Opinion: White supremacy must be undone — institution by institution
By Michael Gerson Michael Gerson Columnist Email Bio Follow Columnist April 4 at 5:13 PM The national debate on race — which the president has made more angry and urgent with his racial demagoguery — is hindered by imprecise language.
America’s racial dialogue is distorted by the use of the word “guilt.” To most people, guilt involves a conscious, personal decision to engage in some wrong. But this situation is more complex. Whether they realize it or not, white people in the United States benefit from centuries of enforced white dominance. And their current indifference helps perpetuate the social and economic advantages that have resulted.
The great rigging began about 400 years ago, when around 20 slaves were brought to Jamestown. The white settlers wrote laws that placed slaves and indentured servants in different categories — allowing poor whites to be slave overseers and permitting black slaves to be punished more harshly. Virginia’s colonial government determined that baptism would not confer freedom on slaves — effectively allowing some Christians to own other Christians.
While slavery eventually ended, economic and political oppression did not. White supremacy was written into Jim Crow laws and enforced by continued public and private violence. Voting rights were systematically denied. “Sundown towns” made it illegal for blacks to remain after dark. And nearly 4,000 lynchings revealed the evil at the heart of dehumanization. Sometimes, thousands of white men, women and children would gather to watch the event.
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