concede America’s long and proven history of systemic racism. In 2024, Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina and a one-time GOP presidential candidate, told Fox News host Brian Kilmeade, “We’re not a racist country, Brian. We’ve never been a racist country,” Haley said.
A few days later, after being lambasted by the public and the press, Haley, who previously chronicled her own experiences with racism as the daughter of immigrants, sought to clarify her position. On CNN, after a query, …do you really think, as a historical matter, America has never been a racist country?” Jake Tapper asked. Haley responded, “I will tell you, when you look at the Declaration of Independence, it was that ‘men are created equal’ with unalienable rights, right? That is what we all knew. But what I look at it as is. I was a brown girl who grew up in a small rural town. We had plenty of racism that we had to deal with. But my parents never said we lived in a racist country. And I’m so thankful that they didn’t. Because for every brown and Black child out there, if you tell them they live or [were]born in a racist country, you’re immediately telling them they don’t have a chance. And my parents would always say, ‘You may have challenges. And yes, there will be people who are racist. But that doesn’t define what you can do in this country...(see full comment).
For the white people out there reading and nodding their heads in agreement with Ms. Haley, keep in mind her experience is not unique to people of color. Black people, including me, have all heard that speech from responsible parents. What Haley conveniently left out was why it is necessary to have that speech if the country were devoid of systemic racism. Usually, those talks end with the words, You have to be twice as good to have a chance. That was the concession by our parents or guardians that, yes, racism does exist in America. White parents also tell their kids to work hard, but not warn them that the only way to compete is to be twice as good and work twice as hard.
We all watched troops commanded by the President of the United States rappel from helicopters into black and brown neighborhoods, terrorizing children and families. The incompetence is rampant in an administration bent on ridding the government of women or people of color—unless they are Trump sycophants. Watching the performance of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, whose spotty military record somehow qualifies him as the head of the world’s largest military, is the height of white privilege. The women Donald Trump hired to run the Department of Education and Homeland Security, as well as the chief of law enforcement in America, have qualifications that are sketchy at best. The Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, has a background in professional wrestling. Kristi Noem—the Head of Homeland Security, has heaped unhinged praise on President Trump (presenting him with a bust of his face on Mt. Rushmore). Attorney General Pam Bondi refuses to address, more or less, investigate the issue of Border Czar Tom Homan’s alleged acceptance of a fifty-thousand-dollar cash bribe on tape. Bondi herself fought allegations of receiving a $25,000 bribe in the Donald Trump University fraud case, of which she was later cleared.
The galling thing for many people of color, like me, is when black and brown people feel they have to live in the fantasies of white colleagues for acceptance. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), who is black and married to a woman to whom he would have been prohibited from smiling at, lest marry, until the 1970s, said of black families, “‘You see, during Jim Crow, the Black family was together. During Jim Crow, more Black people were not just conservative — Black people have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively,” Donalds said. To make matters worse, the 2024 black candidate for North Carolina governor, former Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, reportedly called himself a Black Nazi and advocated for the return of slavery. In a story posted by CNN, Robinson reportedly wrote on a pornographic website, “Slavery is not bad. Some people need to be slaves. I wish they would bring it (slavery) back. I would certainly buy a few.”
Black people have seen this playbook before. Malcolm X summed up this self-hating attitude in a parable about the House Negro and the Field Negro. He recounted the stories of the House negro, upon seeing his master sick, would ask, We sick, boss? Forfeiting one’s own identity in servitude to one's owner. The excuses from some white Americans for the years of atrocities they would like to disappear into the ether of the country's cloud of racist stench are a toxic mix of denial and heritage shame. Republicans and conservatives are fond of using the one quote they know from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “not to be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Just like Nikki Haley, they overlook the fact that Dr. King was speaking to the world about his children. Again, as a responsible parent, Dr. King wanted to inspire his children, not fool them into believing that racism was dead in America just because you deny it exists.
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