There’s No Such Thing as Race
Biologically or genetically speaking, that is. Amazingly enough, most people—or at least a majority of the population—still labor under the delusion that race is a divisional construct based on hardcore scientific principles and as such as existed as long as there have been people divide. In reality, race is a concept that belongs specifically to the discipline of social science: to divide people according to “race” is closer to dividing people according to whether they are introverts or extroverts than according to eye color or hair color. And just as an introvert cannot be identified by the pigment of their skin, neither can racial differences since, as stated, there is no such thing as race. This is important thematically for the obvious reason: how can racism ever be justified when the basis of any rationalization commences from a false proposition?
White Supremacy is Not Extremist Ideology
The author admits shies away from the generalized term “white supremacy” to introduce his own coinage: “white-body supremacy.” The differentiation may seem slight semantically, but it embodies a much greater and denser concept. Key to the usage of his term is that white supremacy has taken on a very specific definition in which it is inherently limited to describing an ever-narrowing extremist ideology synonymous with easily identifiable villains: Klan members, Nazis, skinheads and such. The author argues that the ideological basis of white supremacy is constituent throughout the full expanse of those whose with “white-bodies” and allows for white supremacy to expand to include those who are not directly espousing the more extreme iterations. “White-body supremacy” appends the privilege of racial superiority upon even those who can rightly defend themselves against all charges of open racism through by including anyone who has ever benefited—even unwillingly or unwitting—from the privilege that being white earns one in American society.
Reptilian Reflexivity
Without excusing it, the author fully admits that racist behavior is not always necessarily intentionally racist. A great number of examples are forwarded of individuals acting in a manner which is undeniably racist in execution, but does not originate from a point of racist intention. These all belong to that wider net of white-body supremacy, of course, but the finger of blame is pointed toward how historical precedent set by millions of other people we’ve never met has served to stoke the reflexive parts of the brain. This is generally referenced as the “primitive brain” or “fight or flight response” or “our reptile brain” in that it operates instinctually below the radar of conscious thought or agency.
This them hits hard upon the hot button issue of excessive force by police systemically directed toward black people, but is also brought to bear upon issues like retail security personnel targeting black customers for receipt matches at a much higher rate than white customers occupying the same economic status. What is most disturbing about the reality of racist actions resulting from reflexivity, however, is that it has become the go-to defense for police officers who have killed in the line of duty. Inevitably the appeal is made to jurors that their decision to shoot resulted from a fear for their own safety and the potential of their own lives being on the line if they failed to take action.
