Why Do ‘White People’ Exist?

A New Year’s Resolution For The Anti-Racist.

The Purpose for the Creation of ‘White People.’

Jacqueline Battalora, PhD., JD, has lectured extensively on how ‘white people’ were created by Colonial legislation in 1681 in response to the event known as Bacon’s Rebellion for the specific purpose of being anti-Black to African people.

Let that marinade for a minute:

‘White people’ were created for the specific purpose to be anti-Black.

In order to execute a strategy of divide and conquer, Colonial lawmakers in Virginia adopted and enforced laws designed to separate laborers by classifying them. Post-Bacon rebellion laws now specified that free Africans were prohibited from holding public office, prohibited from marrying whites, prohibited from possessing a weapon, and prohibited from testifying against whites.

This was a monumental shift from descriptions based on one’s point of origin (e.g., British, Irish, African, etc.) to a new legislated identity based on skin color. White laborers as a group, irrespective of nationality, were now deserving of rights and privileges from which “others” could be denied.

While these new laws did little to move freed British laborers toward the class of British elite, they stripped African men of any patriarchal power and plunged them into a permanent underclass. Hence, the birth of white supremacy as legislated by Colonial rule.

Legalization of the term “White people” was the tool to divide laborers in order to avert future rebellion in the Colonies. It afforded this new group, now designated as “white” males, the center of patriarchal power and legalized a condition of superiority over people considered non-white.

The legislation of 1681 afforded, by law, privileges and advantages to the group now identified as “white people” following Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676.

But this was a false sense of advancement for the newly minted group labeled as ‘white people’. It was false because the designated group of ‘white people’ actually gained nothing that they didn’t already have. Rather they were pacified by a sense of bestowed privilege.

‘White people’ were created and designed for the purpose of being anti-Black in order to protect Colonial aristocratic wealth.

‘White people’ are not a race.

‘White people’ are not members of a biological genetic anthropologic ‘race’ designated as ‘white people.’

‘White people’ are a social construct that is designed to be anti-Black.

The construct of a ‘white person’ demands an identity that is anti-Black.

The psycho-social development of a ‘white person’ demands imbued perception skewed to be anti-Black.

The ‘white person’ construct is anti-Black by design.

A ‘white person’ is engineered social racial-pathology.

A ‘white person’ is pathological by design.

Because that is what a ‘white person’ is designed to be.

You cannot be ‘anti-racist’ and a ‘white person’ at the same time. The two are diametrically opposed.

What this means is that if you have thought of yourself to be a ‘white person’ then you must work every single day of your life to be conscious and aware of your implanted biases and prejudice. It is ingrained and cannot be separated from your identity as a ‘white person.’

This author is aware that trying to understand and learn about this construct is illegal in the State of Florida’s educational system and there are similar proposals spreading to other American States as well. It seems that the ‘Sunshine State’ does not want the sun to shine on any quest for self-knowledge that would enable a better humanity.

But again, human cruelty is the point, as demonstrated by the recent actions of governors in Florida and Texas where they banished migrants, leaving them in the frigid cold. And as evidenced by the policy of separating brown children from their parents as advised by Steve Bannon, developed by Stephen Miller and signed off by Donald Trump. These thoughtless, despicable, inhumane acts distinguish and epitomize what it means to be a ‘white person’ and it is this very identity and Racial Hierarchical position that these political actors stride to protect. It is their calling card to their base of ‘white people.’

Voting for politicians who openly advocate for the sustained existence of the ‘white people’ construct is a vote against humanity for there is nothing humane about the creation and purpose of the construct.

If you think of yourself as a ‘white person’ regardless of your actual skin pigmentation, then it behooves learning and understanding the social construct that defines your identity.

A question was recently posed in response to one of my articles. The reader asked:

“How do we all focus on attacking the construct and not those that are labeled racist? How do we help white people attack the construct without attacking themselves?”

To which I responded:

“White people cannot attack the construct; white people ARE the construct. Racism only ends when so-called “white people” come to recognize that they are not “White People” and that there is no such thing as a “White-Race.”

Its been 400 plus years. Humanity, decency and morality wait for ‘white people’ to stop being ‘White People’ and to start being human again, or, as James Baldwin expressed brilliantly:

“The people who think of themselves as White have the choice of becoming human or irrelevant”

New Years Resolution:

I will remind myself daily that

my worth is my ability to grow.

And growth is a state of maturity beyond the present.

For at the end of my time in this world,

there is only one question that will matter:

Did I Love?

Thank you for reading.

© 2023 Andrew P. Brown III, PhD. All rights reserved.

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