Trouble I've Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism by Hart Drew G. I

Author:Hart, Drew G. I. [Hart, Drew G. I.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781513800004
Publisher: Herald Press
Published: 2016-01-18T21:00:00+00:00

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE WHITE?

So what does it mean to be white? Saying that someone is white is saying more than just that someone is of European descent and heritage, though that is normally all we mean when we use the term. There is a gap between how we use the term white and the way that whiteness functions on people’s behalf in society. White is the pseudoscientific and socially constructed category used to centralize power among a certain portion of humanity and at the direct harm and cost of people of color, especially Native American and black life in America. And it is not a static category. Whiteness subtly shifts and changes over time as necessary.

To be white is not only to be Euro–American; it is also to identify with, and participate in, the life of a sociopolitical collective that created this artificially constructed racial identity to accomplish something. People move from identifying with a particular European people group—for example, the Irish—to identifying as a white person for a reason. This is a decision European immigrants made over and over again in America, such that the definition of and borders around who was white continuously expanded. In the seventeenth century, only Anglo–Saxon Protestants were considered white, but the definition eventually grew to include Irish Catholics, Italians, and other groups who were initially excluded. This was politically strategic. It formed a large enough collective power in society that continuously reproduced a system of advantage for whites at the direct expense of people of color. At the very minimum, being white has meant benefiting from and obtaining an ongoing preference and advantage in a nation and economy built on the stolen land of Native Americans and the stolen labor of African Americans. Being white usually means never having to think about it that way during one’s day–to–day life.

America is a thoroughly racialized society dominated and controlled by white people in a manner that advantages them because of their whiteness. Even poor whites, who are economically deprived, will find at critical moments that, all things being equal, being white is more socially advantageous than being black. And many people don’t realize just how socially constructed a white identity is, and how it has been conveniently changed over and over again to let some people in and to exclude others. What defined a white person several centuries ago is not what we mean by it now. It conveniently mutates according to the political whims of the dominant society of each generation.

It is important to remember that there is no authentic, biological substance to the idea of race.2 Europeans constructed black and white categories for a reason. Whiteness mattered because it provided economic, social, and political benefits. For example, immigrants in the early twentieth century understood very well what white status meant if obtained, and therefore they went to court arguing to be recognized under the law as such. As the authors of The Color of Wealth write:

Court decisions on white status

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