White Supremacy
What Is it?
• White supremacy is the belief that white people are
superior to people of other racial backgrounds.
• The term is used specifically to describe a political
ideology that advocates the social, political, historical
and/or industrial dominance by whites.
• White supremacy is rooted in ethnocentrism and a
desire for hegemony and power, and has frequently
resulted in violence against non-whites.
White Supremacist Groups
• White supremacist groups can be found in
some countries and regions with a
significant white population including
Europe, North America, Australia, New
Zealand, Latin America, and South Africa.
• The militant approach taken by white
supremacist groups has caused them to
be watched closely by law enforcement
officials.
• Some European countries have laws
forbidding hate speech, as well as other
laws that ban or restrict some white
supremacist organizations.
Ku Klux Klan
• Three main periods of
activity in the United
States
– 1st Klan (1865–1870)
– 2nd Klan (1915–1944)
– 3rd Klan ( 1946-)
Systemic White Supremacy
•
White supremacy was dominant in the
United States before the American Civil
War and for decades after Reconstruction.
•
In some parts of the United States, many
people who were considered non-white
were disenfranchised, barred from
government office, and prevented from
holding most government jobs well into
the second half of the 20th century.
•
White leaders often viewed Native
Americans as obstacles to economic and
political progress, rather than as settlers in
their own right.
•
As seen in the movie “Cry Freedom,”
white supremacy was also dominant in
South Africa under apartheid.
•
South Africa maintained its white
supremacist apartheid system until the
early 1990s.
Mirrors of Privilege:
Making Whiteness Visible
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=play
er_embedded&v=pAljja0vi2M
Unpacking the Napsack –
Peggy McIntosh
• McIntosh points out the fact that whites are taught
to see racism in “individual acts of meanness, not in
individual systems conferring dominance on my
group.”
• The basis of her argument is that whites are taught
to ignore the fact that they enjoy social privileges
that blacks do not because we live in a society of
white dominance.
Unpacking the Napsack –
Peggy McIntosh
• Read the article at your tables.
• Answer the questions listed on the course
website.
The Invisible Knapsack of Privileges
• McIntosh creates an invisible knapsack of daily
white privileges and unpacks it in her essay,
listing off a variety of daily instances where
white dominance is clear.
• The privileges mentioned include: education,
politics, hygiene, careers, entertainment, child
care, confrontations, physical appearance,
punctuality, and public life.
McIntosh’s Solution to the Problem
• McIntosh makes the distinction between earned power and
conferred privilege.
• Everyone has an equal shot at earned power. Conferred privilege
is only available to certain groups.
• McIntosh points out that whites not only have an opportunity
for earned power, but also are possess conferred privilege.
• In order to change this, McIntosh states that whites have to
acknowledge their unearned power and be willing to give it up
so that blacks and other minority groups can enjoy freedom.
Questions
• What is Peggy McIntosh trying to say in this article?
• Do you agree with her thesis and conclusions?
• How do you feel about the article emotionally?
• If her conclusions are true, how should we deal with
these conclusions?
• Is this a "white" person's issue?