I grew up in a world that did it’s best to convince me that whiteness was the standard for beauty, competence, and respectability. Unfortunately, some really believe and continue to push this nonsense. When I was growing up, this fabrication of white superiority was literally reinforced in every school, media outlet, and church. It was inescapable. That false narrative had us seeking the white man’s approval to simply live our lives. Some of the most overt proclamations of white supremacy came from unsuspecting family members. I recall being present during a family discussion when my grandfather literally substantiated a claim by telling everyone that the source of the information was a white man. That single claim ended all interrogation of the argument being made.
It took me years to claim my value as a fully capable human being who is on equal footing in all respects with all other human beings no matter the color of their skin. My confidence grew as I repeatedly outperformed the majority of my peers (including white ones) academically, in sports, and in social settings. It was my parents’ decision to move into a predominately white neighborhood that helped me reject notions of inferiority. That constant contact with white people in my neighborhood, my school, and later my church exposed me to the invisible hand of the government support of their schools, their values, their businesses, and their livelihoods. I came to see that the police worked on their behalf to protect and serve, not to actually police them. I saw their petty crimes being treated as “petty”. None of those potheads next door or in my high school were ever arrested for selling or using pot or any other drug. That white neighborhood had more and better everything than my old black neighborhood because the local governments, banks, and corporations invested in them. It wasn’t because they as individuals were any smarter or morally superior, but because those government representatives, bank executives, and corporate leaders were also white. They had set up an entire system to benefit white people.
I eventually came to recognize that the disparity in schools and neighborhoods was attributed to a systematic and intentional scarcity of resources that encouraged hopelessness, competition, resentment, jealousy, theft, and violence. Throw a few pieces of bread into a pond of starving ducks and watch the ruthless competition unfold. That was what the black and brown neighborhoods were like. Only when my two brothers were robbed of their leather coats on the street did my mother decide it was time to move far away from the minority neighborhoods of my early youth.
It is not lost on me that our history is riddled with stories of how individual blacks or black communities that dare to thrive are destroyed by jealous white supremacists. Their crimes went unpunished by a white criminal justice system they created to fine us or imprison us, not to protect and serve us. I witnessed this firsthand on far too many occasions and I’ve lived my entire life with the understanding that the police are not my friend. As a University Administrator, it was impossible to get a white student arrested for selling drugs on campus. But let a black student play their music too loud and they are right there. We’ve all seen the pictures of five-year-old black children led away in handcuffs. I’ve never been a person to sit silently in the face of injustice, so I began to address the uncomfortable issues.
I spent my entire career in higher education, working along with others to expose systems of oppression and encouraging others to work toward dismantling the notion of white superiority and white privilege. I’ve made many people uncomfortable, even furious, and have borne the brunt of their wrath for it. I have the bumps, scars, and bruises to prove how difficult that fight was. But now, finally, people are starting to see that excellence comes in all colors and that white supremacy was a horrible myth. However, I used to caution that those who benefit from the system of white supremacy and privilege were going to fight to maintain it. And they are. That’s what their misguided “Replacement Theory” is about.
It came as no surprise to me that an 18-year-old white man went to a black neighborhood and killed ten innocent black people in service to notions of an unsubstantiated, but purely self-preserving white supremacy. It’s also not surprising that the police took him alive. After all whiteness still has some privileges. But at least he was arrested and is facing first degree murder charges as well as hate crime charges. Now that is progress. I just wish our Justice Department had the guts to go after the instigators of this nonsense like they went after Dr. King and other civil rights leaders.
The days of inclusion and equity are coming if we join together and fight for that day, because one thing is certain: the notion of white supremacy is a despicable lie, but those who benefit from perpetuating it are willing to fight to keep it in place.