The term white as applied to people was first used by slave--owning colonialists in 17th century Maryland and Virginia to describe poor indentured servants who came from Europe. Originally, these servants had been called "Englishmen," "Irishmen" or "Christians," but the colonial ruling class began to use the term "white" to distinguish European servants from African ones, who were often called "Negro," which means "black" in Spanish.
The Virginia legislature made the term "white" a legal distinction in 1791, after a series of joint rebellions by European and African servants, culminating in Bacon's Rebellion of 1676, nearly brought down the colonial ruling powers. (Information provided by People's Institute.) In the slave codes of 1705, especially in the "Act concerning servants and slaves,"colonial rulers gave poor 'whites' certain legislated privileges, such as a small plot of land or "freedom dues" (wages) after completion of their term of servitude; the right to sue their masters in court; and exemption from public whipping for punishment! At the same time, the legislature wrote the laws which provided the institutionalized foundations for chattel slavery for Africans.
From that time on, throughout U.S. history, to be "white" has meant to have access to certain forms of preferential treatment, and exemption from racial oppression, solely on the basis of European ancestry and (allegedly) "white" skin. Thus, the concepts of "white people" and "white privilege" share the same historical and institutional roots. And both terms are artificial, historical constructions to serve political purposes: creating separations among oppressed peoples on the basis of skin color and ancestral origin so that they would not unite against a common oppressor.
(For more on the historical origins of the terms 'white' and 'white privilege:' (1) Theodore William Allen, Class Struggle and the Origin of Racial Slavery: The Invention of the White Race. 1975 pamphlet. (2) Theodore Allen, "Introduction," The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control. Vol. 1. London: Verso Books, 1994. (3) A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr., In The Matter of Color: Race & the American Legal Process: The Colonial Period. Oxford University Press, 1980, especially pages 53--57.. (4) Lerone Bennett, Jr. "The Road Not Taken," in The Shaping of Black America. Chicago, 1975.)
A DEFINITION OF WHITE SUPREMACY
White supremacy is an historically based, institutionally perpetuated system of exploitation and oppression of continents, nations and peoples of color by white peoples and nations of the European continent; for the purpose of establishing, maintaining and defending a system of wealth, power and privilege. (Definition by Mickey Ellinger and Sharon Martinas)
A DEFINITION OF WHITE CULTURE
White culture is an artificial, historically constructed culture which expresses, justifies and binds together the United States white supremacy system. It is the cultural matrix and glue which binds together white--controlled institutions into systems; and white--controlled systems into the global white supremacy system. Since World War II, the white culture of the United States has been the center of the global white culture.
WHITE CULTURE IS A DOMINANT CULTURE
White culture is not the only culture in the current territory of the United States. There are numerous others: many kinds of indigenous, African-- American and African-- Caribbean, Chicano and Latino with regional variations, a multiplicity of Asian cultures, indigenous Hawaiian, many Arabic cultures, and expressions of many European peoples.
But white culture is the dominant culture. What are some of the characteristics of this dominant culture?
In thinking about these characteristics, please recall Dr. Wade Nobles' definition of power: "Power is the ability to define reality and to convince other people that it is their definition." (See "Definitions," Political Perspectives. Exer. Manual.)
1. It defines who you are, and who "others" are in relation to you. For example, a white culture term for 'people of color' is 'non--white,' i.e., non--people.
2. It shapes your attitudes, thinking, behavior and values. For example, a white woman shrinks in fear when passing an African American man on the street; yet the great' danger to white women comes from white men in the home.
3. It consciously and unconsciously suppresses and oppresses other cultures. For example, slave owners consciously suppressed African spirituality and taught Africans Christianity to make them 'docile.' Or, employers fire workers for speaking Spanish in a restaurant, but promote workers who speak French.
4. It consciously and unconsciously appropriates aspects of oppressed cultures. For example: every form of African American music: gospel, blues, Iazz, rhythm and blues, and rap, has been copied by white musicians with no credit given to the creative sources of the music. Or, white New Agers become instant healers, charging hefty fees, by appropriating ancient indigenous healing practices.
5. It is normative: the standard for judging values and behavior.
6. It is assumed, unquestioned, not on the agenda: the ways things are.
7. It is hidden -- not at all obvious to the dominating or oppressing practitioners, but often painfully, obvious to peoples whose cultures have been suppressed, oppressed or appropriated.
WHITE CULTURE IS A DEADLY BREW
White culture in the United States is complex. Because white supremacy is fundamental to the existence of this country, white supremacist culture is intertwined with other major cultural manifestations that make up the fabric of the U.S: the greed, competition and individualism of capitalism; male supremacist fear and hatred of the power of women; historical Christianity'S hatred and fear of sexuality, and its compulsion to divide humankind into the "saved" and the "damned;" and militarism's glorification of war and conquest as proofs of manhood and nationhood that has roots an European culture going back thousands of years.
White culture is a melting pot of greed, guys, guns and god. It is a deadly brew.
(For a comprehensive critique of European culture, see Marimba Ani, Yurugu: An African--Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior. New Jersey: Africa World Press, 1994.)
SHININ' THE LITE ON WHITE
In this section, I will try to highlight some of the ways in which white culture manifests itself in our daily lives. As you read this, please remember that this is a very tentative beginning of a new effort by many white activists in the U.S. to explore the meanings of white culture. Most analysis on white culture has been done by activists and scholars of color. Their work has inspired me to begin to do my own homework.
THE CULTURE OF RACIAL OPPRESSION: (CULTURAL RACISM)
1. White culture perpetuates the ideology that people of color are morally and mentally inferior to white people. Throughout the history of the United States, white culture has characterized people of color as ''savage, ''ignorant,'' ''depraved,'' ''bestial,'' "lazy," "dirty," "illegal" and "criminal."
This ideology continues unabated today. For example, white students and white workers assume that the only reason a person of color gets into college or into a good job is because of affirmative action: that is, the people of color could not have competed with the white person were the playing field "level." In these examples, the white people cannot imagine that the people of color might be equally or more qualified than the whites for the positions they achieved.
2. White culture stereotypes figures and behaviors of peoples of color. A common method is to take some cultural attribute forced on people of color by conquest and continuing racial oppression, and making that attribute into a symbol of the whole people. For example, the film Ethnic Notions by Marvin Riggs delineates a history of white stereotypes of African Americans in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Stereotypes such as the "minstrel," the "mammy," "coon' illustrate forms of assumed behavior that is carried into contemporary stereotypes of African Americans embodied in terms like "criminal," "gang member" and "welfare mother." Forms change; meanings stay on.
3. By defining reality as white, and convincing peoples of color that white reality is their reality, white culture actively promotes internalized racism and inter--racial tensions among peoples of color.
Internalized racism disempowers a person and a people. Inter-racial hostility prevents different peoples of color from uniting for their common purposes and against their common oppressors.
In this way, white culture expresses a successful white ruling class strategy of "divide and conquer." Imprisoning a person's mind is more thorough and long--lasting than imprisoning her body.
4. White culture labels the cultures of the Americas, Africa, Asia and the Arab world as inferior to cultures that have evolved in Europe. Furthermore, white culture actively promotes the historical lie that the culture that evolved in ancient Greece was the "fountainhead of western civilization."
In fact, most of the great Greek scholars and poets went to Kemet (the name for ancient Egypt), which was an African culture and civilization, to study for years before they returned to create their own forms of wisdom. And the "renaissance" of Europe did not begin in Italy, as our textbooks say, but in Spain and Portugal which, under the African and Arabic Moorish Empire of the 8th through the 15th centuries, preserved and recreated the wisdom of the ancient world, and developed the technology which allowed the Spanish and Portuguese to embark on their voyages of exploration and conquest of lands outside Europe.
Today, there is a white cultural war against African--centred research and scholarship. White academics call this scholarship 'self serving.' Yet few white culturalists would call traditional historical and anthropological research, "White Studies."
5. White culture suppresses and oppresses the cultures of peoples of color as part of an ongoing system of conquest, colonialism and racial/national oppression.
For example, the movement, now a law in many states, of "English Only" is a specific form of cultural conquest of peoples from Mexico, Central and South America and Puerto Rico, which has its historical origin in the U.S.'s 1848 war against Mexico; and the 1898 invasion of Puerto Rico. "English Only" is cultural colonialism: the peoples of colonized nations are forced to speak the language of the conqueror.
6. White culture appropriates elements of the cultures of people of color in order to mask the underlying power relationships of dominant to dominated cultures.
For example: Rhythm and Blues is an African American musical creation, but one of its most famous exponents was Elvis Presley, a white working class man from the south. Many rhythm and blues artists die impoverished. Elvis is worshipped like a god.