Why I Normally Say White Supremacy Instead of Racism (Patreon)

By Sam (@StuffFromSam)

Racism is a general concept about discrimination, prejudice, and antagonism based on race. White supremacy is different in two ways. It's more specific and does not treat racial discrimination as flat but hierarchical.

Secondly, it is not just about whom it tears down but whom it uplifts. You can be antifascist, for instance, while still reinforcing white supremacy—white hegemony and norms (re: white before Leftist).

Racism isn't necessarily about behaviors and norms unless it's directly antagonistic. This is why some attacks on racism and education about racism can miss the mark. Because they can say racism is bad while STILL uplifting white definitions and values. This is why white supremacy causes discomfort in ways racism does not. It is not only more specific about whom it accuses but also points at a bigger scope of behaviors and practices. I believe this is also why some vocal white antifascists have predominantly (almost exclusively) white followers. Unconsciously BIPOC know the difference, and so do their white followers.

A good example of these differences is in changes currently happening in psychology where decolonial therapists are pointing out the things within Western psychology that are white supremacist (enforcing white values and norms). However, this is not necessarily racist because it is not discriminating anyone nor saying you are inferior because of race. Racism is often atomized and specific, which is a fundamental principle of white culture that not only influenced neoliberal capitalism but even strains of the American Left and Right.

Criticisms of standardized tests are also better understood through this framework. Whose experiences are being standardized by these questions? Then who is not only left in the dark but made an outcast by these questions?—then penalized for being left out?

Reinforcing individualism as paramount, for instance, is supremacist because it is a White western standard. Along with individualism and individual actualization, an obsession with authority follows. Looking at everything through the lens of authority-follower white masculine power dynamics. "Who is wearing the pants here?" Even though not all cultures wear pants. This white power framework judges nonwhite cultures and nonwhite Western parenting harshly.

BIPOC may even buy into this understanding because, at face value, it does not seem racist. It is not directly attacking a racialized people or culture. However, it makes white culture the model and reference point. (White supremacy is not necessarily about who it is against but who it is for. Real power is about pushing yourself up more than it is about pushing others down. Through this method, the oppressed may even help the oppressor.)

We take white behaviors as "human nature" because, throughout much of modern history, only white was considered human and therefore became the default. What we take as "human nature" is, in reality, a set of conditioned and reinforced practices and norms.

White supremacy is a pyramid that places whiteness at the top. (It is no surprise then to find Western psychology often uses pyramids to explain their values.) Organizations form and attacks happen as byproducts of these ideological behaviors and norms. As a lens, white supremacy judges a society of swimmers by how well they climb.

White supremacy also says all racism and "authoritarianism" are not equal. On this planet, white is supreme. All other forms of oppression are still impacted by white supremacy. This is inconvenient to many even social justice-facing individuals. Therefore they may avoid thinking of white supremacy as a standard and instead only reference it as hate groups—preferring to use the frameworks of racism, antifascism, and antiauthoritarianism.

One can be antifascist, antiracist, and antiauthoritarian while STILL placing white Western standards as the "objective" standard and pretending all other oppressions have the same scope and scale. (Also, objective to whom? Who is getting to decide what is objective?) This practice is colorblind racism, which is still white supremacy. The reason this is not obvious is because this logic is that hegemonic and without question. Inability to imagine an alternative is not an argument for why one is correct; it is an argument for how one is lacking.

Recalibrate your politics.