What is White Supremacy and Why Are People Accusing White People of Automatically Participating In It?

This topic may seem clouded, what can be done to make it a bit more clear?

Ok, let me begin by saying that I am not an expert. Not by a long shot. However, I have been doing some study to try to understand the rhetoric I'm hearing in my country lately.

Here is the question I am inviting you to ask: Could I have White Supremacist internal thinking without even realizing it?

There are many elements of the #blacklivesmatter conversation that elicit a visceral response from White people who consider themselves good, moral people. I understand that response because I had it when I first started hearing the conversation. Today, I want to talk about one element just enough to give my fellow Whites some context which they may not have considered in the past.

What in the world is White Supremacy? Who decides that? Can it really apply to my average White friend and I, even if we are the sort of people to give to charity or help in the Food Line at the local Salvation Army? Can it really apply to good, moral people?

Basic definition is as follows noun

noun: white supremacy; plural noun: white supremacies

1. the belief that white people are superior to those of all other races, especially the black race, and should therefore dominate society.

I think it's safe to say that most good, moral white people would say quite loudly that they don't think they are superior to other races nor should they dominate them.

Ok, here then are some questions for you to consider.

1. Do you act on the belief that people of color (POC) should be the ones answering the questions about how the society should be run? Or at least should have equal input? If so, at what point have you seen POC being given the mic to make those decisions? If you are in a position to hand over the mic to POC, have you done so? Have you centered POC voices in your churches, businesses,  clubs,etc?
2. When considering how we should handle various societal problems, such as perceived issues happening on Native American Reservations, do you feel that Native Americans would know best how to handle those issues? That Black people would know best how to solve the issues surrounding inner city crime/poverty/etc? That Mexican-American people would have viable input into how to handle the border crisis? And do you ACT ON this belief by passing the mic to POC? Do you actively search for POC to give the mic to?
3. When White people go to other places to do Missionary Work, or relief work historically and currently, do they tend to want to see the people who they are there to serve then live their lives in a typically 'White' way? Do they offer white clothing options, housing options and family life options as better alternatives to traditional ways of being?

Here's the thing, if you are not centering the voices of POC concerning the kinds of issues mentioned above, then you are participating in White Supremacy. You have some assumptions that you may not even recognize that guide who you believe is qualified to make decisions about groups of people. Historically and still today, it is primarily White Men who make decisions about the policies, laws, etc that govern the lives of American citizens. Not only this, but White Men are also primarily making decisions about how Americans interact with other parts of the world.

Right now, White people across social media are asserting their opinion that the decision to remove Aunt Jemima as a logo from a syrup bottles is ridiculous and they have a better opinion about it that POC who have asked that it be changed. Why are they doing that? Because they prefer their own opinion to the opinion of POC on this topic and they then label the POC as 'easily offended' rather than consider that these human beings have a valid point.

Here's another question. There are a lot of people who are upset that White people are being referred to as racists. These are mostly White people who are upset. The reality is that if a POC suggests that a White person is racist, or is behaving in a racist or White Supremacist framework, the WHITE person will not listen to the POC. Usually, the White person becomes irate. 

Why? Because they don't believe that the POC has a valid ability to observe these things.  Even though it is the POC that is actually in the best position to recognize when a White person is being a racist, since they are the ones directly affected. Why then, doesn't the White person listen? 

I am arguing that it is because they have an underlying racist or white supremacist mindset. Because deep down, they don't trust the opinion of the POC on this issue? Because deep down, they trust their own, very White opinion more readily, even though it can be clearly demonstrated that they don't really have the kind of perspective that would allow them to readily identify racism at work (because of their white privilege which blinds them to problems they don't encounter themselves)

We, White people, are being asked to take seriously the concerns of POC. When POC say we treat POC unfairly, with bias, etc, we are being asked to hear them out and respond with humility.  We are being asked to recognized that we have, in fact, been socialized in a White Supremecist nation, from it's very foundation and that many vestiges of this mindset have continued to affect the way we see both ourselves and POC. We are being asked to engage actively in the dismantling of that broken foundation.

We are being asked to stop saying 'those people' about POC as though we actually know what 'those people' are like. We are being asked to stop thinking 'well he was probably committing a crime and resisting arrest and that is the reason he ended up shot dead' when in fact we weren't there and POC are telling us a different story. We are being asked to stop trusting our own long held assumptions and actually take the time to listen to what POC have to say about the very ugly situation we see happening in our country right now.

We are being asked to listen.

We are being asked to care.