{"id":17452,"date":"2020-11-06T00:41:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-06T04:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=17452"},"modified":"2020-11-13T17:18:18","modified_gmt":"2020-11-13T21:18:18","slug":"racial-hierarchy-white-fragility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/racial-hierarchy-white-fragility\/","title":{"rendered":"A Racial Hierarchy Exists in The United States"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What is a racial hierarchy? Is there a racial hierarchy in the United States?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A racial hierarchy is a system in which some races are given preferential treatment over other races. It may also be referred to as a caste system<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read on to better understand the racial hierarchy in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Racial Hierarchy in the United States<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After the founding of the United States, these ideas became further encoded into the nation\u2019s legal system, with an entire set of laws emerging to protect the institution of slavery. Even after the abolition of slavery, whiteness became an essential qualification for full participation in American life demonstrating a racial hierarchy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When new immigrants came to America in the 19th and 20th centuries, the judicial system rendered judgments on which groups could and couldn\u2019t be classified as white to protect the racial hierarchy. By conferring specific advantages and benefits upon whiteness, American society transformed race into more than an identity<\/em>\u2014it became an interest<\/em>, one that white people would jealously guard and protect.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, immigrant groups that once faced discrimination\u2014like Irish- or Italian-Americans\u2014were able to assimilate into white society by becoming more generically \u201cAmerican\u201d and shedding their unique cultural or national identities. Implicit in this ability to assimilate, of course, was the idea that whiteness <\/em>was the key component of American identity. Other forms of identity such as language or religion could be integrated. But this path was never open to black people, regardless of how long their ancestors may have been in the country, because, unlike the Irish and Italians, they couldn\u2019t \u201cpass\u201d as white. Race was an immutable characteristic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because white people have always been dominant in society, they have not had to confront the consequences or even the <\/strong>existence <\/em><\/strong>of their enormous privileges. <\/strong>This is largely because white supremacy<\/a> encodes whiteness as the normal or standard condition for society. This pervades everything from language to how we view our nation\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cAmericanness\u201d of people of color, for example, is always qualified as \u201cAfrican-American,\u201d \u201cAsian-American,\u201d or \u201cLatin American.\u201d Rarely are white people called \u201cWhite-American\u201d or \u201cCaucasian-American.\u201d Whiteness is assumed to be standard, normal, and synonymous with American identity itself. That’s how the racial hierarchy works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, February is designated as Black History Month. Implicit in this labeling<\/a> is the idea that \u201cblack\u201d history stands somehow apart from American history in general. There does not need to be a corresponding White History Month, because the culture automatically assumes <\/em>that such a designation would be redundant\u2014in a white-dominated society, white history is simply the same as \u201chistory.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This placement of white people atop the nation\u2019s hierarchy and the enshrinement of whiteness as the embodiment of national identity is what scholars of race mean by white supremacy. Many white people recoil at the term and refuse to consider the idea that they bear responsibility for it because they associate it with extremist groups like the KKK or neo-Nazis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even a cursory look at America\u2019s most powerful institutions shows just how embedded white supremacy is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n