White Racism

Why Study White Racism

Focus on White Racism and a systemic social phenomenon (Not racially bigoted individuals)

4 reasons why we are focusing specifically on white racism

1. There are more European Americans population wise

2. European Americans are more likely to discriminate

3. POC have experienced centuries of racial oppression in the US

4. the focus is on the social phenomenon

Defending the White Race

institutional curriculum acts as a microcosm of societal white racism

Who opposed the course

White male faculty because it was not in the best interests of the majority race on campus

Arguments against the Course

Why the course is not offensive to white people

White racism is systematic and not targeted at racially bigoted people

Myths about the course

all whites are labeled as racist, polarize campus and worsen race relations

How many African Americans Head Fortune 500 companies

13 people

Social Structure

What a society consists of and how it is held together

social fact

A set of belief that explains social arrangements, usually social oppression

ideology

what people believe

Why there is no Black Racism

Because it is not institutionalized. It can exist but not as organized

Racism (3 definitions)

1. A set of beliefs

2. racially discriminatory behavior

3. A system of race based oppression

definiton of white racism

The social organized set or attitudes, ideas, and practices that deny african americans and other POC dignity, opportunities, freedoms, and rewards that is offered to white Americans

White Racism v. Racial Bigotry

Racism is systematic and bigotry is individualized

White Racism definiton given in class

White Privilege + White Racial Identity

Structure-functionalist approach, functions of white racism

white racism persists because they serve specific social, economic, and psychological functions

conflict approach

how power effects race relations or oppression

symbolic interaction

human behavior, identity, and society are shaped through face-to-face social interactions and the subjective meanings people assign to symbols, words, and objects

What conclusions can we draw about the future of white racism in the US

It is a cycle that will repeat itself unless there is drastic systematic change

Who developed the first argument of black inferiority in the U.S

Thomas Jefferson

The origin of the race concept

1. Colonization

2. Slavery

3. Spread of Capitalism

How to the Smedleys conceptualize race and its origins

Race is not a product of science but a culturally invention thats been in use since the 18th century

How do the Smedley’s define race

A sociocultural phenomenon conceptually separable from biophysical variations

The English

The English perfected the Spanish system of racism and oppression

How did the English conflict the the Irish influence treatment of Native Americans and Africans as “Savages”

The English framed the Irish as backwards and corrupt peoples which was the same method they used to rationalize enslavement and dispossesion of native lands

Why is race an inherently racist concept

Because race is built on a system of social hierarchy, there can be no equal races

monogenisis

idea that Europeans are a superior evolved race

Polygenesis

Europeans are more evolved any everyone else is subhuman

Features of contemporary racist practices in the U.S

1. Subtle and Invisibile

2. Absence of Overt Racial Language

3. Institutional Exclusion

Characteristics of American society that make it racist to its core

1. Institutionalized racism

2. racist foundations

3. white supremacist beliefs

Killing African Americans Cateogories

1. Social Oppression Theories

2. Race Relations, Systematic Racism, and Racial State Theories

3. Interaction Theories

Racial Oppression Theory

Analyzes how oppressors systematically deny subordinated groups access to resources through four key variables: Identifiability, emotional arousal, power differentials, and structural institutionalization

Group Position Theory

Argues that racial prejudice is not nearly individual animosity, but a defense mechanism to protect the dominant groups idea of superiority

Racial Threat Hypothesis/ Group Threat Theory

as the proportion of minority groups population increases in a given area, the dominant groups percieievs heightened economic competition and political power threats, resulting increases social control and police violence

Institutionalized Racism Theory

Distinguishes between overt individual racism and subtle, covert institutional racism embedded in societal policies

Psychohistorical Stages of White Racism

White racism traces back through 3 stages:

1. Dominative racism

2. aversive racism

3. metaracism(through economic and technological mechanisms)

Structural Oppression / Domestic Colonialism

Frames Racism and structural racism as a structural relationship of group subordination that maintains white privileges

Oppression:

those attitudes, behaviors, and pervasive and systematic social arrangements by which members of one group are exploited and subordinated while members of another group are granted privileges

Social Dominance Theory (SDT)

developed by psychologists Jim Sidanius and Felicia Pratto as an integrative, multidisciplinary framework explaining how group-based social hierarchies and intergroup oppression are established and maintained

The Four Types of Discrimination

Isolate Discrimination, Small-Group Discrimination, Direct Institutionalized Discrimination,ndirect Institutionalized Discrimination

tudys main argument

vigilante killings of African Americans exist and persist because, as a violence-centered mechanism of racial control, they serve essential economic, social status, and political functions for the dominant racial group and the maintenance of systemic racism

Racial control system:

A macro-level, highly institutionalized, and enduring social structure and process that organizes group-based racial oppression across all core societal institutions including economics, politics, education, law, family, and culture

Racial control mechanism

A smaller, less institutionalized, and less durable enforcement technique, structure, or "piece of social machinery" deployed within a larger racial control system to enforce its boundaries and suppress challenges

Feagin and Ducey’s RacistAmerica

Rather than viewing racism as a set of isolated individual prejudices, they argue that American society was deliberately constructed on racial oppression, which remains embedded in its foundational institutions.

• systematic racism

• racism is foundational

• White racial frame

• The Racialized Material Asset Base

• Unjust Enrichment and Unjust Impoverishment

Social Darwinism -

Advocates argued that wealth, power, and social status were reflections of inherent biological superiority, while poverty, failure, or subjugation were natural results of biological weakness.

Systemic Racism Theory & Typology of Discrimination (Joe Feagin):

Examines racism as a cumulative, interlocking web of discrimination, categorizing acts into isolated, small-group, direct institutionalized, and indirect institutionalized discrimination

Systemic Racism Framework (Noel Cazenave)

Conceptualizes racism as a highly organized system of race-justified oppression rooted in historical violence and reinforced by the mutual feedback loop of racist stereotypes, discrimination, disparities, and relative impunity

Racial State Theory (Michael Omi & Howard Winant)

Views government branches and policy apparatuses as inherently racialized sites of conflict that actively construct and maintain the racial order

State Racisms, Biopower, and Necropolitics (Michel Foucault, Devonya Havis, Achille Mbembe)

: Explains how modern states manage populations through biopower and necropolitics—the ultimate state capacity to dictate who lives and who dies

Urban Racial State Theory

Tracks how the state shifts across executive, legislative, and judicial branches at federal, state, and local levels through three operational modes: racially oblivious, racially ameliorative, and racially repressive[

Interaction Theories

These theories focus on the immediate situational dynamics, group dynamics, and interpersonal encounters between officers/vigilantes and African American civilians

Radical Interactionism / Dominative Encounters (Lonnie Athens)

Models violent clashes as sequential role-play struggles consisting of role claiming (the contact), role rejection (the rebellion), role sparring (the struggle), role enforcement (the use of force), and role determination (the fatal outcome)[29].

Sociology of Emotions (Jonathan Turner, Theodore Kemper):

Analyzes how power-status contests, emotional arousal, negative emotions (fear, anger, hatred), and a lack of empathy drive fatal encounters

Hypermasculinity & Masculinity Contests:

Framed as testosterone-fueled clashes where male dominance is asserted and challenged, linking racial stereotypes of young Black men to high-stakes contests over respect

Police & Vigilante Occupational Culture:

Examines how organizational norms, peer pressure, the "blue code of silence," and military-style training incubate racial bias and aggressive policing tactics