RACISM
Why No One Is Asking White People to Denounce Their Extremists
The color-coded presumption of innocence and guilt
After leaving the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X responded, "It's only right that Negroes protect themselves," when asked if he supported Black people joining rifle clubs, and arming themselves for self-defense in a 1964 interview, citing their constitutional rights. Sadly, whenever Black Americans assert their right to self-defense, their efforts are often perceived as violence. And this interview was no exception. No matter how many times Malcolm X thoughtfully answered his questions, the interviewer's bias seeped through like sweat above a nervous brow.
The interviewer then asked Malcolm X to denounce an organization called The Blood Brothers, which he characterized as ideologically more extreme than him by comparison. Of course, Malcolm X refused to take the bait of fostering division between their groups and noted, "I certainly wouldn't apologize for them." Why should any Black person apologize for the ideology upheld by another? This dialogue demonstrates how White people apply pressure, urging Black people to denounce so-called extremists to prove their moral purity, their righteousness, and thus, their humanity. However, it's worth noting that White people are seldomly questioned in the same light, with the same loaded assumptions. Why didn't the interviewer, for instance, denounce the Confederacy, segregationists running rampant in the halls of Congress at the time, members of the Ku Klux Klan, and other white supremacist organizations who've enslaved, brutalized, and lynched Black people throughout American history?
Malcolm X was questioned about his relationship with a group the interviewer accused of endorsing a violent ideology and encouraging him to denounce them. Still, the interviewer did not ask Malcolm X to denounce a specific act of violence but rather sought to get the civil rights leader to oppose "The Blood Brothers" on ideological grounds, despite them being a group he agreed with in terms of their self-defense values. Despite his conflicts or ideological differences with other Black leaders, Malcolm X refused to allow White people to bolster division or use his platform to paint their organization with a scarlet letter of “extremists.”
As a Black American, I often reflect upon the complicity of White Americans in maintaining this racial hierarchy throughout the years and how no one ever asks White cultural or political leaders to denounce white supremacists, who are certainly extremists by nature. And in the rare moment it comes up, White Americans, particularly conservatives, often align themselves with extremists. For instance, in 2016, David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, told his followers it would be "treason to your heritage" to vote against Donald Trump. When the press asked Trump about the endorsement, he refused to denounce the Klan or David Duke, claiming he didn't know enough to say one way or another. In the deep South, many still refuse to condemn the Confederacy, acknowledge the harm of chattel slavery, and concede that Black Americans are entitled to equal rights and equitable access to opportunities. While visiting a Gulfport, Mississippi Beach years ago, I noticed many proudly few Confederate flags on the Fourth of July and wondered whether they would turn back the hands of time if they could. In many ways, Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign and the effort by many to maintain Confederate statues in public spaces answered that question.
The Daughters of the Confederacy portrayed Confederate generals as misunderstood heroes. At the same time, Moms For Liberty, a "parental rights organization," has championed a censorship campaign to remove many black historical texts Black from the classroom. Despite Trump's efforts to circumvent the will of the people on January 6th, his refusal to accept the legitimacy of election results, his pledge to reinstitute the "Muslim Ban," and get rid of the 14th Amendment's birthright citizenship clause, many are more than willing to support his candidacy. We live in a country where the former President who refused to denounce the Ku Klux Klan wants to become the chief executive again. And yet, Black people and people of color are the ones routinely asked to denounce extremists. The caucasity of their inquiry is glaring.
White people often conflate Black America's self-defense with violence because racism clouds empathy. Someone who doesn't believe Black people deserve to be treated as equal citizens will never see their self-defense as legitimate. Anti-lynching journalist Ida B. Wells suggested, "A Winchester rifle should have a place of honor in every black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give." Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights and voting rights advocate, described her strategy for keeping herself safe: "I keep a shotgun in every corner of my bedroom, and the first cracker even look like he wants to throw some dynamite on my porch won't write his mama again." Were these Black women extremists? Absolutely not, because protecting yourself is human nature. Only those seeking to dehumanize Black people would see these statements as violent, characterize them as extremists, or expect Black Americans to denounce them. Indeed, both Ida B. Wells and Fannie Lou Hamer are civil rights heroines, each in her own right.
White people love asking Black people and people of color to "denounce" those working towards liberation, to judge their tactics and ignore context, to essentially dehumanize groups of people by dangling the carrot of legitimacy. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, under J. Edgar Hoover, worked to discredit the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, to portray them as dangerous to the public. Despite their organization creating survival programs, even one that provided free breakfast to school children, Black leaders and those in the community were asked to denounce them, a campaign which provided law enforcement public cover to pursue activists and deny many of them due process.
We should remember that White people are seldomly held to account in American society or questioned about their affiliation with extremists, even when they have a proven track record of exhibiting violence targeting Black people and other marginalized groups. No one is constantly asking White people to Denounce Christopher Columbus for genocide, American presidents for enslaving African people, or even modern-day white supremacist organizations or political figures. The double standard seems clear that White people benefit from the presumption of innocence, while Black people and other marginalized groups suffer from the presumption of guilt.
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