Why Is It Important To Dismantle White Supremacy To Save The Planet?

White supremacist values, beliefs, and culture have ruled the world for centuries. Whenever one refers to white supremacy, some people get turned off and immediately think the conversation will revolve around white nationalism or extremism. They do not listen. In my view, that is a rather narrow definition of white supremacy. Let us broaden it a little: white supremacism is the system of values and social constructs that promote and uphold white values and culture above all or at the expense of other cultures.

White supremacism like democracy is an ideology, a culture, a value system, a dogma, a way of life. Its’ main objective is to ensure that all people that are white and all things created by white people remain dominant — or are more valued than black or brown lives or things created by black and brown people.

Core values of white supremacy are competition, capitalism, winning, and war. The one aspect that underpins all of these values is a thirst for blood, violence, and conflict. One must not forget that white people plundered, enslaved, violated, raped, and killed black and brown people to establish dominance. They lied, cheated, and betrayed to steal entire empires, natural resources, and swathes of lands from black and brown people. And they still continue these abhorrent practices to this very day. They play by the criminal’s rulebook to get what they believe they are entitled to because they believe they are superior — or at the top of an artificial racial hierarchy, they constructed.

And as if things weren't bad enough, they created this race hierarchy (racism) as a tool that establishes white people as superior to brown and black people. It is scientifically proven that human beings are the exact same species, no one ethnic group is more superior. This lays further credence to the fact that racism is a social construct — totally man-made, that allows white supremacy to legitimize its existence.

Constructing the false premise that one ethnic group — in this case, white people, are superior to others, justifies why white people should dominate the world. Without white supremacism, there is no racism, both are inextricably interlinked — without establishing racism, white people cannot claim they are superior. So clearly, one can ascertain that racism is one of the enablers of white supremacy.

There are many people — white, black, and brown people who adhere to white supremacism. You don’t necessarily need to be white to enforce, promote, and champion white supremacy. Through centuries of brainwashing, enslavement, oppression, and colonialism, white supremacism has managed to infiltrate other cultures to convince them that white people are better, prettier, and more intelligent and superior than they are.

Here’s an analogy to consider: for centuries, white supremacism has been the fair-skinned girl at the prom that everyone wants to be seen with and dance with. She has been the center of attention. Now imagine what would happen if all the boys started ignoring her and turn to the beautiful brown girl instead. What if the boys simply got tired of white supremacy. They no longer liked her values and could sense that she was greedy and destructive. What if they started ignoring her?

But the fact is, white supremacism has been center stage forever — how is she going to deal with no longer being in the limelight? How is she going to start sharing — or accepting that others can dance with the boys too? She’s greedy and selfish, she’s not going to give up that limelight without a fight.

And this is exactly what is going on in the world right now. White-dominated countries like the UK and the US are reneging on deals with China — accusing China of wanting to conduct mass espionage with 5G networks or of creating the Covid-19 pandemic.

The fact of the matter is that the white supremacist west cannot stand the idea that maybe China will overtake them as the dominant culture. But the reality is that there are a lot more brown and black people in the world than white people.

White supremacy cannot rule the world forever because it isn’t inclusive, it doesn’t want to share the world with other cultures, it is selfish. It wants to be the culture on the pedestal looking down on everyone else, it wants to be superior and this will no longer work in the world where we are all inherently equal.

One of the most insidious values of white supremacism is capitalism and profit at all costs even if it is to the detriment of the environment and human life. So we over-produce and over-consume. The earth has a finite amount of resources, but despite human intelligence, we do not manage them strategically, we waste them.

Take for example freshwater. According to the 2018 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report: “nearly 6 billion peoples will suffer from clean water scarcity by 2050. This is the result of an increasing demand for water, reduction of water resources, and increasing pollution of water, driven by dramatic population and economic growth”.

Take a look at arable land. According to the Guardian, “new research has calculated that nearly 33% of the world’s adequate or high-quality food-producing land has been lost at a rate that far outstrips the pace of natural processes to replace diminished soil.” Simply put, we will soon not have enough land to grow the food we need.

How will human beings survive without water and food? And yet we continue to overconsume and to pollute the planet. As a result, the earth is getting warmer, the ice caps are melting, and the sea level is rising. Cities like Mumbai, Shanghai, and Ho Chi Minh city will be underwater by the year 2050.

And if you take the time to think about it, you’ll realize just how much white supremacist values permeate every aspect of your life. You wake up every day to go to a job in a company hell-bent on profit. Why does profit at whatever the price have to be the sole objective of all companies? Why can’t simply breaking even be the goal to achieve? What does pushing for growth day in day out achieve?

As I mentioned earlier, the earth’s resources are finite, so at one point, we will run out. The more we over-consume, the faster we’ll run out of resources, so why not change our mindsets, why can’t we focus less on growth?

We should slow the pace, appreciate the earth more, engage more in our hobbies and leisure, take our time. The idea that we need to be growing and competing all the time, is a mainstay of white supremacy. It is dysfunctional and not sustainable. This mad dash and constant pressure to always grow leads to burnout and depression.

Human beings spend 8–10 hours of their days locked up in offices — mind you, these are some of the best hours in the day. Why do we spend so much time indoors in front of a screen? Why do we forfeit our right to enjoy the earth in favor of a monotonous, repetitive profit-driven routine? Because white supremacist values demand that we do.

From my perspective, white supremacy has led the world to where we are today. The values of let’s grow and grow some more are destroying the planet and making certain species of fauna and flora extinct. If we continue down this path, we will make this planet virtually unlivable. These values will drive us to the complete and total extinction of the human race.

To save our planet and humankind, we need to get rid of the white supremacist mindset. How do we go about that? By suppressing the bearing walls of racism, and capitalism that keep it in place. We have the power and the ability to change.

If these elements were to crumble, white supremacy would weaken and eventually disappear. And when it does, we'll have a society where no one ethnic group is considered superior to one another. All groups will live together, respectful of each other’s differences. It is only then that we’ll be able to come together as human beings. It is only then that we’ll all truly be equal, that we will be able to work together to address and defeat the challenges that lie ahead.

Thanks for reading my perspective.