Recognizing, Understanding, and Defining Systemic and Individual White Supremacy
Author: April Love
Publisher: OrgsinSolidarty Program, WCAPS
Publication Date: March 2022
Introduction: There are various definitions for white supremacy. The dictionary definition is, “the belief that the white race is inherently superior to other races and that white people should have control over people of other races. Further, it is defined as the social, economic, and political systems that collectively enable white people to maintain power over people of other races.” While this is an exact descriptor of the concept of white supremacy it does not embody all aspects of the issue, and thus may give people an incomplete understanding of it, and render them unable to accurately identify white supremacy and the actions that often accompany it.
Even in previously conducted research and literature about white supremacy, white supremacists, and their actions very rarely is a definition given for white supremacy nor is a concrete definition for what a white supremacist is. Historical and present-day analysis of white supremacy and the actions that result will prove that the best way to define white supremacy is one that addresses the differences between the ideology of white supremacy, the actions of white supremacists, and provides inclusion of more subtle instances of white supremacy.
The definition we propose is the following: White supremacy is a social and systemic manifestation of the belief that white people hold a level of superiority over other races, thus granting them the right to exert dominion over people of other racial groups, by use of both social and systemic structures. This may result in the perpetuation of this ideology, by use of violence, passive, or covert acts with these exertions being exhibited exclusively or in unison with other such actions.
The goal of this paper is to examine white supremacy through a lens that aims to better define it systemically and individually. Each section of this paper explores the diverse social and policy implications that influence the creation and sustenance of white supremacy in human culture, systems, and social settings.
