avoid the term "white supremacy"

Most white folks assume that aside from a few small, eccentric, crazed, but basically harmless groups tucked away somewhere, perhaps in dimly lit garages and basements, white supremacy is basically dead. The term "white supremacy" has almost no social and political currency; white Americans rarely if ever use it or hear it anymore. Aside from not realizing that overtly white supremacist groups are alive and growing, most whites also don't realize that white supremacy itself--the favoring of whiteness in any way, shape, or form--is also alive and well, permeating American practices and beliefs.

What most people think of as white supremacy takes the famous forms of the KKK, or skinheads, or Nazis, but these are really only the most extreme examples. As Alex Jung explains, "white supremacy is simply the idea that white people, neighborhoods, concerns, beauty and self-worth are more important then nonwhite ones." This sort of white supremacy is also thriving, and it takes many forms.

It's hard for me to believe, for instance, that if the people in New Orleans who were hardest hit by Hurricane Katrina had been mostly white instead of mostly black, the Federal government wouldn't have arrived a whole lot quicker and with a lot more money. It's also hard to believe that if any of the periodic epidemics, starvations, and genocidal slaughters in Africa were happening in Europe instead, America wouldn't be, again, helping a whole lot quicker and with a lot more money.

White supremacy is an insidious force; it even creeps into the minds and behaviors of non-white people, instilling in many a self-hatred for their non-white characteristics and a stronger attraction to those members of their group who seem white, both in appearance and action. It also manifests itself in differential wealth distribution. Thanks in large part to wealth passed down the generations among whites over centuries of overt white supremacy, the average white family now reigns supreme over the average black family, with about eight times the accumulated wealth. White supremacy also manifests itself in the court systems, where racially disparate sentencing patterns remain consistent. It also manifests itself in loan practices, policing practices, teaching practices, medical practices, hiring practices, insurance practices, retail selling practices, housing practices, and on, and on.

The term "white supremacy" is applicable in all of these arenas, but somehow, white people don't think it's a term worth using any more.