“It dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.” — W. E. Burghardt Du Bois
In 1903, W. E. B. DuBois published a historical work, “The Souls of Black Folk.” It was a series of essays on the topic of race. These essays addressed the Black experience and the Black condition. But they said as much about white people and the presumption that whiteness was the norm and the Black people always labored under the assumption that they were other, that they were a problem.
“Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.” — W. E. B. Du Bois
This essay, “The Souls of White Folk,” goes without saying that the generalizations do not apply to every white individual. Some fight valiantly to improve the human condition, seek equality among the races, and right the historical wrongs of this nation or acknowledge them. Yet, it is the collective silence of the majority of white people that allow whatever percentage exists of white supremacists and nationalists to far too often prevail. They watch, unaffected by the plight of those fighting voter suppression, mass incarceration, sentencing disparities, and wealth gaps while remaining intentionally blind to their own advantages created by their forefathers and perpetuated by those they elect to keep them in place.
The concept of whiteness didn’t exist until America, though the idea of class was ever-present. White and Black indentured servants worked side by side until 1676 when they joined forces during Bacon’s Rebellion and helped burn down Jamestown, Virginia. The case could be made that 1676 was as important as 1776 in shaping America’s future. Bacon’s Rebellion led to a shift in the economic model, away from indentured servitude and embracing the enslavement of Black people full-throttle. Whiteness was born, and everyone else became other. The same is true today because the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Supreme Court, with their focus on originalism, the Electoral College, and Congress, all enforce whiteness as literally the law of the land.
In 1676 when the first Slave Codes were passed and throughout much of early American history, the citizens knew little of what their politicians were doing and why. Today, Americans, especially white people, have the capacity to know much more. Still, most choose not to know or immerse themselves into a bubble of information designed not to inform but to delude. It’s hard work to pretend they don’t generally benefit from their whiteness, yet they succeed.
White people might know that the G.I. Bill created V.A. loans with 100% financing. V.A Loans, along with FHA Loans, provided entry into homeownership and helped create the middle class. If you tell them those programs were almost universally denied to Black people, they won’t do the math to see how wealth was created for them and denied to others. Many insist that racism ended with the end of the Civil War or the Civil Rights movement and blind themselves to the truth that racism has always been recreated. The end of enslavement led to the Black Codes, which evolved into Jim Crow, which is now a rose by another name but still a rose.
White people are tired of being called racists. Some can truthfully claim they have done nothing personally to promote racism, yet their silence and inaction allow it to fester. There was a hopeful moment in time following the video’s release showing a white policeman with his knee on George Floyd’s neck. White people in great numbers took to the streets, finally acknowledging what Black people have always known. The powers that be were briefly stunned, not knowing how to react. It took them a while to figure out how to reshape the narrative, providing a message to lull the once silent majority of white people back into complacency.
“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
“The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. recognized that silence equals complicity. There certainly are white allies who are appreciated, but the greater number of white people are those who say nothing. Caged brown children separated from their families, possibly forever, caused little more than raised eyebrows if not supported in some circles. In forty-nine states, voter suppression attempts (many already successful) are in progress, with denial being the main reaction. While the current political party doing the suppressing is the Republicans. The Democratic Party has a long and violent history of voter suppression that went mostly ignored as well.
When discussing the souls of white folks, I don’t mean to imply they don’t have souls. Just that they are selective about what matters to them, cruelty to animals will have them up in arms, cruelty to people that don’t look like them, not so much. They seem to be for multiple guns in every household unless, of course, the residents are Black. When armed white men went to the Michigan Capitol, little was said, and nothing was done. When armed Black men once legally went to the California Capitol, laws were passed with the full support of the NRA, Republicans, and Democrats. They care about Black people voting, more specifically not voting, as demonstrated by their effort into Gerrymandering, redistricting, and voter suppression. Some of the tactics are very little different than those used during the Black Codes and Jim Crow. The names have been changed to protect the guilty.
Everything that is allowed to occur can be traced back to the silence of white people. It used to be that being called a racist was a reason for shame. Now, some wear the label like a badge of honor. Racist politicians have no fear of getting re-elected. Their only concern is being racist enough to keep from being beaten by a challenger more racist than themselves. While the tendency is to blame the politician, the true fault lies with the voters that put and keep them in office.
I wrote earlier that white people don’t like to be called racist. Their solution is trying to convince the rest of us that what they’re doing or refusing to object to is justified. They know the truth, and so do I. They apparently have no concern about earthly repercussions; I can only wonder about the fate of their souls?
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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