Alfalfa
Well-Known Member
There is a lot of confusion about what I mean when I say white supremacy is mainstream in the US. And a lot of people become hostile thinking that being a white supremacist is analogous to being a Nazi. That is not the case. Nazism is a conscious ideological manifestation of white supremacy. Under normal circumstances, racism exists on the subconscious level in a matter of fact kind of way, without the development of an ideological framework to defend and support it for every racist individual.
First of all, let's define racism. It is the belief that differences exist between different groups of humans beside the simple environmental adaptations and the small and random differences in features that can be seen when comparing two groups of people from different climates or geographical locations. White supremacy is the racist belief that those of European ancestry are either biologically and/or culturally superior to other groups. Non-whites can also be, and have historically been, white supremacist. Those of African ancestry have experienced most of the racial prejudice in the US historically, and they'll be the ones I focus on.
Two broad types of racism are recognized by sociologists in the US, segregationist and assimilationist racism. Segregationism is the belief that whites are inherently, and biologically, superior to blacks and/or others. Those are the people who point to IQ scores (which is basically a privilege quotient) as an argument against inter-racial marriage, for example. Their numbers are not small. Here's a survey where 26% of Republican respondents and 18% of Democrats expressed the belief that blacks are less intelligent. The survey includes assimilationist questions as well, and it is worth reading in full.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ew-high/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.987751f9340f
Historically, segregationism had been the dominant view in the US. The idea began to lose some of its ubiquity in the 19th century with the rise of the "talented tenth", or educated black elites.
Assimilationism is the idea that blacks' behavior is inferior, and the way to fix it is to assimilate them into the superior European standards for behavior. An example of that is the dismissal of rap and other forms art associated with black people, and elevating European counterparts such as classical music.
Colorism is another example of assimilationist logic. The white supremacist idea that light skinned blacks are "less black" than dark skinned ones is still very common in the African American community today. This is due to hundreds of years of assimilationist pressure against "ugly" black features like kinky hair and dark skin and for "beautiful" European counterparts like straight hair and fair skin. With the rise of black power movements after the civil right movement of the mid-20th century, we started getting anti-racist works of art like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison that directly attacked the assimilationist racism of the time. That led to big changes in the systemic racism against black people. While before employers would directly and obviously discriminate against black people, they started being more subtle about it. Afros were no longer ugly. They were unprofessional. But the evolution of systemic racism would require its own series of posts, and I only have a few minutes to wrap this up.
White nationalism is nothing more than the belief that the US (or whatever) is, or should be a white country. That the entry of those of non-European ancestry into the country should be at the leisure of whites, and according to their behavioral standards and norms. This is again a very common, even banal, belief in the United States. White nationalists are, by definition, white supremacist.
So no, being a white supremacist does not mean you secretly want to march down the street shouting heil hitler with a swastika tattood on your face. It is a much more mundane fact of life in the US that many whites, and most non-whites can easily see.
First of all, let's define racism. It is the belief that differences exist between different groups of humans beside the simple environmental adaptations and the small and random differences in features that can be seen when comparing two groups of people from different climates or geographical locations. White supremacy is the racist belief that those of European ancestry are either biologically and/or culturally superior to other groups. Non-whites can also be, and have historically been, white supremacist. Those of African ancestry have experienced most of the racial prejudice in the US historically, and they'll be the ones I focus on.
Two broad types of racism are recognized by sociologists in the US, segregationist and assimilationist racism. Segregationism is the belief that whites are inherently, and biologically, superior to blacks and/or others. Those are the people who point to IQ scores (which is basically a privilege quotient) as an argument against inter-racial marriage, for example. Their numbers are not small. Here's a survey where 26% of Republican respondents and 18% of Democrats expressed the belief that blacks are less intelligent. The survey includes assimilationist questions as well, and it is worth reading in full.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ew-high/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.987751f9340f
Historically, segregationism had been the dominant view in the US. The idea began to lose some of its ubiquity in the 19th century with the rise of the "talented tenth", or educated black elites.
Assimilationism is the idea that blacks' behavior is inferior, and the way to fix it is to assimilate them into the superior European standards for behavior. An example of that is the dismissal of rap and other forms art associated with black people, and elevating European counterparts such as classical music.
Colorism is another example of assimilationist logic. The white supremacist idea that light skinned blacks are "less black" than dark skinned ones is still very common in the African American community today. This is due to hundreds of years of assimilationist pressure against "ugly" black features like kinky hair and dark skin and for "beautiful" European counterparts like straight hair and fair skin. With the rise of black power movements after the civil right movement of the mid-20th century, we started getting anti-racist works of art like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison that directly attacked the assimilationist racism of the time. That led to big changes in the systemic racism against black people. While before employers would directly and obviously discriminate against black people, they started being more subtle about it. Afros were no longer ugly. They were unprofessional. But the evolution of systemic racism would require its own series of posts, and I only have a few minutes to wrap this up.
White nationalism is nothing more than the belief that the US (or whatever) is, or should be a white country. That the entry of those of non-European ancestry into the country should be at the leisure of whites, and according to their behavioral standards and norms. This is again a very common, even banal, belief in the United States. White nationalists are, by definition, white supremacist.
So no, being a white supremacist does not mean you secretly want to march down the street shouting heil hitler with a swastika tattood on your face. It is a much more mundane fact of life in the US that many whites, and most non-whites can easily see.