By SUSAN K. SMITH
Crazy Faith Ministries
I will never forget hearing someone say recently, “In Africa, there are no Black people.”
The statement caught me off guard until I realized what he was saying. It is in the White countries of the world where Whiteness was constructed as a means and justification for demeaning people of non-White descent – most notably, Black people.
Meghan Tinsley wrote in an article that Whiteness was invented as a tool of oppression in the 17th century. It was used as “logic for slavery and genocide,” according to Phys.org. In that same article, Tinsley notes that the term “White” was first used in a play written in 1613, The Triumphs of Truth.
The construct morphed into a chronic disease of the spirit and is literally tearing the world apart. A large part of the tendency toward fascism around the world is because White people, or people who fancy themselves as being White, resent the influx into their countries by non-White immigrants, as reported by Brookings.edu and the European Commission.
Members of the Republican party have invited Hungarian leader Viktor Orban to its annual Conservative Political Action Conference this year to be held in Dallas. Orban has been courted by members of the hard Right who apparently are in awe not only of Orban’s authoritarian government, but also the way he treats the subject of immigration in his country, BBC.com reported.
In the ongoing tragedy of the Ulvalde mass shooting, the disregard of law enforcement not only for the children the day they were massacred but for their parents has caused many to wonder if their attitude and lack of aggressive action was and is due to racism. The fact that parents who were trying to get to their children to save them while police officers stood – with guns – inside the school doing nothing for over an hour begs not only a legal examination of that situation but a moral one as well.
The white supremacist mind makes everyone but White people – or more precisely, White men, objects and not human, therefore not deserving of equal and fair treatment, dignity and opportunity.
The white supremacist mind has created a culture of insecure White men whose only way to hold onto their power, money and social status is by using violence – specifically gun violence. Their gods are power and money, and they are willing to decimate any group of people who threaten their crown jewels, just as dictators have done all over the world.
It is not clear that they have the capacity to care about human beings – including the parents of Hispanic children who were mowed down by a crazed gunman. It is beyond the pale of understanding as to why police would handcuff frantic parents who were trying to save their children as police officers – with guns – stood idly by. It feels wrong. It feels like these officers stood down because someone told them to. This was a Hispanic community, a community largely disparaged by White people who want them to get out and stay out of this country.
It feels like a by-product of white supremacy because we all know that had the gunman been a Black or Brown person and the children being targeted were White, the action taken by the police officers would have been far different.
Frantic parents would have been consoled and encouraged, not handcuffed.
And the report of what happened would have been largely presented as fact by now.
White supremacist indoctrination has created a group of people who have little regard for non-White lives, but that disregard will soon spread to communities who think they are immune. That’s what terminal diseases do – they spread and infect organs that had been healthy but that succumbed to the disease threatening to kill the entire body.
The terminal disease called white supremacy is spreading, and nobody will be spared its toxicity.
Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith is the founder and director of Crazy Faith Ministries. She is available for speaking. And she is an award-winning author for her latest book, “With Liberty and Justice for Some: The Bible, the Constitution, and Racism in America,” available through all booksellers. Contact her at revsuekim@sbcgloba.net.