White People, Attention: You have been and are being fooled!

A difficult fact, yet impossible to escape.

Every instance in which I discuss race as it exists in America, I have to always remind myself of one small, yet undeniable and important fact that is key to understanding the history of institutional racism in America: the “White race” was created first as the centerpiece of racial classifications and was used to be the privileged, benefitted norm upon which all else not under said heading were persecuted for generations. If one does not understand this fact and the context around it, one is missing out on a great deal of racial reality in past and contemporary society.

Whiteness was created as a classification to keep from being included as Black, Indian, “Oriental”, or any other non-White grouping. What is more interesting than this by itself is the history of how this reality came to be and how Whiteness seems to be the one racial category that has been allowed to adapt and shift definitions over generations.

From ethnic identity to a skin color.

When Europeans arrived on the scene in North America, there was no such identity or solidarity as “White people”. The European arrivals were Dutch, French, Spanish, English, Welsh, Scottish, German, the list goes on. Just as current day Vietnamese do no see themselves as “Yellow” with their neighboring Asians countries (despite Americans classifying them as such), Europeans did not see themselves as having some sort of bond due to having light skin and lighter features. In fact, many European indentured servants worked alongside African slaves in the early colonial days. Being White and Black was no distinction at this time – class and ethnicity were the point of focus to the elites, and indentured servant Europeans simply didn’t cut it for them.

When numerous rebellions took place on the east coast in the early to mid 17th century, institutional manners of grouping people began to change. African slaves and European servants were grouping together to rise up against the wealthy elites in the new land. In 17th century Virginia was where the first laws separating “Blacks” from “Whites” in terms of marriage laws and civil privileges were seen. The European servants, now classified as “Whites”, were given property rights; court testifying rights, and other privileges the African slaves were not given. In case this is getting too difficult to follow (or too hard to swallow, whichever the case may be): the term White was created to protect the collapse of an elite, Anglo power structure. That’s it – Whiteness was a trick played on poor European servants to give up their class interests and ethnically identify with a new skin based power structure.

But one cannot simply close the book there on the book of Whiteness. The definition of who was White and who was not would not be resolved in the 17th century. The power structure and society at large had differing ideas over time of who was to be White and who was not.
(To be continued)…

Nope, no Affirmative Action needed. Discrimination's over!

http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/12/08/focus4.html (2007 saw the highest rate of work-place, race related discrimination complaints since 1994).

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41828&dcn=todaysnews (Asian-Americans underreport discrimination).

http://economics.uchicago.edu/download/_DISCRIMINATION.pdf (Applicants with "black sounding" names like Jamal or Lakeisha get about half the call-backs for jobs than applicants with typically "white" names like Greg or Emily).

http://www.cmich.edu/Affirmative_Action_Office/Truths_and_Myths_Regarding_Affirmative_Action.htm (Myths about Affirmative Action. You'd be shocked how many you hear repeated daily in society and on television).

Yeah. "Post-racial society of Obama" my ass.

Asian-Americans: not Americans.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6365320.html

Betty Page, a white Texas Congressional Representative, has asked that Asian-Americans change or simplify their names according to standards that make it "easier to deal with". If this isn't an example of white supremacist culture and white privilege, I don't know what is.

“Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese — I understand it’s a rather difficult language — do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?” Brown said.

Brown later told Ramey Ko, a member of an organization for Chinese-Americans: “Can’t you see that this is something that would make it a lot easier for you and the people who are poll workers if you could adopt a name just for identification purposes that’s easier for Americans to deal with?”

Not Anglo...er, American enough.

First off, Chinese-Americans who are voting suddenly aren't "Americans". This is key to the topic. Americans are the ones with "simple", more Anglo names. Ethnocentrism at it's best.

Then think about the privilege Page has in the discussion.Chinese is "rather difficult", but English isn't difficult? Do you wonder has she ever tried to learn another language when she utters those words? What would her reaction be if she had to change her name in Vietnam or China to Huang or Wang? It is this type of privilege, an ability to not empathize or pay attention to the situations or realities of non-whites, that exemplifies white privilege. She can say this type of thing and get away with it: Asians, your names are not simple enough for US (Anglos) to pronounce. Please, change YOUR ways for US. Nope, forget that Asians may be just as proud of their names and heritage as any European-American. This is Eurocentric America. Get on board, already! Sheesh.

And also note the Euro-supremacist overtones: You and YOUR citizens. Are Asian-Americans not citizens she represents? I guess Ramey Ko, the Chinese-American that confronted her, represents them separately. And this is said by someone in power.

Victimization without being victims.

The final blow dealt here is towards the end of the article where a spokesperon for Republicans claims Democrats and Ko are "using race". Here, they are alluding to the all-powerful "race card". If the race card were such a strong card, it wouldn't be so easy for whites to knock down and end the discussion with. Instead, it is my theory that whites use the "race card" argument whenever they want to divert the topic and project back to the other end in an attempt to discredit the argument without addressing the topic.

Whites never seem to ever pull the race card it seems, even when they claim names are too hard for "them" to deal with and they should adopt "simpler" names for Ko and HIS citizens (yeah, no grouping of people and separating them from Americans there, eh?). Whites can complain and get their way out of the discussion because it's "too hard for them to pronounce and deal with them weird names from Asia".

And supposedly it's minorities, not whites, who play the victims in society today. Funny.

We're living in a "colorblind" society.
Segregation and slavery are over!
Everyone has equal treatment!
Discrimination from the dominant power is only imagined by minorities! They should try harder!

Right.