All racism happens because of whiteness It really, really does

Once again, an article about racism wasn’t well received by the McGill community. What a surprise…

Particularly, I’m talking about some of the comments made in regard to the piece, “You are racist” (Guillermo Martínez de Velasco, October 18, Commentary, page 7), in reference to the author’s definition of racism: “…assuming anything about anyone based on a perceived deviation from a racial norm known as white.”

Some of the comments took issue with situating racism within whiteness. Replies questioned examples of intra-racism: racist acts amongst and within racially, ethnically, or nationally homogenous or similar spaces, and historical racism against fellow white bodies (re: persons of Irish, Italian, and Jewish decent). They also questioned the author’s lack of statistical evidence (of racism).

I want to focus on these three arguments to directly show that this article’s definition of racism was just too perfectly stellar for words.

Before I begin, however, I want to address the reoccurring “racism is a social construct” notation made by many. Ain’t it great? Some few individuals have taken one or two sociology courses and have determined that race is a social construct. Let me give you a round of applause….

Race, however, is more than just a social construct; it is also an identity. It is one that people not only subscribe to but see as a way of self-identifying. Emphasizing that race is a social construct, in the ways that many of the commenters did, is exemplary of the exact type of racism the author describes. Identifying and emphasizing the social construction of race, as a white person, is an example of your white privilege. You see race as ‘firstly’ a social construct because you are white and don’t have to think about race and the implications of race in your everyday life in the same way, and to the same immediacy, as racialized people. Race, whether a construct or not, is manifested in one’s cultural practice, embodied experience, identity, and life. Wanting the author to stress the socially constructed nature of race invalidates the intricacies and impacts of race in the lives of us, racialized (and racially politicized) bodies, and validates your lack thereof.

First, intra-racial racism: “What about racialized bodies that enact racism against one another? They aren’t white, so how is that racism (under that definition)”* is usually how the rebuttal followed.

Whiteness, as the author clearly explains, is the norm. It is how society functions, exists, sees, and defines itself. And by society, I am indeed making reference to transnational societies that have, in any way, come in contact with whiteness and white societies, be it through colonialism, imperialism, genocide, globalization, developmental aid, technology, et cetera.

To better understand this, let’s use an example of intra-racial racism: say, shadeism. The modern forms of shadeism – intra-racial/ethnic discrimination based on a person’s shade tone, most often dis-privileging darker skinned people – are found in cultures, nations and racial groups globally. These include black, South Asian, East Asian, Latin American (and even, believe it or not, white) communities. And although this is intra-racial and occurs within homogeneously racial and ethnic groupings, it is still in line with the definition presented by Martínez de Velasco. It is because whiteness is the norm that shadeism (or intra-racial racism) exists and occurs. Light and lighter skinned people within the North American context are most explicitly valorized, given aesthetic privilege, and possess great amounts of social capital in their ability to navigate spaces much easier than those of darker complexion because they are aesthetically closer to white. Simply, whiteness, even in examples of intra-racial racism, is still the traceable root of the racism because, as the norm, it superiorizes those who are closer to ‘white(ness)’ and inferiorizes those who aren’t. Please remember this as we move to the second point.

Second, anti-white racism: “Racism happens to white people. What about that?”*

Indeed, what we know to be racism has happened to particular white bodies throughout history: for example, to people of Irish, Italian, and Jewish descent. But let me begin by saying, white people, in case you forgot, are racialized too. You have and will always be racialized. But it is whiteness’ ability to exempt itself from racialization that makes it so crafty in its ability to normalize and inflict racism upon the Other.

Anti-white racism still happens because of whiteness. And while anti-white racism has been predicated on so many factors, understanding that the act of racialization and racializing white peoples – such as Jewish people – was a central element of anti-white racism is key to understanding my point: white groups were racialized and declared Other.

Let’s take Italian-Canadians/Americans for starters. The historical criminalization and problematic conflation of this group to criminal, ‘mafia’-related activity is one example of this racialization. These stereotypes have had a longstanding history within visibly racialized groups, especially within the North American context. Criminalization acts as a tool for hyper-visiblizing specific marginalized bodies/groups. Black, Latino, Filipino, and brown bodies are examples of how groups/bodies have been coded as criminals for centuries and subsequently targetted (e.g. racially profiled, demonized, et cetera). To put it simply, the criminalization of peoples is an example of how racialization and racism happen.

Irish racialization occurred in a different form: moral-elitist demonization, if I can coin such a term. Several writers on anti-Irish racism detail how the British demonized the Irish, characterizing them as dirty, drunk, lazy, and violent while defining themselves as civilized, morally pure, and industrious. Now, doesn’t this remind you of something? Perhaps colonialism and the same racist colonialist tactic used by the British to racially differentiate and hierarchize themselves as superior to the people of Africa, the West Indies, Latin Americas, et cetera? I think so.

Jews were also racialized and, as such, experienced racism. While some Jewish people experience enormous amounts of white privilege as many of them are white (let’s not get that twisted), anti-Semitic racism existed on account of their racialization. Jews, during the Holocaust, were allegedly said to be racially distinguishable from ‘pure’ whites. Racist distinctions based on physiognomic features that characterized them as different from the desired Aryan race parallels colonialism(s) transnationally and is an example of racialization at its most basic level. Recall the colonial practices of racist, white, anthropological pseudo-science that sought to highlight the physical differences between the black African and white European populaces in hopes of strengthening their claims to racial superiority. Same tactics as those used against the Jews, no?

In all three examples, whiteness takes different forms, but always remains the central point (or norm) from which racism occurs. Whites, who are not criminals, dirty, lazy, or drunk and whose physiognomic features are ever-so flawless, become the picture of (racist) perfection. The Irish, Italians, and Jews, on the other hand, are constructed as the antithesis and, poof – there you have it, my friends, racism.

Third, statistical evidence: “Can you please provide statistical evidence for your experiences of racism?”*

How better to answer than with a whole lot of ‘fuck no’s’ and a side of, ‘sit yo ass down!’

This urge white folks have to demand statistical proof of racialized people’s experiences of racism is laughable at best. Racism is multifunctional and multidimensional. It is systemic, institutionalized, embodied, subtle, experiential, overt, everyday, infrequent, and so much more. So to ask me for proof of racism is, number one, racist, and two, ain’t never gonna happen, like ever. So please, I beg of you, stop asking for such absurdity.

*All quoted comments are paraphrases of actual comments directed to the article, “You are racist.”

As a blue eyed devil and Mick, let me tell you something. We stopped bitching a long time ago and moved on. We were taught to man up and deal with situations as they come a long time ago. That's why most of us aren't in shantytowns no more. Know what I'm sayin'?

We have nothing to feel guilty about. Only white are altruistic to the point of risking and losing their lives to help the downtrodden of other races, who will then as soon turn on them and kill them as look at them. Only whites ended slavery, at great cost to themselves.

Whites have created and maintained great civilisations and societies, civilisations of which the glory will last long beyond all the “all cultures are equal” lies being told through revisionist history.

We turn these societies that others can’t create over to them, only to find in every case that they can’t even maintain them.

We were able to send billions in food to starving Africa and still put a man on the moon.

Nobody can do the white race in but the white race, but right now we’re doing a good job of that. If we ever decide to let the guilt roll off, reject it (as a whole-many whites are already opening their eyes), no one could stand against us, no matter what their numerical advantage. We’ve shown that again and again.

We’ve got to come together just as every other race does and look out for our racial interests. If saving some lizard is worth millions in federal money and the confiscation of land, then surely our branch of humanity is worth saving from extinction, and it’s not just a matter of blue eyes and blonde hair going extinct. The genes which contribute to our IQ, along with that “Hercules factor” which has historically made white males the premier explorers and discoverers of the earth, the oceans, and the universe, for the sheer sake of knowledge, will be lost.

If whites go extinct, I can only be glad to go extinct with the rest of us. I have not seen any proof of any type of civilisation in which I’d want to live other the best of what whites build. That seems plain when non-whites flock to white countries, and to white neighborhoods, even as they cry “oppression”. You’d think they wouldn’t want to be in proximity with us, that being the case.
But it’s plain what that’s about. They need what we create, and they need a scapegoat to excuse their failures. If whites didn’t exist, they’d have to invent us.

wardaddy, conservatives are even worse than the left when it comes to being meally-mouthed on race, because when you keep being accused of racism though you’ve done nothing racist, you start living in defensive mode. Conservatives need to break out of those chains, and go a step further by embracing being white, white culture and history, and achievements of whites as a race. We have a right to, just as other races do, even more so because we have an actual long consistent record of achievement and need compare ourselves to no one.

I’ve come to the conclusion that for so,e groups, it’s as much that they’re incapable of living by civilised (white) norms and culture as that they don’t want to. They pretend they don’t want to anyway because they can’t meet the standards as a group. Anyone who wants to argue that can first explain to me dumbed-down fireman tests, law officer tests, affirmative action, what has become of Detroit, South Africa, Birmingham, Gary IN, Philadelphia, Newark, and on and on.

Oh, and “vibrancy”-that tingling feeling you get of forced to walk though a predominately black neighborhood, hoping every second a mob won’t appear from nowhere and stomp tour lone white azz, or a car won’t roll by, spray bullets (markmanship isn’t their strong suit), and kill your innocent bystander self.

Or the “vibrancy” Cristian Channon, Shannon Newsome, Autumn Pasquale, and too many to mention experienced for the “sin” of being white. Some of them died brutal, savage deaths.

Or the “vibrancy” experienced by 80-something yo women raped by black “yoot”. Or the 11yo girl who was gang-raped by a group of blacks-some of whom called their buddies to let them in on the “fun”.

Or all the white farmers in South Africa who have brutally murdered along with their families. No “We Are The World” for them. All they did was feed the country, who cares?

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