The Caucasity of White Supremacy

I want to illustrate what I call the caucasity of white supremacy using statements mad by Donald Trump. Recently, Donald Trump made a statement intended to garner support from a bloc of voters typically not supportive of his political party. While what he said was offensive to its core, the more important part is the underlying, ingrained belief system that perpetuates such statements. He said Kamal Harris was “KILLING BLACK AND BROWN HERITAGE” (his use of all caps) by having a wide-open border and allowing “illegal immigrants in to take “Black jobs” (remember that one?). He was obviously trying to spark fear and rage in the Black and Brown communities, but he showed a serious obstacle to improving race relations in the US.

His statement denotes that illegal immigrants with no work documentation or resume or verifiable work history are going to take the jobs of US citizens. This alone makes little sense but the deeper, more significant illustration is in the connotations that Black and Brown people-and let’s face it he is really talking about Black people-occupy the bottom rungs of the work ladder. They do unskilled, low wage labor related jobs.

This is a white supremacist view that extends back to slavery times. Black people are not intelligent, they cannot learn sophisticated work processes, and they work with their bodies almost exclusively. The acceptable and allowable place for Black people to be, in the workplace is in the warehouse, not the boardroom. Trump is saying what many white people believe; that the American legacy of Black people is slavery and with that low paying, menial labor jobs that require no skill. And for Brown people, it is seasonal farm work. Consider last year when Florida included in its course curriculum the lessons that enslaved people benefitted from being enslaved because they learned skills that helped them once they were freed. The implication her is that enslaved people were devoid of experience, knowledge, and skills other than those ‘taught” to them by their slaveholders and overseers. The belief is that Africans were unable to rise above subsistence living until they were kidnapped and brought to this country and civilized and

White people, sadly not only conservative whites, have a hard time seeing Black people as equally competent, professional, and capable. If you are a white person, has anyone ever said to you, “You are so articulate.”? Black people operating in the “white work world” hear that phrase too much. Have you ever been confronted about your hair? There are hairstyles some white people deem fit for the corporate workplace and almost none of them are the natural hair of a Black person.

The white world’s inability to readily see Black and/or Brown people as immediate and unqualified equals is a long ingrained, almost instinctual trait. It isn’t totally their fault. Scroll through a movie streaming service’s offering. Look at how many movies feature white stars and entire supporting cast. Now look at older movies. Most older movies, “classics”, have zero minority representation in any sort of role that matters to the movie. Minorities are almost always presented in a very subservient role, doorman, maid, laborer, prostitute, drug dealer, gang member. Present these stereotypes and caricatures enough, and people will believe they are reality. If they have no real minority interaction to counter these images, the images become real to and for them.

Trump’s comments about Black and Brown heritage in the US are an insight into the underlying mindset and beliefs of still too many majority population. We need to understand how this ignorance and toxic belief continues to undermine and prevent us from developing a society which where “all men (inclusive) are created equal”.