Marcus

Alexandria Marcus
5-24-2012
History 29B

White Supremacy and The Toll it takes On Our Past, Present, and Future
Generations

In Ralph Ellisons, The Invisible Man, the narrators grandfather explicitly warns
to not succumb to white rule, and to not work to please whites in order to gain success.
The narrator believed that this was in fact the way to be successful, and is haunted by the
grandfathers warning and feels like a traitor as he tries to impress white faculty in high
school and college. By doing so, we soon recognize that the narrator discovers his
invisibility and his part in institutionalized white supremacy. As Invisible Man
chronicles the major moments of African American life during the first half of the
twentieth century, race classification and our nations history of slavery and oppression
continue to define the inequalities perpetuated in our education system today.
I will be exploring how the ideologies of white is right, and white privilege
effect education and Black identity in the United States. White privilege and
institutionalized racism have worked as a way to continue oppression without
whites being held directly accountable. I will be looking at the system of white
supremacy, as a whole, and the historical evolution of the system. The current state
of racial superiority, and the roots of inequality can be best understood by examining
our nations history.

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When whites entered into this land, they fully intended on taking it violently from

the Native Americans. When they first arrived, there were approximately 7,000,000
inhabitants. By the end of the 19th century, only 225,000 remained. 1As a result of divide
and conquer, disease, and broken treaties, whites were able to practically exterminate an
entire culture.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists (zoologists and physical
anthropologists) were developing classifications of humans by systematically describing
differences in skin color, hair texture, cranial capacity, and average height in various
races.2 Many of these studies, called race science, reflected the popular assumption that
the physical world had an intrinsically hierarchical order in which whites were the last
and most developed link in the great chain of being. This philosophy of classification
was happening simultaneously with the global expansion by European powers and
westward expansion of the United States, which involved the kidnapping, transporting,
dehumanization, and exploitation of Africans.3 As people began speaking out against
slavery, the theories of racial categories helped justify and explain the efforts that were
aimed toward controlling non-whites in Africa by continuing domination of non-white
peoples- slaves, and the poor (ibid). Adjectives like uncivilized and savages were
also used to lessen the humanity of non-whites.
As immense fear of slave rebellions rose, whites did all they could to ensure the
physical and mental slavery of African Americans. For example, laws were implemented

1 Bennett, Lerone. The Shaping of Black America. Vols. 1-109. New York: Penguin
Books, 1993[1975].
2 Webster, Y., The Racialization of America. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993)
3 Omni, M, and Winant, H. Racial Formation in the U.S. from the 1960s to the
1990s. (New York: Routledge, 1994)

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to create limitations on Europeans rights to teach slaves how to read and write, give
slaves skilled jobs, and even the right to free their own slaves was prohibited. Children
were also to inherent their mothers status, freeing European fathers from any social or
financial responsibility from their offspring born to indentured or enslaved African
mothers.4 The legal alterations have has a profound effect on the distribution of wealth in
the United States, because slaveholding fathers were some of the richest men in the
country, distribution wealth to only some of their children.5 White Americans
institutionalized a possessive investment in whiteness by making blackness synonymous
with slavery and whiteness synonymous with freedom, but by also pinning people of
color against one another, says George Lipsitz.6 He states, The power of whiteness
depended not only on white hegemony over separate racialized groups, but also on
manipulating racial outsiders to fight against one another, to compete with each other for
white approval, and to seek the reward and privileges of whiteness for themselves at the
expense of other racialized populations (ibid).

Through the act of objectification of humans as property, whites also merged

whiteness with the ability to own human property. So, the ability to own, and the
inability to ever be owned, became the single qualifying factor for membership in
humanity. Supremacy was materially and ideologically strengthened. African
Americans, codified as capital, were then racialized as property. Blackness then was
excluded from humanity by its violently forced absorption into the economy of the
country. Europeans joined in on these views, and used race science as a justification

4 Bennett, Shaping of Black America, 72
5 Bennett, Shaping of Black America, 73
6 George Lipsitz, The Posessive Investment in Whiteness, (Philadelphia: Temple
University Press, 2006) 3

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for the cultural extermination they have been forgoing in this country since they stole this
land from the Natives. The scariest part about all of this is that as a nation, we are still
active contributors to white supremacy. I will be discussing only one institution, which
perpetuates the system of white supremacy: Education.
Now that I have given a (very) brief understanding of the historical background of
the construction of race and white privilege throughout the development of our nation, let
us fast forward and analyze how racism and discrimination has managed to make its way
into our modern world, even after the abolition of slavery and segregation. It is
important to understand that racism has existed and evolved over time. The possessive
investment in whiteness, as George Lipsitz states, has changed and taken on different
forms since the abolition of slavery in 1865 and the end of apparent segregation in the
60s.7 Racism in the United States has always existed, but it has not always been the same
kind of racism.
The system of white supremacy has completely infiltrated our education
system. With education being one of the most important resources to becoming a
more racially just society, it makes sense why many Americans are left ignorant to
our history and current systematic oppression. Many Americans do not even go on
to college, and the history curriculum we are taught from a young age is selective,
vague and often times in favor of white domination. 8When discussing colonization
and the extermination of cultures in the United States, a common rebuttal sounds
something like, why do you keep dwelling on the past? As young students, we are

7 Lipsitz, The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, 10
8 Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History
Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press, eBook.

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not taught to critically analyze historical events and their relevancy to present day.
To go beyond the narrow focus of explicitly racist organizations is to recognize the
socially constructed and constantly reinforced power of white identifications and interests
in education and elsewhere.
Textbooks often give irrelevant details about historical figures and leave out
most information about the persons life, including philosophies, especially if considered
controversial. In the first chapter of Lies My Teacher Told Me, Loewan, a sociologist
and historian, dissects the process of hero-making in our textbooks. It completely
belittles our ability to have a humanizing experience. The most beautiful thing about
education is that it has the capability to transform a person into a unique individual who
has thoughts and philosophies based on realities. The most ugly thing about education is
that, often times, it does not.
The greatest injustice is the unequal funding of public schools according to
districts. In 35 states, districts enrolling the highest proportions of minority
students receive fewer state and local education dollars per student than districts
enrolling the lowest proportion of minority students. And 14 of those states have
funding gaps of more than $900 per student. Facilities in wealthier districts include
spacious and grassy campuses, computer equipped classrooms, plenty of space for
students to play outside, new science equipment, and clean facilities.
Poor communities, on the other hand, have far less space per student, outdated
computers (if any) and software, all concrete campuses, no running water, and a
number of other inequalities. 9

9 Kozol , Jonthan. Savage Ineqaulities . New York: Crown Publishers, 1991. Print.

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Why is it that a wealthy school can often times be found located only a couple

of miles a way from a poor school? When discussing the inequalities between two
students, Kozol says, There is something incongruous about a differential of any
magnitude between the education of two children. The sole justification for which is
an imaginary school district line between those children. The reliance of our public
schools on property taxes and the localization of the uses of those taxes have
combines to make the public school into an educator for the educated rich and a
keeper for the uneducated poor. Given the rhetoric that we learn opportunity in
this country, education for poor children should be as good as middle and upper-
middle class children.
The foundation program, founded in the 1920s, is the basic formula in
place for education finance. In its unadulterated form, the program functions like
this: Within a district, a local tax on the value of the businesses and homes raises the
initial funds needed for the operation of the public schools. In wealthier districts,
this initial funding is enough to provide and operate an adequate school system. In
the less affluent districts, the property is worth less and the revenues derived will
be totally inadequate to support and sustain a system that is equal to that of the
richest districts. The state would then provide sufficient funding to
The problem with this program though, is that instead of the foundation being set
at the level of the richer schools, the foundation has been lowered to that of
poorer, known as a low foundation. A set low foundation allows districts to

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provide a minimum or basic education. 10Whereas, richer districts have

educational necessities like after school programs, an abundance of electives, art
programs, etc.
This loophole secures that all children will receive an equal minimum
education, but not that every child had the same level of education. This atrocity is
very clear with its idea of equality. Instead of using the word minimum, though,
the word sufficient is often used. The dynamics of our local and state politics
typically determine sufficiency by what the richer districts deem to be sufficient
for the poorer. Which often times means minimal existence. It is appalling and foul
that the fate of a child is pre determined for them by their socioeconomic status,
often times schools giving them only enough resources for a minimal existence.
This should be considered criminal to do to children.
Knowledge of our true history gives us something to relate to, an identity,
and a way to make sense of the world that we live in. Just by living in this country,
people of color are subject to internalized racism. Children are taught at a very
young age what is believed by those in power (whites) to be physically beautiful
and successful, and if you can guess, that picture is painted as white, with blue eyes,
and straight hair. In The Invisible Man, the narrator finds out just how important
education is as he goes through his adult life with the advice of his grandfather
beating like a drum in his head. He describes a statue of Booker T. Washington, the
founder of his school, lifting the veil from a former slave. The events in this book in

10 Kozol , Jonthan. Savage Ineqaulities . New York: Crown Publishers, 1991. Print.

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relationship to where we are today challenges whether or not that veil is in fact
being lifted, or lowered.
Even though children may have access to attend public school, the idea of
minimum education promises that these children are not being properly prepared
for what awaits them: Class warfare, racism, failed job market, unequal opportunity,
capitalism, totalitarianism, police state, mass incarceration, and oppression.
Keeping Americans ignorant keeps the public jaded to public policy. 11There is a
decline in voter participation, and I believe it is because of poor education. Not to
mention, Florida is struggling with a civil rights issue right now: banning ineligible
voters. As a result, they are disenfranchising the Latino community, and even
registered Democrats are being sent notices that their voting rights have been
forfeited. According to DemocracyNow!, the once eligible voters have been
contacting the voters registration office and are asked to now give citizenship
papers this sounds a lot like not only disenfranchising minorities and
undocumented workers, but also trying to take the vote from more liberal voters.
We are also conditioned to be cynics or to think that our vote does not matter.

In conclusion, The Invisible Man is a very accurate account of Black identity

in America. The narrator believed that in order to succeed, he had to make whites
happy, impress them by being as much like them as he could, and let them make a
mockery of him. It was once he saw outside this false expectation that he discovered
his invisibility, but his true identity and role in this community as an African

11 Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History
Textbook Got Wrong. New York: The New Press, eBook.

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American. Children start attending schools at the most crucial time of development.
Racial undertones and white supremacy within our school system is a guarantee of
ensuring that mostly the rich and white will l prosper. Just like the narrator,
children of color are taught ideas like white is right, which shapes their outlook
not only on themselves, but how they get by in society. In most cases, if theyre not
rich and white, theyve had to work much harder to impress their white superiors
along the way. Of course, this is not the case within all occupations, but I think more
often than not this is the case.
Unequal distribution of resources also creates an environment of stunted
learning and ability to recognize ones self worth or identity. If the adults do not care
enough about these children to ensure that they have all resources necessary for a
successful and self-loving future, then what makes them care? The way the system is
right now will continue to perpetuate self-hatred and oppression, and that will
always come back to us negatively in the future.

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Bibliography


Bennett, Lerone. The Shaping of Black America. Vols. 1-109. New York: Penguin
Books, 1993[1975].


Gillborn , David. "Education policy as an act of white supremacy: whiteness, critical race
theory and education reform." Journal of Education Policy . 20 .4 (2005): 485505. Print.
Lipsitz, George. The Posessive Investment In Whiteness. Philadelphia : Temple
University Press, 2006. Print.

Loewen, James. Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook
Got Wrong. New York: The New Press, eBook.


Kozol , Jonthan. Savage Ineqaulities . New York: Crown Publishers, 1991. Print.
Vaught, Sabina. Racism, Public Schooling, and the Entrenchment of White Supremacy .
Albany: University of New York Press, Vaught, Sabina E. (2011-03-30). Racism,
Public Schooling, and the Entrenchment of White Supremacy . State University of
New York Press. Kindle Edition. , 2011. eBook.


Webster, Y. The Racialization of America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1993.