Racism and white supremacy
2nd January 2019 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
The American Heritage Dictionary defines racism as “the belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” While that definition may offer those who are unfamiliar with the concept of racism an introduction to the word and its basic meaning, it doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface with regard to how the complexity and profundity of racism has shaped the human experience.
Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, a renowned psychiatrist and author of “The Isis Papers,” goes a little deeper with her definition of the R-word. She offers the following definition:
“Racism (White Supremacy) is the local and global power system and dynamic, structured and maintained by persons who classify themselves as white, whether consciously or subconsciously determined, which consists of patterns of perception, logic, symbol formation, thought, speech, action and emotional response, as conducted simultaneously in all areas of people activity (economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war), for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth — a planet upon which the vast majority of people are classified as nonwhite (black, brown, red and yellow) by white skinned people, and all of the nonwhite people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people.”
In a 2002 interview with TheFinalCall.com News, Dr. Frances Cress Welsing talks about the origins of racism/white supremacy and why it is critical to the survival of people of color that they understand how this system came into being: “I look at the system of racism having come into being consciously because the white population recognized, after they circumnavigated the globe, that they were a tiny minority, fewer than one-tenth of the people on the planet,” she said. “And they were genetic-recessive compared to the genetic dominance of people who produce color. They realized that they could be genetically annihilated and white people could, as a collective of people, disappear. They worked out a system for white survival, which entails dominating all of the Black, Brown, Red and Yellow people on the planet. So racism is a behavioral system for the survival of white people. I would advise Black people and other people of color that since the practice of racism is the practice of white genetic survival, that the expectation that people who classify themselves as white can change this behavior is a high-level expectation. Black people [must] finally understand that White people are playing a white survival game [which] has to inferiorize the functioning of Black and other people of color.”
Dr. Welsing often said that unless we understand the system of racism/white supremacy, nothing else matters.
With that in mind, I offer you a description of some of the ways racism is manifested in our daily lives in the hopes of raising our collective awareness of the issues that confront us as a people and the need to strive for a single-minded commitment to liberating our minds, bodies and spirits by any means necessary.
Racism means that members of the dominant group can get away with limiting the educational and economic opportunities extended to oppressed groups and condemning those oppressed groups for responding negatively to the conditions under which they are forced to live.
Racism means a white man in Boston can almost get away with murdering his wife and unborn child and a woman in South Carolina can almost get away with killing her children by drowning them in a lake by simply blaming Black men for these heinous crimes.
Racism means that France, the United States and other industrialized nations can continue to ostracize, blackball and penalize the Republic of Haiti for more than two centuries for having the audacity, courage and resilience to fight for and gain its independence.
Racism means that African and Haitian immigrants are treated decidedly different than European immigrants by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Racism means that a small group of Americans thinks it has the right to determine who is “American” and deserving of full citizenship.
Racism means that a police department – even one with a significant number of Black law enforcement officers – can actually get away with murdering innocent, unarmed civilians as long as its officers plant weapons on these victims and get their stories straight.
Racism means that many elected officials, corporations and individuals in the United States would rather see America lose ground in the global community than expand educational and economic opportunities for people of color.
Racism means that the nation’s first Black president or any Black person who dares to earn a degree from an Ivy League university can expect to be called “uppity.”
Racism means that while some education officials sing the praises of the charter school movement in New Orleans, those same officials routinely ignore the fact that the city has a three-tier educational system and that thousands of Black and poor children are still being left behind each year.
Racism means that predominantly Black John F. Kennedy Senior High School in New Orleans can be abandoned and ultimately demolished by the powers that be without little in the way of an explanation to its alumni.
Racism means that New Orleans school officials can decide to close Alcee Fortier Senior High School and hand its campus over to Lusher and place a group of troubled students inside John McDonogh Senior High School without giving McDonogh administrators and alumni a warning or explanation?
Racism means that some of the city’s white schools like Hines Elementary in Lakeview can be rebuilt as colossal architectural masterpieces while McDonogh 35 College Preparatory School is being relocated and rebuilt next to a youth detention center and other Black schools are rebuilt to look like prisons or using cookie-cutter architectural blueprints.
Racism means that a Black mayor in Philadelphia can get away with dropping bombs and explosives on a group of Black people who challenge white supremacy.
Racism means that white quarterbacks are often described by sports journalists as “intelligent” and “hard-working” while their Black counterparts are described as “studs,” or “natural athletes.”
Racism means that Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and Mahalia Jackson – two of the greatest artists of the 20th century – had to leave New Orleans to become successful and be treated with respect and dignity.
Racism means that most of the city’s best and brightest Black college graduates have had to leave this city and state to earn salaries commensurate with their educational attainment.
Racism means that the dominant group of people can use every tool, strategy, argument and resource at their disposal to ensure and justify the exploitation, subjugation and oppression of all other groups.
Racism means that the powers that be can convince those with less power and influence to adopt their speech patterns, religious beliefs, and political views or suffer isolation, vilification and other forms of abuse and intimidation.
Racism means that the powers that be in New Orleans can refuse to commemorate or even acknowledge the 200th anniversary of the 1811 slave revolt in New Orleans, the largest slave uprising in United States history, even as they prepared a spectacular celebration of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 six years ago.
Racism means that whites in New Orleans can resent the election of four consecutive Black mayors in the Crescent City even though the powers that be never relinquished decision-making power over the course of those three decades.
Racism means that the NOPD and the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office can get away with framing John Thompson for murder, sending him to Death Row for more than two decades and convincing the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $14 million settlement awarded to Thompson after his conviction was overturned because the city is in dire financial straits.
Racism means that the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office and the NOPD can get away with framing Shareef Cousin and Curtis Kyles for murder and sending them to Death Row without anyone responsible for these miscarriages of justice spending a single day behind bars.
Racism means that the New Orleans Police Department and the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office can continue to racially profile Black people and frame them for a wide range of crimes even after a scathing April 2011 U.S. Department of Justice report that outlined a myriad of abuses and constitutional violations committed by the NOPD and the Feds stepping in to file charges against more than two dozen New Orleans cops.
Finally, racism means that Black people who point out and protest racial inequities and injustices and discriminatory policies are depicted as villains, lunatics, troublemakers and rabble-rousers.
While it is understandable that we sometimes get discouraged, weary and frustrated as we fight for the liberation of African people in the United States and around the world, it is imperative that we draw strength, courage, inspiration, wisdom, resilience and tenacity from the shining example of our ancestors – the ones who refused to die – and that we remember Frederick Douglass’ insightful message to Black people: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”
All power to the people.
This article originally published in the December 31, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
