The National Museum of African American History and Culture is out with a “discussion” on race, in particular “whiteness,” and it is a doozy.
It’s worth noting that the museum is part of the Smithsonian which receives approximately 62% of its funding from the federal government.
From institutional racism, to white domination of social and political structures, the discussion assumes being born white is a veritable super power.
Whiteness and white racialized identity refer to the way that white people, their customs, culture, and beliefs operate as the standard by which all other groups of are compared. Whiteness is also at the core of understanding race in America. Whiteness and the normalization of white racial identity throughout America’s history have created a culture where nonwhite persons are seen as inferior or abnormal.This white-dominant culture also operates as a social mechanism that grants advantages to white people, since they can navigate society both by feeling normal and being viewed as normal. Persons who identify as white rarely have to think about their racial identity because they live within a culture where whiteness has been normalized.Thinking about race is very different for nonwhite persons living in America. People of color must always consider their racial identity, whatever the situation, due to the systemic and interpersonal racism that still exists.Whiteness (and its accepted normality) also exist as everyday microaggressions toward people of color. Acts of microaggressions include verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights, snubs or insults toward nonwhites. Whether intentional or not, these attitudes communicate hostile, derogatory, or harmful messages.
This little gem is block-quoted in the middle of the tirade:
“In this country, American means white. Everybody else has to hyphenate.” TONI MORRISON
Should I even bother pointing out this is not true? That no one has asked or required any other group to identify as anything other than American and that it’s always been the choice of progressives to divide groups according to race and other shallow identifiers? That generations before ours often considered themselves American as soon as they set foot on US soil? Or nah?
There’s even this handy graphic that would be hilarious if it weren’t serious.
There’s so much more, but this really covers the gist of it. It’s not a discussion on race, it’s vilifying an entire group of people because of their race, in the name of equity and equality.
Like neo-feminism which intentionally paints men into a corner, if a white person, life myself, were to say something like, “stop putting all your garbage on me, enough of the victimhood milking, being white is not, in fact, a privilege, not here nor elsewhere, and stop blaming a system you keep voting into power,” I’d be told (and have been told) I’m just unaware of my privilege and the fact that I’m uncomfortable with the assertion of white privilege is telling. Which is nothing more than gaslighting. All of it. It’s what unwell people do.
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