I’m not racist, this is about my heritage!
By: Susan Brassfield Cogan
Tags: Segregation, Lynching, Police Brutality, Black Lives Matter, Racism

I’m sorry, but that heritage is slavery and Jim Crow. Don’t tell me that you never owned a slave. The only reason you’ve never owned a slave is because the South lost the war. If they had won you would likely own slaves today because they would be a symbol of your innate superiority over the black race and your victory over the people who have become “the libs.”

In the early 19th century (and long, long before that), the view of nearly all white people was that any person of color was automatically inferior. “Race” was a reference to a subspecies. That’s why it was so easy for Europeans to colonize most of the world. Black lives didn’t matter. (And to a 19th-century British person any foreigner with a dark tan was “black.”)

Black people were only almost human. So there was no reason for them to expect the same rights and privileges as the superior white race who were ordained by God to control and enslave them.

And yet some of those white people who believed all that vile nonsense to the bottoms of their hearts went to war to free the slaves and then extended full citizenship rights to them.

They felt that slavery was such a morally vial system that even “near” humans should not be subjected to it.

The Death Cult of Jim Crow

For 150 years white supremacists have warmed their hands by the fire of this putrid fragment of motivated reasoning: that the descendants of slaves are subhuman and “we should be forgiven for not wanting to mix with them.” And “We know black people are stupid and violent so they probably deserved everything that happened to them. And since they are subhuman, violence is fine. (It’s the only thing they understand.)”

In the 60s the descendants of those racist white people passed civil rights legislation to enforce the 15th amendment. And then a bunch of old, prejudiced white men ruled against “separate but equal” in Brown v Board of Education.

They didn’t think black people were “equal” in anatomical fact. It was just immoral and unconstitutional to withhold some of their citizenship rights. If they stepped out of their “place” punishment would still be swift and severe. (“All they understand is violence. You have to be firm with them.”) Yet, even those bigots thought Jim Crow was so morally vile they tried to get rid of some of it.

Slavery poisons everything it touches.

“Black people are only almost human. Not the actual thing.”

That is the rationalization that kept slavery going, is the same rationalization that allows the police to terrorize black communities today. That same rationalization distracts white people from doing much, if anything, to prevent or fix the problem.

When the inferior race asks for some privilege enjoyed by the superior race the idea is slightly shocking. The Jim Crow fans think those rights belong to them and not to you black people because we’re white and you’re not. Quod erat demonstrandum.

The media focus on violence and looting is grounded in Jim Crow. (“Did you expect better from people who are only almost human? Violence is all they understand.”)

The poison of Jim Crow is a poison as deadly as that of slavery. Even non-JC fans are thinking … well, I can’t hold with all the violence. The police are going to have to crack down. All they understand is violence. It’s a pity …

Even white people who don’t really get the Jim Crow thing still feel black people are inferior. Not all, but, I fear, most. It’s not an expressed feeling, not even conscious. Certainly not discussed! But absolutely definite. When the inferior race asks for some privilege enjoyed by the superior race there’s always a bit of tension, hesitation. I’ve watched that hesitation melt away over the years. White people more and more are saying “maybe we should do something.”

Yeah, that would be nice.

And that stupid flag

Obviously, the flag of slavers and terrorists (and traitors) is intended to remind black people of their inferiority. Jim Crow swims in the muck at the bottom of 8chan. It drives all white supremacy.

That flag has nothing to do with a proud heritage and everything to do with slavery and the continued subjugation of the descendants of slaves. Jim Crow enthusiasts make people, even to this day, miserable because they are humiliated by the suggestion that sub-humans are equal to them. (And not just equal, genetically, virtually identical.)

Okay, white people

Unfortunately, the “nice” white people get warmed by Jim Crow’s fire as well.

It allows police killings and rampant discrimination to be “their problem.” “It’s a black problem.” “I know we broke it but unfortunately it’s up to you to fix it.” “I invite black colleagues to all my cocktail parties!”

When “liberal” white people hear about the blatant murder of a black person they are sad and frustrated and they write a check to the NAACP.

Donations are much appreciated, but here’s a bucket. That’s a drop.

What can white people do?

How about joining your fellow Americans in those public protests? Or organizing one? It is very helpful for white people to be involved. You need to mix as many white people into a protest as possible. Although it’s not a hundred percent, by any means, police and other white people who view blacks as subhuman will hesitate to attack or injure another white person.

For Jim Crow worshipers black people are just cattle out of their pen. (“You just need to knock a few heads together. If you kill a few that’s okay.”)

Injuring a white person might carry some consequences. So they hesitate. White people can use their whiteness as a shield for other Americans who are very much like them in every possible way.

It’s THEIR problem

“It’s a black problem, not mine.” Most white people, before cell phones anyway, didn’t know how different the police behave toward black people. They don’t know what gerrymandered districts do to them. They don’t know why felons can’t vote. Or why we started the “drug war.” They don’t know about the terror campaign that kept black people from voting for more than a hundred years after they were extended the privilege. They don’t know that barring felons from voting has the same effect. Strip voting rights from everyone you can, and that, along with racially gerrymandered districts, achieves the same effect as a handful of lynchings and dozen klansman guarding the polling place. Even today, poll watchers are nearly all supporters of Jim Crow.

If black people are manipulated in such a way as to bar them from voting effectively, it’s Jim Crow. The 15th Amendment doesn’t exist and the Klan might as well be riding in the streets.

These Jim Crow systems can only be dismantled with white help.

If it looks like a duck

If your town is zoned so all affordable housing is relegated to a few districts, that’s redlining. The effect is that most black people are shoved into a ghetto. It’s illegal for realtors to steer black people into black areas, but they don’t need to. This is how we get redlining in 2020.

It looks like a duck to me and quacks just like Jim Crow.

We need some white people pushing to change the zoning laws. The white Jim Crow enthusiasts will complain about their falling property values and crime rates (expectations based on the obvious inferiority of black people) but if only black people push for it, even in the minds of more “woke” white people it would be “a black problem.”

More quacking

K through 12 schools are all funded locally. If black people are packed into a few poor neighborhoods, their schools will get inadequate funding. The system mimics “separate but equal” so perfectly it cannot be a coincidence.

Very few white people have ever given it a thought or made the connection. It’s how Jim Crow keeps his poison bubbling in the veins of people who don’t think they are racist. (“Of course, they have poor schools. They live in a poor district. End of conversation.”)

If the idea of “redlining” or “separate but equal’’ makes your stomach heave then you and your stomach need to do something about it.

Nothing will change until schools are funded more broadly. White school districts are going to have to start the ball rolling. Otherwise, it just becomes another black problem that white people can ignore without feeling bad about it

So look around, white people, if it looks like a duck. It might be Jim Crow.

And don’t take any crap about somebody’s Proud and Glorious Southern Heritage.

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Susan Cogan wears a lot of different hats but she is primarily a writer. She is the author of more than a dozen books and hundreds of articles and blog posts. She is also a CTI-trained life coach, Buddhist, artist, wife, and body servant to three cats.

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