White Supremacy

I was on a run once and I saw a sign on Hillsborough Street regarding the North Carolina Colored State Fair. The sign did not provide a lot of information, only that it was held from 1879 to 1930. I did a little research myself, and found that the fair was the idea of Charles Norfleet Hunter, who was born into slavery in Raleigh in the 1850’s. It was his belief that African Americans in North Carolina had made great progress since their emancipation in 1863, though their progress was dependent on the kindness of the whites, and he believed that the fair embodied those aforementioned beliefs.

I was expecting the purpose of this fair to be much worse, such as forced segregation by providing African Americans with a worse version of a state fair, so I was surprised that it was more of a celebration of progress. Still, I noticed one key phrase in the article that I used for additional information: “Hunter also believed that the progress of the race depended and would continue to depend on the goodwill and kindness of whites.” This reminded me of the reading “Racism, Colonialism, and Imperialism.” There, the author discusses how racism is not simply an individual problem, it is a systematic one, which is reflected in Charles Hunter’s above statement. This shows how rampant state-sanctioned racism was during that time period, since African Americans were forced to rely on the goodwill of whites for any chance of success. Many examples provided in the reading show that there was not much goodwill going around, especially in policing situations, where ridiculous rules were being enforced. While it is not as bad now, there is still significant room for improvement as shown in current events. How much longer will it take to fully abolish the systematic racism that is woven deep into the fabric of our country’s social system?