Concept of White Supremacy | Essay

Running head: WHITE SUPREMACY
WHITE SUPREMACY
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1WHITE SUPREMACY
White supremacy is a blot to the mankind. White supremacy is a racist stereotypical
belief that white European people are racially supreme than the other races and for their
supremacy, they should be dominant on the other races (Inwood, FJ, and Alderman). Throughout
the annals of history, there have been evidences of oppression of the diverse races by the white
European people who have been heavily prejudiced by Euro- centrism. The land of America has
witnessed a plethora of events and movements against white supremacy, one of them being the
Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The respective paper is a historical essay that seeks to
analyze and evaluate in details, the records and events of white supremacy and xenophobia in the
American history. The paper tries to understand the role of white supremacy across different
regions and times in the American history.
White supremacy is a stereotypical belief that suggests that white people (supposedly
people from European descent) are superior to the people from the other races and therefore,
have the discretion to dominate and rule over the other races. White supremacy is built upon the
foundations of scientific racism and pseudoscientific arguments that institutionalizes falsified
notion about supremacy of the European white race. Throughout the history and till now, the
white supremacists have always opposed and criticized people from other races, including the
Jews (Jews are Semitics) in political, economic, educational and social milieu. White supremacy
is not only a social phenomenon that grappled the United States in the past. It was also a political
ideology and a political tool that helped them establish a Eurocentric thought process
marginalizing the ethnic diversities of the nation (Newitz). The roots of white supremacy can be
traced back to the period of 17th century when scientific racism was in fashion in political and
intellectual discourse. Scientific racism ideals were fueled by the historical events such as Age of
Enlightenment and the massive colonization of the other continents and countries by the

2WHITE SUPREMACY
European imperialists (Wilson). White supremacy was dominant in the United States both before
and after the American civil war and even after the Reconstruction era of American history.
Racism in the United States began when the land of America that was discovered by Christopher
Columbus was ventured by the Europeans in search of replacements and resources. Millions and
millions of Native Americans were ruthlessly and mercilessly killed as they were overpowered
by the fine and progressive technologies of the European invaders. The Native Americans were
also used in chattel slavery and they were completely denied all kinds of basic humanistic
freedom by the European imperialists (Horne). Then, they were at the hands of mercy of the
Europeans who not only used them as their personal property, but also used them for economic
gains by purchasing and selling them to different slave traders. Lives of the ethnic minorities in
the American land became horrible than a living hell. They were also oppressed at the name of
“purging” them and “civilizing” them by instilling in them Christian faith and forcefully
converting them from their indigenous religions to Christianity. The Native American children
were forced to attend Christian schools where, in the name of reviving them, they were
mercilessly abused, both physically and sexually.
In many parts of the United States, the ethnic minorities, who were the non- whites, were
disenfranchised, which means that they were denied the right to vote or hold any political
freedom. They were prohibited from the government offices and were not awarded any
government job or profession. Most of the blue collar professions that required physical labor
and were low in the society were titled to them. The native Americans were termed “savage” by
the whites of the United States and were selectively separated and ostracized from the rest of the
society through a racist attitude which is popularly known as apartheid (Pettus).