The lie that invented racism | John Biewen

Summary

The speaker explores the concept of 'whiteness' and its role in perpetuating systemic racism. They discuss the historical origins of race as a social construct invented to justify exploitation and slavery. The speaker challenges the notion that racism is merely a problem of individual attitudes, emphasizing it as a tool used to maintain power and economic systems. They call on white individuals to recognize their complicity and take active steps to dismantle these systems, promoting a society free from oppression.

Takeaways

• 🤔 The speaker reflects on the question 'What is up with us white people?', acknowledging a growing awareness among white individuals about their role in systemic racism.
• 🏛 The speaker distinguishes between overt racists and the broader white population, emphasizing the need to address the pervasive nature of white privilege.
• 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Raised in a progressive household, the speaker was taught that racism is wrong but grew up in a predominantly white area, which may have contributed to a sense of detachment from the issue.
• 📺 The media often focuses on people of color when discussing racial issues, rather than examining the systemic structures that perpetuate racism.
• 🔍 The speaker's journey into journalism led to a deeper exploration of whiteness and racism, questioning why these issues persist.
• 🌍 The concept of race is a relatively recent invention, with racism originating not from misunderstanding but from deliberate lies to justify exploitation.
• 📚 Historical figures like Gomes de Zurara played a role in creating racist ideologies to justify the enslavement and exploitation of African people.
• 🇺🇸 In colonial America, racist ideas were codified into laws that both dehumanized Black people and provided benefits to white people, even the poorest among them.
• 🔄 Understanding the history of racism helps to see it not as an attitude problem but as a tool used to maintain power and economic systems.
• 💡 The realization that racism is a white people problem shifts the responsibility for dismantling it onto those who benefit from the system.
• 🤝 The speaker calls for white individuals to take action, not out of guilt, but out of a sense of responsibility and the understanding that everyone is implicated in the system.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the speech?

The main topic of the speech is the exploration of the concept of 'whiteness' and its historical origins, as well as the role it plays in perpetuating systemic racism.

Why does the speaker believe that a growing number of white people are asking 'What is up with us white people?'

The speaker believes this is because of recent events and societal issues that highlight racial tensions and the prevalence of white identity politics, which are disturbing to many.

What does the speaker mean when they say they are 'in recovery' from an early impression?

The speaker is referring to their past naive belief that racism was something that only existed in the media and not in their own community, which they now understand was a misconception.

How does the speaker describe the role of race in Ancient Greece?

In Ancient Greece, people believed they were superior not because of race, but because they thought they had developed the most advanced culture. They considered other groups barbaric in comparison.

Who is Gomes de Zurara and why is he significant in the history of racism?

Gomes de Zurara was a Portuguese writer in the 1450s who, according to historian Ibram Kendi, first articulated racist ideas by describing all people of Africa as a distinct, inferior, and beastly group, which helped justify the enslavement of Africans.

What is the speaker's view on the origins of racism?

The speaker views racism as a tool invented to justify the exploitation of other human beings for profit, rather than as a misunderstanding or an innate human trait.

Why does the speaker emphasize that racism is not mainly a problem of attitudes?

The speaker emphasizes this because racism is used as a tool to maintain economic, political, and social systems that advantage some and disadvantage others, rather than just being a matter of individual prejudice.

What does the speaker suggest is the responsibility of white people in addressing racism?

The speaker suggests that white people have a responsibility to dismantle the system that advantages them and to actively join the struggle against racism, rather than being complicit or remaining on the sidelines.

How does the speaker's understanding of racism change after learning its history?

After learning the history of racism, the speaker stops viewing it as outdated thinking that will fade away and instead sees it as a persistent tool used by powerful people to maintain systems of exploitation and oppression.

What does the speaker propose as a way for white people to show up and take action against racism?

The speaker proposes that white people should show up with humility, vulnerability, and a willingness to relinquish unearned power. They should support leaders and initiatives that address systemic racism, such as reparations and institutional transformation.

What is the speaker's stance on the concept of 'white guilt'?

The speaker does not believe in 'white guilt' as a productive concept. Instead, they advocate for a sense of responsibility and action to address and dismantle systemic racism.

Outlines

00:00

🤔 Exploring White Identity and Racism

The speaker begins by addressing the question, 'What is up with us white people?' They reflect on the racial tensions and events in the United States that have led to a growing number of white individuals questioning their role in perpetuating racism. The speaker differentiates between extremists and the broader white community, acknowledging the latter's complicity in systemic racism. They recount their upbringing in a racially aware household, yet recognize the limitations of their understanding, having lived in a predominantly white area. The speaker's journey into journalism and the realization of the media's focus on people of color when discussing race are highlighted. They express a personal awakening to the systemic nature of racism, prompted by events like the Trayvon Martin case and the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the election of Donald Trump.

05:07

🔍 The Invention of Whiteness and Racism

The speaker, a journalist, considers the concept of 'whiteness' as a story worth exploring. They delve into the historical origins of race as a social construct, noting that race is not a biological fact but a relatively recent human invention. They discuss how ancient societies, such as the Greeks, differentiated themselves based on culture rather than race. The speaker then identifies the Portuguese man, Gomes de Zurara, as a key figure in the creation of racist ideologies by portraying Africans as inferior in the 1450s to justify the emerging Atlantic slave trade. This historical account illustrates how racism began as a deliberate lie to serve economic interests and how it was later codified into laws in colonial America, establishing a system of chattel slavery and granting certain benefits to white people, even the poor.

10:09

📚 Understanding Racism as a Tool for Exploitation

The speaker argues that racism is not just a matter of individual attitudes but a systemic tool used to maintain power and economic advantage. They emphasize that racism was invented to justify the exploitation of people for profit and that it continues to serve this purpose today. The speaker reflects on how learning this history has changed their understanding of racism, recognizing it as a tool rather than just outdated thinking. They also discuss the implications of this understanding, suggesting that it is the responsibility of white people to address and dismantle the systems that advantage them at the expense of others.

15:11

💪 Taking Action Against Racism

In the final paragraph, the speaker calls on white individuals to recognize their role in perpetuating racism and to take active steps to dismantle the systems that advantage them. They reject the idea of white guilt, instead advocating for a sense of responsibility and action. The speaker encourages white people to support efforts for reparations, to work towards transforming unjust institutions, and to be active allies in their workplaces and communities. They emphasize the need for humility, vulnerability, and a willingness to relinquish unearned power. The speaker concludes by suggesting that everyone would benefit from a society not built on exploitation or oppression and that taking action is the right thing to do.

Keywords

💡Whiteness

Whiteness in the context of the video refers to the social and political construct of white identity, which has been historically used to categorize and privilege people of European descent. The video discusses how whiteness was invented to justify the exploitation and enslavement of non-white populations, particularly in the context of colonial America and the Atlantic slave trade. It is central to understanding systemic racism and the privileges associated with being white.

💡Racism

Racism is defined as the belief in the inherent superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice. In the video, racism is portrayed as a tool used to maintain power and economic systems that advantage white people at the expense of people of color. The speaker reflects on how racism is not just an attitude but a systemic issue deeply rooted in history and law.

💡Systemic Racism

Systemic racism refers to the ways in which racial discrimination is embedded within institutions and societal structures. The video highlights how systemic racism manifests in housing segregation, job discrimination, and educational and criminal justice inequities. It emphasizes that racism is not just individual acts but is perpetuated by the very systems that govern society.

💡Privilege

Privilege, in this context, refers to the unearned benefits and advantages that white people have in society due to their racial identity. The video discusses how even the poorest white people were given certain rights and privileges to not be enslaved and to access free land, which were not afforded to Black people, thus illustrating the concept of white privilege.

💡Black Lives Matter

The Black Lives Matter movement is mentioned in the video as a response to the systemic racism and violence faced by Black communities. It is a social and political movement advocating for the rights and fair treatment of Black individuals, which has gained significant attention following high-profile cases of police violence against unarmed Black people.

💡White Supremacy

White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to other races and should therefore dominate society. The video touches on white supremacist culture and how it has been critiqued by Black intellectuals for centuries. It also discusses how certain political movements, like that of Donald Trump, have been seen to embrace white identity politics.

💡Institution

Institutions, in the context of the video, refer to established laws, rules, or organizations that have the power to shape societal norms and practices. The speaker discusses how institutions like housing, education, and the criminal justice system perpetuate systemic racism, thus making them key areas for addressing racial inequality.

💡Reparations

Reparations are proposed compensation for historical injustices, particularly the legacy of slavery and its ongoing effects. The video suggests that understanding the history of racism and white privilege might lead to support for reparations as a means to address and rectify past wrongs and their present-day impacts.

💡Complicity

Complicity in the video refers to the idea that by not actively working to dismantle systems that advantage white people, they are complicit in maintaining those systems. The speaker emphasizes the responsibility of white individuals to be part of the solution rather than simply being passive observers.

💡Diversity and Equity

Diversity and equity are mentioned in relation to workplace initiatives aimed at creating a more inclusive environment. The video challenges white individuals to be more than just present at diversity and equity meetings; instead, they should actively work to be accomplices to their colleagues of color and contribute to meaningful change.

💡Humility and Vulnerability

Humility and vulnerability are presented as essential attitudes for white people to adopt when engaging with issues of race and racism. The video suggests that white individuals should approach conversations and actions with an openness to learn, acknowledge their privilege, and be willing to relinquish unearned power.

Highlights

The speaker reflects on the question, 'What is up with us white people?' and acknowledges the growing number of white individuals asking this question.

The speaker differentiates between white supremacists and the broader white community, focusing on the latter.

The speaker discusses their upbringing and the influence of their parents' progressive views on race.

The realization that racism is not just an individual attitude but a systemic tool used to exploit others for profit.

The historical context of racism is explored, revealing it as a relatively recent invention.

The speaker discusses the role of Gomes de Zurara in creating the concept of blackness and whiteness to justify the slave trade.

The historical benefits given to white people, even the poorest, are highlighted.

The speaker challenges the idea that racism is merely a problem of individual attitudes.

The speaker emphasizes the responsibility of white people to address and dismantle systemic racism.

The speaker discusses the importance of understanding the origins of racism to combat it effectively.

The speaker shares their personal journey from being a旁观者 to recognizing their implication in the struggle against racism.

The speaker calls for action from white individuals to support leaders and initiatives that aim to address racial injustice.

The speaker encourages white individuals to approach diversity and equity meetings not with reluctance but with a desire to be an accomplice.

The speaker concludes by emphasizing the moral imperative to act against racism.

Transcripts

Transcriber: Joseph Geni Reviewer: Camille Martínez

What is up with us white people?

(Laughter)

I've been thinking about that a lot the last few years,

and I know I have company.

Look, I get it --

people of color have been asking that question for centuries.

But I think a growing number of white folks are too,

given what's been going on out there

in our country.

And notice I said, "What's up with us white people?"

because right now, I'm not talking about those white people,

the ones with the swastikas and the hoods and the tiki torches.

They are a problem and a threat.

They perpetrate most of the terrorism in our country,

as you all in Charlottesville know better than most.

But I'm talking about something bigger and more pervasive.

I'm talking about all of us,

white folks writ large.

And maybe, especially, people sort of like me,

self-described progressive,

don't want to be racist.

Good white people.

(Laughter)

Any good white people in the room?

(Laughter)

I was raised to be that sort of person.

I was a little kid in the '60s and '70s,

and to give you some sense of my parents:

actual public opinion polls at the time

showed that only a small minority, about 20 percent of white Americans,

approved and supported

Martin Luther King and his work with the civil rights movement

while Dr. King was still alive.

I'm proud to say my parents were in that group.

Race got talked about in our house.

And when the shows that dealt with race would come on the television,

they would sit us kids down, made sure we watched:

the Sidney Poitier movies, "Roots" ...

The message was loud and clear,

and I got it:

racism is wrong; racists are bad people.

At the same time,

we lived in a very white place in Minnesota.

And I'll just speak for myself,

I think that allowed me to believe that those white racists on the TV screen

were being beamed in from some other place.

It wasn't about us, really.

I did not feel implicated.

Now, I would say, I'm still in recovery from that early impression.

I got into journalism

in part because I cared about things like equality and justice.

For a long time, racism was just such a puzzle to me.

Why is it still with us when it's so clearly wrong?

Why such a persistent force?

Maybe I was puzzled because I wasn't yet looking in the right place

or asking the right questions.

Have you noticed

that when people in our mostly white media

report on what they consider to be racial issues,

what we consider to be racial issues,

what that usually means is that we're pointing our cameras

and our microphones and our gaze

at people of color,

asking questions like,

"How are Black folks or Native Americans, Latino or Asian Americans,

how are they doing?"

in a given community or with respect to some issue --

the economy, education.

I've done my share of that kind of journalism

over many years.

But then George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin,

followed by this unending string of high-profile police shootings

of unarmed Black people,

the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement,

Dylann Roof and the Charleston massacre,

#OscarsSoWhite --

all the incidents from the day-to-day of American life,

these overtly racist incidents

that we now get to see because they're captured on smartphones

and sent across the internet.

And beneath those visible events,

the stubborn data,

the studies showing systemic racism in every institution we have:

housing segregation, job discrimination,

the deeply racialized inequities in our schools

and criminal justice system.

And what really did it for me,

and I know I'm not alone in this, either:

the rise of Donald Trump

and the discovery that a solid majority of white Americans

would embrace or at least accept

such a raw, bitter kind of white identity politics.

This was all disturbing to me as a human being.

As a journalist, I found myself turning the lens around,

thinking,

"Wow, white folks are the story.

Whiteness is a story,"

And also thinking, "Can I do that?

What would a podcast series about whiteness sound like?"

(Laughter)

"And oh, by the way -- this could get uncomfortable."

I had seen almost no journalism that looked deeply at whiteness,

but, of course, people of color and especially Black intellectuals

have made sharp critiques of white supremacist culture

for centuries,

and I knew that in the last two or three decades,

scholars had done interesting work

looking at race through the frame of whiteness,

what it is, how we got it, how it works in the world.

I started reading,

and I reached out to some leading experts on race and the history of race.

One of the first questions I asked was,

"Where did this idea of being a white person

come from in the first place?"

Science is clear.

We are one human race.

We're all related,

all descended from a common ancestor in Africa.

Some people walked out of Africa into colder, darker places

and lost a lot of their melanin,

some of us more than others.

(Laughter)

But genetically, we are all 99.9 percent the same.

There's more genetic diversity within what we call racial groups

than there is between racial groups.

There's no gene for whiteness or blackness or Asian-ness

or what have you.

So how did this happen?

How did we get this thing?

How did racism start?

I think if you had asked me to speculate on that,

in my ignorance, some years ago,

I probably would have said,

"Well, I guess somewhere back in deep history,

people encountered one another,

and they found each other strange.

'Your skin is a different color, your hair is different,

you dress funny.

I guess I'll just go ahead and jump to the conclusion

that since you're different

that you're somehow less than me,

and maybe that makes it OK for me to mistreat you.'"

Right?

Is that something like what we imagine or assume?

And under that kind of scenario,

it's all a big, tragic misunderstanding.

But it seems that's wrong.

First of all, race is a recent invention.

It's just a few hundred years old.

Before that, yes, people divided themselves

by religion, tribal group, language,

things like that.

But for most of human history,

people had no notion of race.

In Ancient Greece, for example --

and I learned this from the historian Nell Irvin Painter --

the Greeks thought they were better than the other people they knew about,

but not because of some idea that they were innately superior.

They just thought that they'd developed the most advanced culture.

So they looked around at the Ethiopians,

but also the Persians and the Celts,

and they said, "They're all kind of barbaric compared to us.

Culturally, they're just not Greek."

And yes, in the ancient world, there was lots of slavery,

but people enslaved people who didn't look like them,

and they often enslaved people who did.

Did you know that the English word "slave" is derived from the word "Slav"?

Because Slavic people were enslaved by all kinds of folks,

including Western Europeans,

for centuries.

Slavery wasn't about race either,

because no one had thought up race yet.

So who did?

I put that question to another leading historian,

Ibram Kendi.

I didn't expect he would answer the question

in the form of one person's name and a date,

as if we were talking about the light bulb.

(Laughter)

But he did.

(Laughter)

He said, in his exhaustive research,

he found what he believed to be the first articulation of racist ideas.

And he named the culprit.

This guy should be more famous,

or infamous.

His name is Gomes de Zurara.

Portuguese man.

Wrote a book in the 1450s

in which he did something that no one had ever done before,

according to Dr. Kendi.

He lumped together all the people of Africa --

a vast, diverse continent --

and he described them as a distinct group,

inferior and beastly.

Never mind that in that precolonial time

some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa.

Why would this guy make this claim?

Turns out, it helps to follow the money.

First of all, Zurara was hired to write that book

by the Portuguese king,

and just a few years before,

slave traders --

here we go --

slave traders tied to the Portuguese crown

had effectively pioneered the Atlantic slave trade.

They were the first Europeans to sail directly to sub-Saharan Africa

to kidnap and enslave African people.

So it was suddenly really helpful

to have a story about the inferiority of African people

to justify this new trade

to other people, to the church,

to themselves.

And with the stroke of a pen,

Zurara invented both blackness and whiteness,

because he basically created the notion of blackness

through this description of Africans,

and as Dr. Kendi says,

blackness has no meaning without whiteness.

Other European countries followed the Portuguese lead

in looking to Africa for human property and free labor

and in adopting this fiction

about the inferiority of African people.

I found this clarifying.

Racism didn't start with a misunderstanding,

it started with a lie.

Meanwhile, over here in colonial America,

the people now calling themselves white got busy taking these racist ideas

and turning them into law,

laws that stripped all human rights from the people they were calling Black

and locking them into our particularly vicious brand of chattel slavery,

and laws that gave even the poorest white people benefits,

not big benefits in material terms

but the right to not be enslaved for life,

the right to not have your loved ones torn from your arms and sold,

and sometimes real goodies.

The handouts of free land in places like Virginia

to white people only

started long before the American Revolution

and continued long after.

Now, I can imagine

there would be people listening to me -- if they're still listening --

who might be thinking,

"Come on, this is all ancient history. Why does this matter?

Things have changed.

Can't we just get over it and move on?"

Right?

But I would argue, for me certainly,

learning this history has brought a real shift

in the way that I understand racism today.

To review, two quick takeaways from what I've said so far:

one, race is not a thing biologically,

it's a story some people decided to tell;

and two, people told that story

to justify the brutal exploitation of other human beings for profit.

I didn't learn those two facts in school.

I suspect most of us didn't.

If you did, you had a special teacher.

Right?

But once they sink in,

for one thing, it becomes clear

that racism is not mainly a problem of attitudes,

of individual bigotry.

No, it's a tool.

It's a tool to divide us and to prop up systems --

economic, political and social systems

that advantage some people and disadvantage others.

And it's a tool to convince a lot of white folks

who may or may not be getting a great deal out of our highly stratified society

to support the status quo.

"Could be worse. At least I'm white."

Once I grasped the origins of racism,

I stopped being mystified by the fact that it's still with us.

I guess, you know, looking back,

I thought about racism as being sort of like the flat Earth --

just bad, outdated thinking that would fade away on its own

before long.

But no, this tool of whiteness

is still doing the job it was invented to do.

Powerful people go to work every day,

leveraging and reinforcing this old weapon

in the halls of power,

in some broadcast studios we could mention ...

And we don't need to fuss over

whether these people believe what they're saying,

whether they're really racist.

That's not what it's about.

It's about pocketbooks and power.

Finally, I think the biggest lesson of all --

and let me talk in particular to the white folks for a minute:

once we understand that people who look like us

invented the very notion of race

in order to advantage themselves and us,

isn't it easier to see that it's our problem to solve?

It's a white people problem.

I'm embarrassed to say that for a long time,

I thought of racism as being mainly a struggle for people of color to fight,

sort of like the people on the TV screen when I was a kid.

Or, as if I was on the sidelines at a sports contest,

on one side people of color,

on the other those real racists,

the Southern sheriff,

the people in hoods.

And I was sincerely rooting for people of color to win the struggle.

But no.

There are no sidelines.

We're all in it.

We are implicated.

And if I'm not joining the struggle to dismantle a system

that advantages me,

I am complicit.

This isn't about shame or guilt.

White guilt doesn't get anything done,

and honestly, I don't feel a lot of guilt.

History isn't my fault or yours.

What I do feel is a stronger sense of responsibility

to do something.

All this has altered the way that I think about and approach my work

as a documentary storyteller

and as a teacher.

But beyond that, besides that, what does it mean?

What does it mean for any of us?

Does it mean that we support leaders

who want to push ahead with a conversation about reparations?

In our communities,

are we finding people who are working to transform unjust institutions

and supporting that work?

At my job,

am I the white person who shows up grudgingly

for the diversity and equity meeting,

or am I trying to figure out how to be a real accomplice

to my colleagues of color?

Seems to me wherever we show up,

we need to show up with humility and vulnerability

and a willingness to put down this power that we did not earn.

I believe we also stand to benefit

if we could create a society

that's not built on the exploitation or oppression of anyone.

But in the end we should do this,

we should show up,

figure out how to take action.

Because it's right.

Thank you.

(Applause)