White Supremacy that is still considered socially acceptable by most white people.
Historically, all forms of white supremacy were legal and considered "socially acceptable" by white people*.
*BIPOC folk weren't accepting of these "norms" that harmed them. Remember that white people held and continue to hold systemic power + privilege in our society.
This power wasn't earned, it was stolen through genocide, land theft, and violently depleting nations of their resources (i.e. colonialism)
Today the types of white supremacy that are illegal and/or socially unacceptable often fall under overt white supremacy. Overt (obvious) forms of white supremacy are situations where white people can easily point out and collectively agree with BIPOC folk that something is wrong.
Examples of overt white supremacy: Lynching, most hate crimes, Blackface, using the N-word, racial slurs, swastikas, Neo-Nazis, the KKK, publicly harassing POC by saying "go back to where you came from"/"speak English in Canada"
However, covert white supremacy still goes largely ignored by white people.
While overt white supremacy has been validated as unacceptable by most white people, it doesn't actually address all forms of white supremacy that BIPOC folk experience daily.
Even white people who consider themselves the "good ones" can participate in perpetuating covert white supremacy because it is predominantly still considered socially acceptable.
Examples of covert white supremacy, that are predominantly still socially acceptable in our society.
white silence · racial profiling · denying institutional racism · police brutality against BIPOC folk · Tone policing · "there's only one human race" · invalidating or disbelieving bipoc experience with racism · touting respectability politics · fear of BIPOC · denying white privilege · Bootstrap theory · microaggressions · rewriting history · eurocentric school curricula · "all lives matter" · Using BIPOC culture as costumes · "wow, you don't have an accent!" · "your fine, you are a diversity quota" · prioritizing white people as experts on everything · denial of racism · tokenism · cultural appropriation · treating children of colour as adults · "you're so articulate" · "where are you really from" · weaponizing whiteness · coded racist language and actions · "But I'm not a racist, you know that about me - this isn't me being racist right now" · racists sports mascots · mass incarceration · colourism · carceral system · English-only spaces · fetishizing BIPOC · Meritocracy myth · "we need qualified people" · eurocentric beauty standards · white saviour complex · believing in reverse racism · "But I don't see colour" · "you're playing the race card!" · white-splaining racism · mission trips · "don't blame me, I never owned slaves."
Most BIPOC experience various forms of white supremacy daily for the entirety of their lives.
Though they might not all call it white supremacy. To be clear, BIPOC have done nothing to "deserve" this but will continue to experience it regardless.
The problem is white people have not socially and culturally validated that all forms of white supremacy are wrong.
Doing so requires a change in the behaviour of white people and the system that keeps them in power.
Also, white people can't relate to or understand what it is like to experience covert racism every day, and as a result, choose not to validate BIPOC experiences of daily covert racism as unacceptable.
White people simply cannot relate to the experience of BIPOC – so stop trying.
Instead, choose to accept and believe the experiences of BIPOC, commit to your own unlearning, understand your own power and privilege and know that your job is to help dismantle white supremacy alongside BIPOC - not to understand what it feels like to experience it every day.
Remember, all forms of white supremacy used to be legal and socially acceptable, yet we've seen social norms shift (even within many of our lifetimes!) so we know change is possible. We know people can know better and do better.
The question is, will we do the work to show up now, or will it take another instance of police brutality and murder of a Black man during a stand-still moment of a global pandemic to make white people (and, to an extent, non-Black and Indigenous POC) care about the impact white supremacy?
