Desuperhumanizing Whiteness

• In Event: The Hate U Give "F" Us All: "Race" and Racism in Student Evaluation of Teaching

Abstract

This presentation will provide a broader critique of white supremacy following the concrete analysis of white empowerment in teacher evaluations. I inform my philosophical consideration with the theory of the epistemology of ignorance. This epistemology enables white people to practice a specific form of pseudo-non racism: colorblind racism. I primarily draw my conclusions from a philosophical interpretation informed by contemporary works that address the issue of white supremacy (e.g. hooks, Kendi, Lebakeng, Mills, Anderson, DiAngelo) juxtaposed with white supremacist ideologies embodied and expressed by the current US-Administration.
In addition to that I am using the experience of my very own embodied and expressed white privilege. The colorblind racists support racism by claiming not to be racist while not being anti-racist. This invalidates the experiences of all those lives suffering from this racist pseudo-non-racism. This racism targets not only black bodies but black experience and minds as well, this is nothing else but an anti-black epistemicide. Being white and not being white supremacist in a society like the United States of America is not possible. I suggest that one is either explicitly anti-racist or not anti-racist, and that is: racist. Jefferson’s “We the people” is one the many foundational lies of the United States. “We the people” in fact means, “We, the relevant people” and that means first of all, “We, the white people”. This was true at its inception and continues to prevail to the present day. Saying “Black Lives Matter” disrupts the pseudo-naturalness of white supremacy. I posit that not being actively anti-racist means to be practically white supremacist, regardless of what your moral theory might be. This step from the indifferent white non-racist to an active antiracist has not been done by the majority of Americans, or, in fact, by most western white people.
White lives need to learn that they are part of humanity and not its perfection. If there is anything in the world that can be called the white task it is that: to deny the implicit or explicit superiority of whiteness. All those who have been dehumanized by white lives will thus be able to rehumanize themselves unimpeded. White people need to rehumanize, too, but not from having been dehumanized, but from the self-induced obsession of their superhumanization. Through the acknowledgement that the white dominion in the west is not because of superhumanity, but because of inhumanity. White people need to desuperhumanize, become humans again and finally enable themselves to get into meaningful interaction with all the other human beings. In conclusion, white people have to overcome non-racism couched in color-blindness, on one hand, and the acceptance of injustice as an immutable status quo, on the other. A moral revolution – in the literal sense – is required and it is incumbent on white people to be anti-racist and desuperhumanize themselves. This revolution is of utmost importance, particularly in education circles and is the prerequisite of any actual inter-racial dialogue.

Author

• Björn Freter, Independent Scholar