White Lies and Myths About White Supremacy Elide and Hide Whiteness
On white supremacy and the Lost Cause of Whiteness
White lies and myths let whiteness slide; they say, “It’s okay to be white, Trump voters feel economic anxiety, this is not who we are, and this election is a fight for America’s soul.” The Lost Cause of the Confederacy is a well-known example of white lies and myths. Many more white lies and myths come from The Lost Cause of Whiteness.
Both Lost Causes have similarities: They protect white egos, they stiffen white knees, they claim ‘heritage not hate,’ and they have champions, curricula, heroes, instructors, memorabilia, and monuments. Both Lost Causes are multifaceted and belie the main issue. The former says the Civil War is about states’ rights and not slavery, and the latter says the struggle is against everything except whiteness itself.
The Lost Cause of Whiteness is enduring and overarching; it tries to justify and remake whiteness without naming its name. It could fit with Dylan Rodriguez’s theory of ‘White Reconstruction.’ History knows and shows how whiteness works: When lost or losing its way, whiteness reaches for Lost Causes to redirect and rationalize its reconstruction.
Justice is an end that starts with the truth.
What the Lost Cause of the Confederacy says of slavery, the Lost Cause of Whiteness says of Whiteness: It’s benign; it's beneficial to all, and it's natural. Even the term “anti-slavery” on the lips and fingertips of those who supported slavery is a corollary to the term “anti-white.” Both terms work hard to sustain the conditions of oppression.
The Lost Cause of Whiteness, in particular, minimizes and peculiarizes the ‘white’ in white supremacy. Look at what Steve Martinot says in his book The Machinery of Whiteness:
“Many white people claim that whiteness and white supremacy are not the same thing, and they seek a sense of whiteness that’s not supremacist.”
But the white past tells us all we need to know about the white product: The colonists invented whiteness by law for oppression. And the white makers’ mark matches. That's the white origin story that's ongoing.
The data points that refer to white supremacy by its first white name prove the point: Whiteness, white, being white, white privilege, white anything, white everything—it’s all supremacist. Look at its definition and its dominance; look at its construction and its location; look at its perspective and its politics—it’s all supremacist.
The Lost Cause of Whiteness sees and claims whiteness another way, but the functionality of whiteness makes clear what is white and true. Humanity must grasp and hold this truth to be self-evident—that whiteness itself is inhumane. Justice is an end that starts with the truth; anything less is a lost cause to lose.