• WHITE SUPREMACY
• "RACE"
• POWER
• RACE PREJUDICE
• RACISM
• INTERNALIZED RACISM
• PEOPLE (AMERICANS, PERSONS) OF COLOR
• WHITE
• WHITE PRIVILEGE
• RACIST
• NON-RACIST
• ANTI-RACIST
• WHITEIST
• NEW ABOLITIONIST
• OPPRESSOR AND OPPRESSED

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Most of the above definitions were taken from the 1993 session of the "Challenging White Supremacy Workshop" run by Sharon Martinas and Mickey Ellinger www.cwsworkshop.org

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Introduction
[7 minutes])

For a long time I thought the definitions given here would be enough to cause any fair-minded person to understand the truth of my statement:

If you're a white American born and raised in the USA, you're a racist like me.

But, apparently, I was wrong. The above statement is the bitter end result of a chain of logic based on understanding how each of the above definitions is intertwined with the up-bringing of every white person born and raised in the United States. The connections are not as obvious to some as they are to me.

Further, those who deal with this topic carefully craft the popular definition of "racism", so that at least some white Americans can claim not to be racist. It is important to these people, whether white Americans or Americans of Color (see definition), to be able to deny that they subscribe to the idea that "all white Americans are racists."

Sadly, even such a luminary in the struggle against racism as Lerone Bennett can be seen in a recent panel on the racism of Abraham Lincoln joining the other panelists, including other people of color, in denying that this could be true. Yet, it is precisely people like Bennett, among others, who would gain the most from this severe notion of the racism of white Americans.

To understand how this could be true, we must first dispel the notion that "because all would be guilty, none would be; that if all white Americans are racist, then racism is meaningless because 'every one' is." This argument hinges on the proposition that when we identify any attribute of this group, it must be an attribute of all mankind. Suddenly, we are not referring to a segment or discrete subset of a larger whole, but rather to the "totality." And, this is precisely how most white Americans see themselves: the exemplar of all humans. Humans who murder may say that all murderers are human, therefore murder is meaningless, and stand on just as solid ground. Such an argument is for the benefit of murderers, alone. Those humans who are not murderers may properly ignore it, just as Americans of Color, whether or not born and raised in the United States, may ignore this equally nihilist argument of white Americans.

Let me make the statement: white Americans are a subset of the larger whole called humankind. It is that subset I am referring to. So, my accusation does not refer to all mankind, only to the subset called white Americans like me. No one else in the United States can be accused of being racist. Why?

First, if "Racism" is "race prejudice plus power," as here defined, then only white Americans can express it. The "power" of this society resides exclusively in white American hands, and was designed exclusively for their benefit. People of color presently involved in the structures and institutions of power in this country are merely carrying out the institutionalized wishes of white Americans; "working for the man," as it were.

Second, as amplified in most of the writings of the authors cited on this web site, none of us white Americans is raised in the vacuum of a nuclear family. Therefore, even if our parents taught us nothing at all about racism, we will have received the message from myriad other sources. Indeed, since our parents were raised in exactly the same conditions, immersed in the American racist message, they cannot have taught us "nothing" about racism. Thus, every white American is swimming in a sea of institutionalized racism, such that when we are confronted with the question, "Why are you a racist?" the most common answers are either, "What is a racist," or "Isn't everyone?"

The best any of us white Americans can do against this, until our institutions are completely revamped, is to recognize the "voice of racism" instilled into our brains and do everything we can to act against it in our own lives. We can start by recognizing that we are not first "white Americans," but first human beings along with all other human beings on this planet. Then, and only then, we happen to be Americans. And, finally, the fact that our skin lacks almost all melanin is no more important than the color of our hair or eyes.

Many white Americans think the only racist things that were done in America had to do with the kidnapping and enslavement of Africans hundreds of years ago. They claim that, since they were not even alive, they cannot be to blame. Yet, these white Americans may look around themselves and see that they are actively using the profit gained for them by those white Americans who did visit slavery upon African Americans. They can only escape the blame if they give up or share that profit with the descendants of those who were enslaved.

But, the enslavement of African Americans, although the worst expression of racism, is not the only expression of it in the United States. All Americans of Color, but especially African Americans, suffer from the racism of us white Americans. As will be seen in several of the books cited here, the extension through our history of the old "one drop" law, has created a nation with "two rooms," one for white Americans, and one for Americans of Color. It is true, for those in the "Americans of Color" room, that the whiter one's skin, the closer to the door between the two rooms one stands; the darker, the farther away. But, the door is permanently locked. Even the children of a white American and an American of Color will not be allowed in the "white Americans" room.

The tragic consequences of this arrangement are many. Under certain circumstances and for particular purposes, these children, especially when adults, are encouraged to labor under the delusion that they are accepted as "white Americans" by other "white Americans." Those of us who know the sad truth, dread the moment when these children will realize they were never in the "white Americans" room at all, but merely pressing their noses against the door.

Just as there are gradations of skin color in the "Americans of Color" room, there are gradations of racism among those in the "white Americans" room. For it is true that some of them do, indeed, wake up instinctively sniffing for the next "N----" to lynch. But, the vast majority of us are garden-variety racists, whom I have chosen to label "Mushrooms."

If this introduction has taken the "offensive" edge off of my initial accusation, perhaps you, my white American reader, are "fair-minded." If so, welcome. I invite you to read my thesis, entitled "Mushrooms." I wrote it especially for you.

If you still feel the "sting" of offense, I invite you to move on. We need waste no more time on each other.

Persons of Color who have read this far are welcome to my site for any purpose you may have in mind. I would be flattered to find that you had anything to learn, here.

James Lester