As we sit here on the day memorializing the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a towering figure of the fight for equal rights by African Americans, I think it's time I finally write down my thoughts regarding racism and white supremacy. The thing about these two concepts is that many people think of them as one in the same. In reality, white supremacy is to racism as AIDS is to HIV. Racism infests and corrupts for years before it turns into full blown white supremacy. As a result, all white supremacists are racists, but most racists are not white supremacists.
To explain further, my definition of white supremacy is someone who has made an active political choice to view non-white persons as less important than white persons. Or, in most cases, the white supremacist views non-white persons as less than people. The fight that Dr. King fought for so long was against white supremacy of the South. As a matter of law in the South, African Americans were less persons. This view of white supremacy was aided by a United States Supreme Court that was horrifically regressive until FDR literally bullied them into the 20th Century (if you want to see a really awful opinion, read Buck v. Bell, a real gem of horror by none other than Oliver Wendell Holmes).
But at the same time, Dr. King also saw that the root cause of white supremacy was racism - the unconscious, subconscious, or semi-conscious fear of other races. Because our society was founded on racism - with African Americans and Native Americans legally being determined to be 3/5ths of a person, with latent fears of Muslims based on terrorism, Jews for alleged greediness and conspiracy, Mexicans for perceived laziness - we are all infected by racism. As President Obama used to say, racism was our "original sin." Like the Original Sin in the Bible, we are all cursed by it.
That includes me. Despite my strong belief in equal rights, and my former connection with a civil rights organization (who I would probably still be working for but for the fact that they couldn't afford to pay me), my work on campaigns for African American candidates, I have said and done things that were racist. And it was only upon being challenged on those acts and statements, or upon my later reflection, that I realized my own racism. It has infected me, and I will always struggle to eliminate it.
Unlike Original Sin, no baptism will wash away the original sin of racism. The blood of martyrs, like Dr. King and Medgar Evers, though there is plenty of it, will not wash it away either. Rather, we must endeavor to purge ourselves, and teach our children better. What's more, we have to teach our children to do the same. And teach them to teach their children.
Now, such reflection and such teaching is really hard to do. I was reminded of this last night as I was trying to explain to my daughter who Dr. King was. But how do explain racism to a four year old?! Especially one who has watched enough Disney to know that kings deserve crowns, and people on their birthdays deserve birthday tiaras. But that is my charge.
Because the alternative is the horror that we see now. Rather than purge himself of racism, Trump luxuriated in it. He used his racism as a cudgel to bash his way into the public spotlight, and now our government is shutdown - used as a hostage so that Trump can get his memorial to white supremacy. In the meantime, he tears children from their parents at the Border for no reason than to cause horror and trauma. The cruelty of his immigration policies is the point. His supporters, proudly wearing their MAGA hats behave as mobs, threatening old Native Americans.
One last point, I remember that I was once told that to call a white person a racist is the same as calling an African American the n-word. The more I have reflected on that statement, the more I ashamed I am, for I should have spoken up at the moment, and told the person how horrifically wrong they are. Because no white person was ever hung from a tree while being called a racist. No white person was ever dragged from the back of a truck while being called a racist. Or set on fire. Or whipped, or raped, or suffered the brutality of enslavement. Or shot, and left to bleed to death on the street. Or suffer any one of the daily indignities of that minorities live with every single day.
Being called a racist is not a prelude to losing one's civil rights. Rather, it is a wake-up call. It is a moment to realize that your actions are now perceived as being racist. Are those actions/statements racist? Has the infection of racism affected you in this moment? Remember, being a racist need not include being a white supremacist. And even if the person is wrong, and your thoughts/statements/actions were not racist, or your intent was not racist, we must still engage in that reflection, lest we fall.
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