Might Makes White
Whiteness is more than just low melanin.
By Paul Hartzer
In Octavia Butler’s “Kindred,” the protagonist Dana is fretting about how the other slaves see her as being “white” because of her relationship with the masters. Carrie, a mute slave, rubs Dana’s face to show that the blackness doesn’t rub off. Dana is black no matter what.
I have always identified as a white person. My ancestors include Miles Standish and John Alden of the Mayflower.
Of late, though, I have been reflecting deeply on what it means to be “white.” For most of my life, I’ve had the passive thought that being white merely means having white skin. This despite my awareness that there were plenty of people who had white skin that who were still “not quite white.”
I’ve also been aware that “black power” and “white power” are distinctly different things. Black power is rooted in retrieving pride after centuries of systemic oppression. It is about overcoming and reclaiming.
White power, in contrast, is about perpetuating that systemic oppression. Whites are generally of European descent, and most of us can trace at least part of our family trees back to specific nationalities. Many, if not most, black Americans are descended from slaves which were stripped of their heritage.
