Unpacking the notion and practice of White Supremacy is a primary concern for scholars in the field of Pan-African studies. Indeed it is a term that contains both subtle and brutal elements in regard to the global African experience and its interaction with Europe over the last 500 plus years. But what actually is white supremacy? How does it manifest itself? These questions are pivotal and yet difficult to answer as each involves the interplay of historical, contemporary, socioeconomic, cultural, and political forces. In terms of white supremacy’s cancerous hold within the epistemology of European canons, Cornel West (1982, p. 65), a postmodernist African American intellectual, offers one such insight: “The idea of white supremacy is a major bowel unleashed by the structure of modern discourse… Needless to say, the odor of this bowel and the fumes of this secretion continue to pollute the air of our postmodern times.” West is quite right as one cannot deny that the idea of white supremacy has been ingrained in modern European discourse now for centuries, while maintaining itself in contemporary times more discreetly than in the past.
Yet West’s perspective, while certainly valid in terms of assessing European intellectual discourse as it relates to African and the majority of peoples outside its cultural gaze, does not offer a concrete or workable definition of the term. Therefore let us consider a North American dictionary definition of white supremacy, that states it is: “The belief, theory, or doctrine that the White race is superior to all other races, esp. the Black race, and therefore should retain control in all relations” (Random House Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, 1998, p. 2169). This definition is informative, even if it is highly problematic, and it emerged in North America between 1865 and 1870. Anyone with a passing knowledge of history will know that 1865 saw the end of de jure enslavement in North America, and this ushered in the ill-fated Reconstruction era that gave African Americans a modicum of social advancement in the southern states (1865-1877). It seems that those who had the power to define the term in 1998 see no reason to have updated the category from its original meaning in 1865. Can we assume then that white supremacy means today as what it did in 1865? That is:
the political, socioeconomic, cultural, historical, and contemporary domination of peoples not classified as White of European heritage, especially Black peoples of African heritage.
To many this would appear a far-fetched definition in the 21st century, but one ought to question why it exists in a contemporary and authoritative dictionary if indeed it is moribund?
The renowned historian George Fredrickson (1981, p. xi) defines white supremacy in this sense:
‘In its fully developed form, white supremacy means “color bars,” “racial segregation,’ and the restriction of meaningful citizenship rights to a privileged group characterized by its light pigmentation.’
In short, white supremacy is a byword for white privilege in most spheres of social life in Western and Westernized societies. It is best understood to operate on a continuum with mild forms of racism at one end leading to more severe types of racism at the other. For instance, when people of color deal with everyday slights such as not being served properly at a department store, or being followed in the store by security officers, this can be deemed as “mild” forms of white supremacy in action. More “severe” forms can be associated with the Ku Klux Klan attacks on people of color or heavy-handed policing in African-American communities.
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Most often thinking about white supremacy is erroneously limited to acts of extreme White hatred, however it is evident in all areas of social life and interaction: education, law, politics, media, sports, and other spheres of civil society. The media is particularly at fault when it comes to the perpetuation of insidious racialized stereotyping. |
Take, for example, the up to date “racial unmasking” of the Ancient African Pharaoh Tutankhamen by the world’s associated press, via “scientific data.” So-called experts from Egypt, France, and the United States recreated his face via modern technology. Unsurprisingly, they each created him in the image of the “European” and gone were the distinctly thick African lips and broad nose that we can see from the contemporary mask-sculptured coffin depiction of Tutankhamen on display in Cairo museum.
Zahi Hawass, the leader of the White Egyptian team, describes Tutankhamen erroneously as a “North African Caucasian,” or to put it another way: “A White North African.” A term that has no logical meaning beyond that of disassociating Tutankhamen with his Black African heritage. This is a recent (May 2005) instance in how white supremacy is legitimated via false science and the world’s largely white-controlled media.
Peoples of African descent may have now conquered music and sports, but they still remain fundamentally marginalized when it comes to showing their collective contributions to world civilization, in formulating educational policy, in politics and law. Again, the media most often puts African American conservatives forward as the spokespersons for the entire African American experience, and rarely do we witness a cross-section of African thinkers emerging from the mainstream communication network. This scenario reinforces the notion of white supremacy, as the ideas and opinions of the multidimensional aspect of African American experience fails to gain adequate airplay. Instead we ordinarily witness a negative stereotyping of African American life and culture, or limited African American conservative perspectives that disregard African agency.
Overall, white supremacy should be considered a contemporary problem with historical foundations. The legacy of white supremacy continues to pervade all areas of social life in Western societies. There have been obvious advances in stemming the brutality of white supremacy, that is, in terms of its overt manifestations, but there is much to be done in terms of empowering millions of African Americans still suffering in poverty-stricken social environments that usually entails poor education facilities, poor housing, poor employment prospects, and poor health standards.
The 21st century will certainly be a time that brings African American communities and environments more sharply in focus, and arguably a head-on clash with the de facto policy of institutional white supremacy. One can only predict a difficult road ahead, for as Professor Molefi Asante (2003, p. 73) points out: “White supremacy cannot allow mutuality; blackness must be insulted, controlled, assaulted, or obliterated.”
Conclusion
Understanding white supremacy from a Pan-African perspective is crucial in gauging the historical experience as it unfolds the last 500-plus years of European-derived cultural, socioeconomic, and political hegemony over global African peoples. Moreover, as the many chapters in this book attest, we need to highlight the continued resistance to white supremacy. Make no mistake, presently African peoples on the continent and in the Diaspora, by and large, continue to grapple with diverse forms of racialized discrimination via: media, education, health, politics, judicial systems, international trade, and social policy outcomes, to name a few. In all these areas of social interaction is the ongoing struggle and resistance by advocates of African centered initiatives to enable empowerment strategies to foster. In a real sense, until Africans come to fully comprehend both the subtle and brutal aspects of white supremacy operating as a complex system there can be little hope for authentic African self-determination and self-empowerment. The attempt here has been merely to sketch-out the contours of white supremacy, but its defeat as a system of domination has yet to be realized. Pan-Africanism will no doubt play a crucial role in raising the consciousness of Africans and winning the battle against an organized system of white supremacy that works to the detriment of African agency.
References and further reading
* Theodore Allen. The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control. New York, Verso, 1994.
* Molefi K. Asante. Erasing Racism: The Survival of the American Nation. New York: Prometheus, 2003.
* Mark Christian. ‘An African-Centered Perspective on White Supremacy’ Journal of Black Studies (33) (2) (November, 2002): 179-198.
* George M. Fredrickson. White Supremacy: A Comparative Study in American & South African History. New York: Oxford University, 1981.
* Cornel West. Prophesy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1982.
* Random HouseWebster’s Unabridged Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1998.
Time. ‘Unmasking King Tut’ (May 23, 2005) pp. 66-67.
