Analyzing Racist Tropes and White Society
Disclaimer and Trigger Warning:
This post is not made to direct hate at anyone nor IS it directing hate or inspiring hate. It is an analysis of history and racist caricatures used to invoke thoughtful discourse about modern society and race relations. Terminology and images that explore these racist concepts are used and uncensored. Proceed with caution. THIS POST is NOT an attack on ANY individual or does it direct hate towards a GROUP of people. It is not to harass anyone. I ask the reader to remember the human. To be respectful and to humanize.
White anxieties have been the fuel of many, many great cultural changes.
Imagine being a southern white property owner in the 1800s. You are a proper white gentleman of noble blood. The product of good Christian upbringing and a respectable heritage of souther plantation owner. Your prestige is correlated to the value you and your family have given to the society.
Imagine the pressure and unique position your “noble” birth have placed you. The subtle tension between those poorer than you and those richer, and you can’t forget about the slaves, and the people looking to free the slaves. How do you protect your interests?
We can analyze white anxieties from some of the tropes and reoccurring images they have used. (I call them white people fantasies) Much of white anxieties stem from the atrocities they have benefited from. It speaks to them unconsciously.
White mans burden
the alleged duty of white colonizers to care for nonwhite Indigenous subjects in their colonial possessions.
White paternalism
White paternalism is the idea that white people have a “duty” to intervene in lives of Black, Indigenous, and/or People of ColorWhite savior
Mighty “White” (The Chiefs Daughter)
In modern-day fiction, sometimes the Mighty Whitey is there to lead or inspire the Hollywood Natives or bring some aspect of modern technology or knowledge …
The Sapphire, Jezebel, mammy, Sambo, Uncle Tom, Black brute, magical n-word, and the c-word. In our collective conscious as a Nation, these racist images are still embedded in our mind.
If you analyze each of these caricatures, and the others, it speaks much more about the people who created them. The Sapphire (angry black woman) , Jezebel (promiscuous black woman which contrast the victorian archetype of ), the Tragic “mulatto” and the Mammy. Black femininity being bastardized by racism.
The racist believe that black people are animalistic (black brute/Jezabel) while they terrorized and r*ped black people. Their beliefs were made out to be “reality” when it spoke much more on who they were and what they were doing. The mammy and tom caricatures being that they were more concerned with white lives than black. How did these attitude propagate into modern media? Its far deeper than we acknowledge.
In truth, white anxieties is a collective unconscious paranoia. The murderer think that the family of the woman he murders, would love to take revenge. Othello’s Error?
White racism has hurt white people. The racists convinced them of a lie that they stick too. Think about the advancements we missed out on. How society could have progressed. The people who could have been geniuses. Lost history. Civilizations that were destroyed Etc White anxieties when it comes to black people is centered around an overwhelming fear of retribution. They fear black people organizing and seeking retribution (pulling a Haiti)
Ask yourselves this: How did or what was the social institutions instilled in the Haitians that caused them to revolt and tear the fabric of their society into a new one vs the slaves of USA? How did the Haitians engineer their own government but the slaves in the USA couldn’t?
Religion
If you begin to see white anxieties as the paranoia ALL criminals develop, you’ll see how much guilt is present in the collective unconscious of White People. How angry it makes some to acknowledge the past saying its forcing them to feel guilt while forcing others to be victims, and also, how some submerge it and become morally blind. How could the founding fathers author the declaration of independence while owning slaves? Justifying it by dehumanizing them. If you point out the hypocrisy of their society, you’ll see a common theme or reaction.
That’s why a lot of the racist arguments or responses avoid responsibility (My people didnt own slaves, they came from (random place in Europe) with 25 cents in their pocket, they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps) or morally alleviate themselves from feeling guilty about crimes they never committed. They inherently are prone to guilt BECAUSE they inherently understand they benefit from the racist institutions and societies their forefathers engineered for them. It’s boils down to holding their society accountable for moral hypocrisy.
The left and right have different approaches. When the USA “freed” the slaves, millions of free black slaves could change the political power and fabric of their societies. Plus if they organized they could do a Haiti against them. White anxieties where exacerbated the KKK and other groups rose.
The Right is on the yeah it HAPPENED get over it we won we’d do it again to protect ourselves side of things. They have been shamed from being openly like this they get censored but to them it is the natural order (white supremacy) but they understand they cannot say it they have to hide it. The Right is more on the we must maintain our power because if we don’t they’re going to get us and do what we have done to them. They are going to rob us (take back what we stole from them, pillage us (white anxieties fueled Jim Crow around the black brute caricature that black men were out r*ping white women when the opposite was happening!) and replace us in the societies we’ve created!
The Left is more slick. They believe the same thing as the right but their approach is more subtle. Convince them that they are like us, that they are us. They take the moral high ground of the issue to prove they are superior to the right not because they believe those values. It’s hypocrisy. They latch on to each moral cause in order to increase their casus belli and power against the right. They are like yeah it happened but your culture now is messed up you should become more like us and start working harder. We dont really owe you anything but we do need your votes so to symbolize our progress here’s a holiday.
People are only protecting THEIR interests. To be honest, the right has been fucking the south and finding solutions to problems that affect THEIR people.
Americans are playing A game of chicken of who wins the attention the acceptable byproduct being the suffering of BIPOCS. We are tools for getting white people what they want. One uses fear, one uses advocacy. At the heart of white anxieties is a prevailing guilt of the past that fuels a sense of fear that leads to paranoia of retribution. It’s a self fueling emotion through confirmation bias. Every crime state that mentioned, their subs on reddit, fox news, media (movies, sm) in general etc is confirmation bias for them. One culture in America reacted to this guilt by subjugation and the other reacts to it by moral hypocrisy (assimilation, integration)
Disclaimer: I am not a socialist of communist. I do have my critique of capitalistic societies but I do think as social technology, the capitalist engineers wonderful systems of innovation when unadulterated and exploitation when adulterated. People will be people
The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism plays a huge role. Capitalism NEEDS an underclass. It’s a calling to work to show glory to god. They are pressured by the fear of eternal damnation. It’s a calvinist tradition because through work they proved their faith. Work hard and you’ll be rewarded!
Pick yourself up by your boot straps. It is to Work for an eternal reward (access to heaven) that in a way is predetermined. You work hard to PROVE yourself worthy of the community that you are a good Christian that you are gods chosen. Unfortunately. secular expectations of a work forced founded on religious work ethics is not a good mix. They are left with the religious echoes of anxieties from eternal damnation and religious extremist. Person choice, your response to your attributes is far more important than the Facticity of them.
Cointelpro busted a lot of African American attempts at organizing power. Black Star Line, Black Panther Party, NOI, OAAU, etc were all deemed threats to the United States by the FBI. They made the term black power mean hate and have labeled these organizations as racist and extremist. Ask yourself, why black people organizing and reuniting with African civilizations poised a threat to the stability or fabric of the USA? Or to be frank, white society? What did they fear? I do wonder what would’ve happened if they had been successful. There was a reason, would it had caused a new nation to form? There were movements in the US that wanted Black Americans out instead of integrated.
Yellow peril
White civilizations have feared invasion from Asian civilizations from the east since the crusades. Yellow peril is a term used to describe this phenomenon. However, this brand of racism started when the Chinese work ethic of immigrants, who legally immigrated to Western Civilizations in the 19th century, garnered a racist backlash. Kaiser Wilhelm II used Yellow Peril to encourage German imperial interests in China. Racism has always been a tool of the powerful and other racists to control populations and manufacture consent.
If it’s not the Jews (blood libel WHICH IS CONTINUED INTO TODAY’s RHETORIC) or The Muslims (Crusades/Reconquista) If it’s not the poor (classism) it’s simply another cultural or identity (Irish, Italians,(Crusades, inquisition, scramble for Africa, manifest destiny, etc) Humans have always found a way to discriminate. European Societies post-crusades has had an extreme fear. of “otherness” I partially blame christianity for this mentality.
Their intolerance was religious, ethnic, class etc and now it the relatively new metric, race. But it’s always excessive self preservation. Religious morals were the first sacrificed. Instead of recognizing the humanity in others, they chose to view them as not human to dehumanize them but the guilt of this particular way of thinking still manifested itself in their consciousness
White rhetoric now is that everyone is racist against them now. What they are experiencing is prejudice, not racism (prejudice and racism are mutually exclusive concepts and the liberals will have you believe its an umbrella catch all term for prejudice and discrimination but the history of the word says otherwise and not discrimination on a societal level but they are being lead to believe that are. It was inevitable that we got here. (I covered this in Frankenstein). The fear i do have is these prejudices developing into full blown racism in the next 500 years. Hopefully, we steer things in the right direction and eradicate this nasty ideology all together but i dont see that happening as the metric will only be replaced with a new dominant race and then their origin myth will be the one to revisit history.
There is also Great Replacement Theory which holds some merit to it IMO but not in the way the racist will have anyone believe. I personally do see interracial dating and assimilation advertised heavily towards black people. I dont think anything is wrong with this though.
In any case, these ideologies and anxieties all culminate to a perfect storm for the unveiling of fascism. Yes, a social revolution to achieve a National rebirth. They also like to use intentional fallacies by simplifying things which often a argues without the context an example is nationalism
Black Nationalism = Black Americans while coexisting with others should not be assimilated and should maintain a separate identity and even connect with Africa and black people throughout the diaspora.
White nationalism was all about removing others from their society or subjugating others. Black nationalism is at odds because its about restoration. The propagandist (PRs) knew this back then. To the racist though the nation is the utmost important, narrowly defining “white” and we rule because we are white it’s our destiny in the natural order. We are the next stage of evolution (scientific racism) or we were created to rule we are gods chosen people (creationism) They are being lied once again by the same agitators. It’s often passionate religious rhetoric. They are defined by who the are not. It’s the absence of color. It’s a hierarchy of US vs Them. They use whatever system helps them gain power until it stops suiting their need. The US group is essential attributes such as race or heritage because those attributes cannot change but one can go from being poor to rich. This metric of US vs THEM fails
Race war (Retribution), Great Replacement theory, Islamophobia(Crusades), Yellow Peril.
Whiteness is whatever it needs to be when to differentiate between the US* and the them that they were against at that time. They conceive it differently than the way they conceive of others. Obama can call himself the first black president but not another white president.
There’s an unspoken rule of white purity. Children of Interracial families (black partner) get framed as black instead of mixed of biracial. I look at it through socialization or cultural affinity. The racist see it as an increase in “them/others” and a decrease in whiteness. Thus in their minds, others spread but whiteness has to be maintained. It’s the absence of race in their mind whereas others are deviations.
It’s all bullshit to justify their actions. They often move the goalposts as well (Subsaharan African nations, political terms such as the middle east, the concept of whiteness being stretched and then constricted in matters of race: Italians and Jews being considered white as well as North and East Africans. Side note: I could do a complete series on why they fight voraciously to say Egypt was white and how to steal a civilization ) Questions pop up in my mind simple logic. Do these people really think the sahara was completely unable to be crossed? If there was mediterranean caucasian race, doesnt that mean that the Greeks, Italians, North Africans, etc are all not white in the classical sense? (Northern European?) and the people we consider arabs, turks, etc are the truest representation of said civilization? Idk, it’s confusing because its undefined and only suits them when they need to steal civilizations. They did the same thing to india that they did to north africa.
And sense whiteness is arbitrary they can stretch the definition when it suits them (Jews, Italians, Honorary Asians, Irish) but it gets narrow after their victories and they push back.
One side attempting to regress one side attempting to progress.
These enthostate racists will inevitably discriminate against others: they need a contrast. They feel victimized by the equalization of society.
If you see it from this lens, you’d understand a lot more of their actions which on the surface seem irrational.
If any white person reading this feels guilty about the past. It’s okay, I understand why you feel that way but you have to Let it go and recognize not only the historical implications of your forefathers action but also recognize how it is affecting the future and help truly remediate or correct these injustices, to not pretend they are happening or turning a blind eye to. They are being used to further divide us. Recognize that a lot of human history has been distorted and black Americans aren’t treated fairly even though very small steps have been taken in the right direction. I say this not to absolve them but to truly recognize the need f
Black people are not out to get you. Black people are fighting a collective trauma that isn’t recognized as such. It is a continuation or propagation of systems that weren’t destroyed that should’ve been. You fell for a lie about your identity
If any black person reading this feels angry. It’s okay. There is NOTHING wrong with being black. It’s not only natural but justified because we as a people never got justice or had a true catharsis in a way, we’ve taken out our anger on each other. They have exploited us and weaponized our social institutions against us, commodified our culture, and quelled any attempts at black restoration. We defy and fight to never accept subjugation. Continue to REFUSE to bend the knee until we get collectively what is owed. Defy them and the effects of their racist tactics. Defy their division. Defy their assimilation and other attempts to weaken and quell your anger at their system. Be angry but not toxic. Be angry but not self destructive. Be angry at the systems they have created not the people. Organize this anger into productive pro social movement that benefits the general welfare of our communities and tear down the subtle barriers they build. For every garden they destroy we can build 7 more. Divided we will fall.
Ultimately, the racist is constantly telling the people that Somebody gotta be at the bottom white man, it’s the way or the world. I’m going to make sure it’s not you and stop our gov from giving rebels freebies . Now imagine being white in 2023. Imagine the rising anxieties of failed capitalism, equality social movements. Whites women shit on modern white men because they were shitted on by white hegemony (the philosophy at work) they were abused by the system that was suppose to venerate them (I see these swirling movements for what they are). White men didn’t uphold their deal to whites women. Feminism, Racism, Classism, xenophobia, Great Replacement Theory, etc
The failures and betrayals of modern society, the promises unfulfilled. Speak in symbols to understand.
Fun fact, a racist named Gobineu was obsessed with Iran. He believed that there was a white race, black race, and yellow race. He also although not being a historian invented the Aryan race concept that lead to influencing the Nazi regime. This guy hated race-mixing (miscegenation) He believed Iran was too intermixed and that a white civilization will inevitably take it over. He also believed it was because when white men had any close proximity with a black or asian woman, they would not be able to control themselves or resist laying with the. That the women had immense sexual power over white men and they would be seduced.
Yeah okay buddy, but do yall see how that has fueled the caricatures in modern times?
Lets end this on an unrelated brief history of the Helots.
Spartans, who were outnumbered by the Helots, often treated them brutally and oppressively in an effort to prevent uprisings. Spartans would humiliate the Helots by doing such things as forcing them to get debilitatingly drunk on wine and then make fools of themselves in public. (This practice was also intended to demonstrate to young people how an adult Spartan should never act, as self-control was a prized trait.) Methods of mistreatment could be far more extreme: Spartans were allowed to kill Helots for being too smart or too fit, among other reasons.
Taken from wikipedia
Drapetomania was a supposed mental illness that, in 1851, American physician Samuel A. Cartwright hypothesized as the cause of enslaved Africans fleeing captivity.[1]: 41 This hypothesis centered around the belief that slavery was such an improvement upon the lives of slaves that only those suffering from some form of mental illness would wish to escape
