Ending the myth of the White Race

Why Racialism doesn’t work, even to fight racism.

Repeat after me: The White Race is a fiction. It never existed.

The White Race was invented in the 17th century. There were Imperialists in a few Western European nation states that had military and economic power. They wanted to justify the rather brutal things they were doing, and inventing a theory of racialism was a perfect way to trick themselves into not hating themselves for what they were doing.

If they believed they were part of a superior group of people, appointed by Nature and God to rule, then conquering, enslaving and killing didn’t seem so bad to them.

White Supremacists were people with a very well defined (and bogus) theory of race. They divided humanity into broad racial groups, and assigned traits to each group. This has long been debunked by both science and history.

You may be tempted to say that White Supremacy was invented by members of the White Race. But this doesn’t make sense. The White Race is a fiction. It never existed. White Supremacy was invented by English and German imperialists. White people like Serbians and Syrians had nothing to do with it.

The reality of White Supremacy

White Supremacy is real. It has a huge impact on the founding of the United States. It was the core principle of slavery. It continued in segregation. White Supremacy continues to impact the systemic racism in American society.

Racism exists. Race is a fiction. White Supremacists invented the White Race. They developed racialism; the belief system that humans were divided into racial groups and had traits corresponding to their race.

They assigned the White Race the traits of conqueror. White Supremacists said White people were a warlike, dominant, conquering race that expanded where it could and took what it wanted.

Oddly, this same racialist doctrine has been adopted by people who oppose White Supremacy.

There is no Racial Culture

Repeat after me; the White Race is a fiction

If you are an American, you know that bacon (the normal kind) is made out of pork. You know that the Democratic party supports abortion rights. You know what sport LeBron James plays and you know what kids do on Easter. You know these things, no matter what you skin color, because they are part of our shared American culture.

Almost no Americans with White Skin can explain whether Korvapuusti from Finland is a meat, a vegetable or something else. And almost no Americans with White Skin can explain what the position of the Serbian political party VMSZ is on same sex marriage. There is no White culture that binds Serbians with Finns and Americans.

And very few Americans with Black Skin (unless they are actually from Haiti) know if Tassot from Haiti is a meat, a vegetable or a dance step. And almost no Americans know how children celebrate Kuomboka in Zambia. There is no Black culture that binds Haitians with Zambians.

Your culture is based on where you were born, and how you were raised. It is not based on the color of your skin. If you were raised in the United States, you are an American sharing a culture with all other American.

The White Race is a fiction. There are cultural, historical or religion that ties that bind. There is no common religion or common beliefs that define “White” people. There are no common historical experiences.

There is a clear African-American subculture in the United States, but it isn’t global. African-American culture is purely American. There is not a single White culture in the United States. I was raised in New England and have more in common with a Black person from New England than I do with a White person from Oklahoma.

There is no racial history

Repeat after me; the White Race is a fiction.

There are thousands of arguments about whether Cleopatra (or Jesus) were White. These arguments are ridiculous. No one would argue that the British today are anything but White. At the time of Cleopatra, the ancestors of the British were indigenous tribes trying to fight off the Roman invaders that Cleopatra was jumping into bed with. Arguing that Cleopatra was the same race as the British (or the Slavs or anyone else) would have been seen as ridiculous by Cleopatra herself as well as the Anglo-Saxon tribes who she is being grouped with.

No one born before the 17th century was White because the White race hadn’t been invented.

So, did people belonging to the White race institute African slavery? No, the White race is a fiction. The British and Dutch and Arabs colonized Africa. The Serbians had nothing to do with it, and even the Irish had little to do with it.

You may be able to blame Western Europe. But Western Europe is a geographic/political entity, not a race. You can’t blame the White Race because the White Race is fiction. There is no White race to blame.

Conquerors or Oppressors

White Supremacists invented the White Race as a race of conquerors. They idolized the White Race as fierce warriors who dominated other races. Ant-racists view the White Race as a race of conquerors. They demonize the White Race as brutal warriors who dominate other races.

It’s the same myth! Both modern anti-racists and White Supremacists view the White Race in the same way.

White Supremacists deny that African Empires existed. Many anti-racists deny that African Empires were imperialist. By definition an Empire is a culture that believes it is superior to other cultures and decides to attack and dominate them. African Empires believed themselves to be superior to the other cultures they attacked and dominated.

Of course there have been brutal Asian, and African, and pre-columbian American empires that have conquered large areas of land and taken slaves.

The arguments that highlight atrocities by alleged members of the mythical “White Race” ignore the atrocities committed by Asian, Arab, African and Pre-Columbian American Empires are ridiculous. It is not just the point scoring…

These arguments start with the assumption that White Supremacist ideas about race are true; that a person or a society Do you believe that race determines a person’s character, personality, behavior or values? At that point you can’t ignore the argument about which race is superior, or guilty or less civilized. These arguments have never ended well for justice.

The American Obsession with Race

In the United States everything is divided by Black and White. We have Black hairstyles. We have Black language. We have Black music. And, people try to enforce these racial lines… getting upset when someone wears a hairstyle or uses a word that belongs to another race.

This almost never makes sense. The story goes that Elvis stole his hit song “You ain’t nothing but a Hound dog” from Black people. The story is so compelling that people are surprised to find out that this song was written by two rather pale-skinned Jewish guys from Queens. In any modern culture, music is a wonderful mix of cultural influeces as musicians learn and borrow from each other.

Dreadlocks (now considered a “Black” hairstyle) were worn by Greeks 6,000 years ago. The words “brother” and “sister” (now considered part of Black vernacular) have Germanic roots from thousands of years ago and have long been used to express social relationships (outside of strictly familial bonds) for almost as long

Americans have doubled down on the Mythology of Race. Anti-racists haven’t rejected this core doctrine of White Supremacy; that race determines a person’s beliefs, character and values. Instead they have embraced the idea that a person’s race is the most important thing about them.

The mythology of race help versus racism

Tracking race as a demographic category has value in social policy contexts. Measuring and addressing discrimination in areas such as housing, access to credit, education and law enforcement is a legitimate concern. However, this should be strictly understood as a demographic category. It should not support the mythology that “race” is indicative of a person's character, values or life experience.

My race doesn’t tell you my beliefs. It doesn’t tell you whether I voted for Biden or Trump. It doesn’t tell you if I support Affirmative Action or same sex marriage.

My doesn’t tell you whether my parents were married, or educated. It doesn’t tell you whether my ancestors were slaveholders or slaves. It doesn’t tell you whether I am vaccinated. It doesn’t tell you whether I worship Jesus or the God of Moses or Mohammed or none of the above. It doesn’t tell you how I talk; do say “y’all” or use the word “fireflies”.

There is no benefit to continuing the myth that race determines a person’s character, actions, beliefs or values. The idea that your race bestows upon you traits that influence your destiny or decisions has been debunked by both science and history.

It is time to end the White Race. It is time to end the mythology of race for everyone. It is an outdated concept that never meant anything. We will do better moving forward without it.