The Problem of the White Inferiority Complex

There is, every year, someone who snidely comments on Black History Month in schools. I heard one of them today on the radio. Some jackass stated that “it’s divisive” and “unnecessary” in American history, as “all it does it divide us further in putting people in groups”. The man also made a crack about how black people merely “survived” American history without making any real contributions to our society. Putting aside the absurdity of the latter claim on achievements by black-Americans, I think the superior attitude that allowed this man to comment as such is what should be addressed, for it is what is behind his words that to me outlines the main problem with white America today.

But, I voted for Barack! The aversive nature of today's racism.

First, there are many that no doubt outright challenge my notions of white supremacist forces in the U.S. today. I am often told that Barack Obama's success is proof of that. How could a man of his skin pigmentation get elected to the highest office in the land if there were such barriers? To them I point to the media's obsession with his race and his "transcending" of it making him more appealing to many voters. You see, even in the praising of his "being different from most blacks" and "post-racial", there is an implicit message being sent: most blacks have something 'wrong' with them. Even in the minds of many supposed enlightened, liberals praising his race and transcending of it, there are still supremacist feelings slipping out. I suppose it is only natural given our long history of such thoughts being institutionalized and conditioned. Thus, although aversive in nature, racist tendencies that have been conditioned are very real within a great many people. For most that hold these tendencies, it either comes out in those that are up front about it and not ashamed, or comes out from it's latent place in our psyche due to conditioning of someone elses doing.

On to the supremacists and the dilemma they face - You know what I notice of proponents of racial superiority? It’s always people that have never achieved anything that are making the claims. It’s always life’s losers that are calling others lesser and weaker. Indeed, proponents of their own racial superiority are more often telling you more about themselves than they are about those they seek to denigrate. Not only do you find out their insecurities about themselves, but possibly in the history of such movements do we see a sense of inferiority being projected onto others. How so?

Real superiority never needs cheerleaders. The work done by someone superior (a playwright, an inventor, a scientist, etc.) speaks volumes in and of itself. They are seldom, if ever, calling themselves superior to others. It is the supremacist, indeed, the white supremacist in this case, who is making such a claim. But how do these people secretly feel a sense of inferiority, you might ask? It’s all in historical context and present day reflection.

It was large numbers of black slaves, not white plantation owners that built levees, plow fields, or harvest crops. It was large numbers of Chinese Immigrants that made up the majority of Central Pacific railroad workers, all the while getting paid much less than other workers. The American Revolution itself was in large part funded by companies that profited from slave labor. Much of European “advancement”, let alone American advancement, would not have even had the foundation or framework possible for achievement had it not been for the need of whites to prop themselves up on the work of others by force. Perhaps it is a guilt drenched inferiority complex that allows blatant White-racists to believe such absurd notions about other groups 'inferiority", but it is there for any observer to witness.

The end of the White monopoly.

White supremacists now see that the privileged society they created for themselves is now on the downslide. Because of past notions of 'superiority', they kept non-White Americans in lesser places in society. Once freed, the claims of “not being able to survive” became rampant. Now that they have, survival has been downgraded to mere “passivity”, particularly in the comments mentioned earlier. Surviving attempts at cultural and racial genocide through public policy is no “achievement” in the aforementioned man’s eyes, as he has never had to deal with that.

This man, speaking words that are not strange to anyone in our society at this point, now sees groups that were once subjugated getting opportunities that their grandparents would have never had, and those groups are doing well and are increasingly represented in society. The Black middle class has risen. Asian Americans are doing well. This man, a microcosm of the white superiority class, simply can’t stand it. He has to deal with the fact that he is not “superior” based off of some “special” characteristic like a lesser amount of melanin. He has to deal with the fact that he is equal to anyone else in ability and achievement skills. This is the current dilemma of many in White America’s “superiority” class (and psst, here's a tip: most of said Whites are not affiliated with any extremist groups like Nazis or the KKK).

To the white racist faced with a changing society, a healthy solution and what he often chooses are two different things. Those conditioned white supremacists who are seeing the decline of the white supremacist system should not cry out in anger and insecurity over the changing dynamics in society, but rather applaud the representation of those people who were once kept down. They should view their own privilege from it's historical context, accept it, and work to end the injustice and to promote equal opportunities and representation for all people. Neither anger and denial, nor ignoring it by putting up a wall of "color-blind society" mantra are going to end the injustices.

To be clear. And a possible solution.

Let me make something clear in closing: I am not saying that all white people in America are suffering from this discussed inferiority complex. There are many that can and do overcome such feelings if they exist for any period of time. However, there are many more who don't. They don't even see that it exists. Our Eurocentric narrative in the country has allowed them to think otherwise for so long that it is near impossible to turn them away from such beliefs.

I guess it's up to each one of us to challenge these notions as we see them, so as to make sure they are not perpetuated any longer. This, to me, is the real test for progressive Whites in the realm of racism. Voting for Obama is not equal to fighting a privilege-laced system and thought process. It's time to start looking at our place in society through historical context and evaluating beliefs and statements as we hear them from that perspective.