"Whiteness functions as a mask, as a veil, to cover over the history of its violence. It does this through acts of denial, bad faith, and what philosopher Charles W. Mills terms an epistemology of ignorance, which produces 'the ironic outcome that whites will in general be unable to understand the world they themselves have made.'"
"Whiteness is not innocent; it is a structural and embodied lived reality that is predicated upon violence against those who have been constructed (such as Black people) in their very being as wretched."
"To be Black is precisely to be not human, not moral, not civilized, not intelligent. It is this 'not' that underwrites and renders legible the idea of whiteness as 'supreme.'"
"Whiteness is parasitic upon Blackness, which functions as its host. James Baldwin powerfully argued that Black people 'have functioned in the white ... world as a fixed star, as an immovable pillar.'"
Whiteness operates as a veil that obscures its violent history, leading to denial and ignorance among white individuals. This creates an illusion of innocence, while in reality, whiteness is a structural reality built on the dehumanization of Black people. The notion of Blackness is framed as inferior, which reinforces the supremacy of whiteness. This relationship is parasitic, with Blackness serving as a host for whiteness. The philosophical discourse aims to reveal these truths and challenge the evasion of responsibility among white individuals.
Read at Truthout
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