We don’t have racism in America, we have to be more accurate that reflects the historical structure we have. We have ‘white racism against black Americans,” or, to shorten it, “white racism.” The ambiguity needs to be eliminated to erase the perception that “blacks can be racist.” They can’t be from a structural point of view. White male conservatives politicians and plantations owners created white racism by repressing the natural inalienable rights of black American and Black colonist Americans before 1776, especially in the South. This repressive system is as continuous up until 1968 as white legislatures consistently made explicit laws were the terms “negro”, “mulatto”, black are used to segregate black American not on a state by state basis in order to repress wages and garnish them in order to concentrate their wealth and political power. Some white legislators in border states like Kentucky only made made repressive after the civil war, replicating the same technique of repression as during slavery, only without the overt allowance for physical violence and killing that South Slavery States, like South Carolina.
In fact, we are so used to speaking in euphemisms and dancing around the facts (so as not offend angry white conservative men, most violent in the South) that all history is written inoffensively. “Mississippi” never lynched a single person. However, organized groups of white men often organized with weapons and set out to “lynch” black Americans who they accused of crime and then killed without trial. Black Mississippi never lynched anyone in contrast. It’s a radical difference. We mention states like Mississippi or Texas or Alabama, we speak in the default of white political power, as recently as people say, “I hate Florida” as a stand in for “I hate white conservative people in Florida who are smothering the state with anger and violence by explicit expressions of white racial slurs and/or violence against black Americans, and LBGTQ.” When I moved from up North where I was born to MIssissippi, I realized the way I was treated was different, with over hostility expressed only by white men toward me, and with just kindness by black Americans. It was surprising to me. In reflection, I would move to black Mississippi but not an area in white Mississippi.
“Racism” is an ambiguous word that gently but profoundly eliminates the historical context of white did what to home. That’s why I prefer “white racism.” As Mohammed Ali said, if a three thousand snakes are coming at me and one thousand are not dangerous, I can tell them apart, so I have to close the door on all of them. His expression reflects the black American perspective and the constant conflict we see today of a white authority structure that reflexively reacts to see black men in a vastly different as when “it” (meaning a police officer in the most prominent case), sees a black man—or woman.
