Very well said. This makes perfect sense to me, all of it.
Now that I’ve had sleep, I think the part I’m struggling with is the statement “In the opinion of white supremacists, other races would ideally not even exist.” I’m not disagreeing, but it seems to me I’ve known of white supremacist groups that do want other races to exist, but as subjugated classes. Maybe I’m just not considering this all the way through, which is why this is something I’m going to think about more.
I live in a state with a lot of racists, and because of my appearance I’ve had a lot of them share their thoughts with me unprompted. A lot of them don’t even consider themselves racist or white supremacist because they don’t hate or want to eradicate other races, but still think of them as an “other” or a “lesser” class of people that should “know their place”. (It’s astounding what bigots will tell a total stranger here in South Dakota, to the point that I’ve taken to wearing “woke” t-shirts to repel them.)
American style white supremacists don’t want there to be nonwhite races, because a race is a people, and they don’t want slaves to be considered people. Nobody cares about the ethnic identity of a cow. They only care about its pedigree for good meat or good milk. This isn’t race in the human sense of the word. American style white supremacists want to be able to think of people of colour like that. They want white to mean human being, and black to mean animal.
There aren’t many people who feel pride because they’re smarter or stronger than an animal. There’s lots of animal abusers who relish their power over animals, but I wouldn’t call the thing they get out of their abuse pride. It’s about having the power, not about reflecting on who one is as a person. It’s not “I am awesome because I kick puppies.” Likewise, the goal of American white supremacists is to have a society where people of colour are slaves, and white people get to think they’re the only kind of human being in existence.
I’m not disagreeing, but it seems to me I’ve known of white supremacist groups that do want other races to exist, but as subjugated classes.
not OP, but at least in Europe the raceless racist trope is more common, particularly among liberals. in one breath they’ll say that the concept of race is pseudoscience (true), but then conclude that this means racialisation doesn’t happen (uhhh). then in that same breath they’ll say that people from Muslim countries are destructive radicals who are ‘incompatible’ with European culture, which is almost neo-racist, until you realise that they don’t know what a ‘Muslim’ ‘looks’ like, and that in practise it’s ‘anyone with dark hair and/or a von Luschan index higher than 20’.
it’s not that they want to subjugate brown people: it’s that they wish they had never existed, and that they could never see them again. but the people they vote for to accomplish this do want to subjugate brown people.
before you know it: the group of ‘incompatibles’ has grown to encompass 2/3 of the world’s population by hair colour and skin index alone, and antisemitism is back on the table. but they believe in nonviolent democracy and the ‘rule of law’ and eat organic so it’s ok.
sidenote: this is why a lot of far-right supremacist groups in Europe tend(ed) to be more about (national) ethnicity than race. historically, even people from neighbouring countries were parasitic ‘others’ to be corralled and expelled.
Ah yes this makes sense from this perspective, and certainly this ideology has also been prevalent in the US, especially regarding groups like Native Americans. And perhaps eradication is the ultimate conclusion of any form of white supremacist movement, starting with subjugation and proceeding from there.
Very well said. This makes perfect sense to me, all of it.
Now that I’ve had sleep, I think the part I’m struggling with is the statement “In the opinion of white supremacists, other races would ideally not even exist.” I’m not disagreeing, but it seems to me I’ve known of white supremacist groups that do want other races to exist, but as subjugated classes. Maybe I’m just not considering this all the way through, which is why this is something I’m going to think about more.
I live in a state with a lot of racists, and because of my appearance I’ve had a lot of them share their thoughts with me unprompted. A lot of them don’t even consider themselves racist or white supremacist because they don’t hate or want to eradicate other races, but still think of them as an “other” or a “lesser” class of people that should “know their place”. (It’s astounding what bigots will tell a total stranger here in South Dakota, to the point that I’ve taken to wearing “woke” t-shirts to repel them.)
American style white supremacists don’t want there to be nonwhite races, because a race is a people, and they don’t want slaves to be considered people. Nobody cares about the ethnic identity of a cow. They only care about its pedigree for good meat or good milk. This isn’t race in the human sense of the word. American style white supremacists want to be able to think of people of colour like that. They want white to mean human being, and black to mean animal.
There aren’t many people who feel pride because they’re smarter or stronger than an animal. There’s lots of animal abusers who relish their power over animals, but I wouldn’t call the thing they get out of their abuse pride. It’s about having the power, not about reflecting on who one is as a person. It’s not “I am awesome because I kick puppies.” Likewise, the goal of American white supremacists is to have a society where people of colour are slaves, and white people get to think they’re the only kind of human being in existence.
This makes perfect sense to me now. They don’t want them to exist as people. Yes, thank you very much for clarifying this.
not OP, but at least in Europe the raceless racist trope is more common, particularly among liberals. in one breath they’ll say that the concept of race is pseudoscience (true), but then conclude that this means racialisation doesn’t happen (uhhh). then in that same breath they’ll say that people from Muslim countries are destructive radicals who are ‘incompatible’ with European culture, which is almost neo-racist, until you realise that they don’t know what a ‘Muslim’ ‘looks’ like, and that in practise it’s ‘anyone with dark hair and/or a von Luschan index higher than 20’.
it’s not that they want to subjugate brown people: it’s that they wish they had never existed, and that they could never see them again. but the people they vote for to accomplish this do want to subjugate brown people.
before you know it: the group of ‘incompatibles’ has grown to encompass 2/3 of the world’s population by hair colour and skin index alone, and antisemitism is back on the table. but they believe in nonviolent democracy and the ‘rule of law’ and eat organic so it’s ok.
sidenote: this is why a lot of far-right supremacist groups in Europe tend(ed) to be more about (national) ethnicity than race. historically, even people from neighbouring countries were parasitic ‘others’ to be corralled and expelled.
Ah yes this makes sense from this perspective, and certainly this ideology has also been prevalent in the US, especially regarding groups like Native Americans. And perhaps eradication is the ultimate conclusion of any form of white supremacist movement, starting with subjugation and proceeding from there.