THE VIRUS OF WHITE SUPREMACY
People are most likely politicized through a process call “Political Socialization.” This includes being socialized with certain political ideas by family, schools, churches/religion, mass media, peers, and events. The Texan Creed, which is primarily a belief system of racialized whites in Texas, consists of beliefs in tradition and deed. It includes liberty, individualism, constitutionalism, and equality. These traditions are loaded with racism and myth. They were designed to subjugate, exploit, and oppress people of color and poor whites as well. These nightmare traditions infected whites in Texas for generations but they festered long before Anglo settlers immigrated to northern Mexico. In the case of white supremacy, political socialization was weaponized to further the institution of racism and the liberty to own slaves.
Many viruses were created in the lab of white supremacy. Popular imagination would become more than whimsical thought with this infection. There are dozens of ignored or erased facts and invented stories about Texas and American History. The Texas legislature recently passed several laws that are aimed at subverting the truth about Black history and the history of racism in this country. America was built on the foundation myths of white supremacy and black inferiority. The American colonies were rife with racism against Native people and black slaves and even hatred against other Europeans that were not British and believed in religions and denominations other than Protestant. European immigrants came to American colonies with the racist ideas associated with the slave trade. This history is not “Critical Race Theory” but it is the truth!
All of the falsehoods we have been taught are still being bandied about by people whose brains have been scoured with racial hogwash. Teaching from real documents has nothing to do with teaching “critical race theory,” or “political correctness.” The current attempts by the Texas legislature, in attempting to restore racist education, includes efforts to remove ethnic studies in curriculum content, and the real story of the development of slavery and racism in Texas. As an educator, I have never taught “Critical Race Theory,” but have taught the truth about the role of white supremacy in this country and beyond. The Civil War and the fight for Texas independence was fought to create a society based upon human suffering, degradation, and the freedom to own human beings.
The ugly legacy created by white supremacy contaminates the minds of people today like horrible nightmares stamped on the brains of the living. Racists and ignorant people use frequent fossilized arguments polished arguments that include: alleging that any discussion of discrimination and institutional racism is in itself racist and divisive, or racism in reverse; claiming that talking or protesting against white supremacy is “playing the race card,” while claiming that civil rights is a crutch for those who are lazy. These racist-minded folk have a truth that they have created: Everything is bigger in Texas, including the lying!
All of these white supremacist arguments are in the toolbox of racialized thought patterns, of constraints and silences, of false justifications passed on from generation to generation. Racialized narratives have traveled across time and place. These narratives can be linked to the racism that infected Texas immigrants from the early beginnings of white supremacist thought. Even in the 21st Century, we are still experiencing enormous racist hatred and grief from police abuse augmented by mummified beliefs. However, educators will not roll over, but are engaged in an ongoing struggle against a myriad of racist forces attempting to return us to a Jim Crow model of education in Texas.
