The Secret Course on Whiteness (1676?- ) is the imagined course where many White Americans learn to talk and act amazingly alike in ways that cannot be accounted for by the public, mainstream culture.
- I call it a course because so many of them will say the same thing, word for word, like they are talking from a script that they learned somewhere.
- I call it secret because it is not part of the public culture. Somehow it gets passed down through the white vernacular culture.
This comes out most clearly in their racism since many are markedly more racist than the public culture. Some of it can be pieced together. Click on the links if you want to know more about a particular piece:
- “Some of my best friends are black!” It is utterly amazing that white people say this with a straight face. You would think this was laughed to shame back in 1968 or something.
- “I am not racist but…” That will fool them!
- Cluelessness and Advanced Cluelessness.
- How to apologize like a white person.
- Derailing. The point in talking about race is not to understand or know the truth but to “win” the argument at all costs. If you “lose”, just keep repeating your point – like a sheep bleating.
- The feelings of white people are more important than the truth.
- Dichotomous thinking:
- Teflon Theory of History: Anything that took place over 30 years ago is Ancient History.
- Different is bad: The only reason anyone would not be like a middle-class White American, both culturally and biologically, is because there is Something Wrong With Them.
- Basically Good – what white people are, but blacks are not. Blacks do bad stuff “because they’re black”. The evening news proves it! On the other hand, whatever most white people do or say or turn a blind eye to must be all right – or at least Not That Bad.
- Not All Whites: Any statement about “white people” is about “all white people”, even if it uses the word “some” or “many” (a cheap, underhanded trick).
- Whites are not uniquely evil! Point this out even if no one said otherwise.
- Purple people
- The R-word: It is way worse to be called a racist than to be one.
- The N-word: It is a huge burden to have to show blacks respect by not saying it.
- “Blacks are racist too!” They are just as bad as whites, if not worse.
- Everything you need to know about slavery:
- Arabs traded slaves!
- Africans sold their own people into slavery!
- Slavery is universal.
- Most white people did not own slaves.
- Whites ended slavery! What kind-hearted people they must be!
- It was the times!
- Get over it!
- The Irish were slaves too!
- WWGD – What would Genghis do? How to properly judge history.
- Quoting MLK. I thought there were three quotes they all had to learn by heart but there is only one: the “content of their character” one. The words of a great civil rights leader are used to silence any observations about white racism! How cool is that?
Thanks to Ankhesen Mié for her writings on drones, particularly the first link under “See also”, which I unconsciously modelled this post on.
– Abagond, 2011, 2015.
See also:
- At the Bar: Contemplating “White American Individuality” – a similar post by Ankhesen Mié
- whites are individuals
- colour-blind racism – the most common kind of racism among White Americans in the 2010s.
- How to become white
- Genghis Khan
LMAO! I used to think I’d have to locate the cloning facility like Kenobi due to all the rehashed talking points I kept hearing, racial or otherwise. I must be running into the Appalachia edition: a mess full of mish-mash…o_@
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Reminds me of my post on drones/lemmings/sheeple.
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You can add this to your links:
http://www.notracistbut.com/
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Well, in case of “my best friends are black”, how often do people ask whether said black friends happen to be human, you may not know it yet, but some “black hair” products seem to work great on (black) horses as well, and even cheaper than special black horse products, I’m dead serious, so if you meet a type 1 haired woman interested in black hair care, it might be just that…
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Another good one! I especially like the links you provided. This reminds me of something that happened in my office. A co-worker decided to decorate her cubicle for Holloween. Her ghastly decor included cut-outs of various carving utensiles, splatters of blood (made of paper), spooky facial images, and a tightly woven noose. Many were so offended by the noose, the director asked her to take it down due to numerous complaints. However, many others didn’t see the big deal and thought the complainers were being overly sensitive. Though I did not think she meant any malice with the noose (I could be wrong), I was offended that she became offended when asked to remove it. Her “cluelessness” was incomprehensible.
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@ Ankhesen:
My apologies. While this is a post I have wanted to write for at least two years, I was reading your blog just before I wrote it and looking back I now see that I unconsciously modelled it on this one in particular:
http://www.ankhesen-mie.net/2011/07/contemplating-white-american.html
I updated the post to give you credit.
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We have a common enemy. We can work together to get what we both want. I’ll leave you with a video.
The Jewish Role in the African Slave Trade – Lecture by Dr Tony Martin (Black guy)
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The only common enemy is the white man, but he has certainly done a good job of deflecting interest from himself. As long as the POC fight amongst themselves, they won’t come together to recognize the real problem. Even better is the rich, white man using poor whites as an insulator. So we all fight for resources and opportunities and blame each other, while the root of the problem goes unfettered.
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@wanpimao
“The only common enemy is the white man, but he has certainly done a good job of deflecting interest from himself.”
lol, the personal accountablity crowd needs to be renamed “unrelenting hypocrisy from us personal accountablity for everybody else”
Here’s a qoute befitting guys like panazi:
“Beware the beast man, for he is the devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport, or lust or greed. Yes, he will murder his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair: For he is the harbinger of death.”
The Twenty-third Scroll, Ninth Verse, “Planet Of The Apes” 🙂
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wanpimao,
That’s a good site, but it hasn’t been updated for weeks now.
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i’ve done alot of thinking lately and I want to say this……………………..I love black people
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Great post.
This makes me think of the book “Racism Without Racists” by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva. Most of the book is about breaking down the “scripts” white people use and identifying what circumstances cause them to deploy the scripts. And you’re right, it really does almost seem like they had to be taught because they use these scripts so similarly.
Here’s a great quote from the book (p. 53, typos mine):
“Subscribing to an ideology is like wearing a piece of clothing. When you wear it, you also wear a certain style, a certain fashion, a certain way of presenting yourself to the world. The style of an ideology refers to its peculiar linguistic manners or rhetorical strategies (or race talk), to the technical tools that allow users to articulate its frames and story lines. As such, the style of an ideology is the thread used to join pieces of fabric into garments.”
What gets me is how weird it seems to me that they think they can get away with saying and doing these things over and over. For example, “some of my best friends are”, really, don’t they know this is the butt of jokes? It’s like in their racial and rhetorical insecurity they forget and robotically trot out the same old lines. And they do this whether it’s a big racism debate or something minor. If race comes up at all, whites reflexively start to use the script. For example, one of the women in Bonilla-Silva’s study is asked the basic question, “have you ever dated a racial minority”. It’s a yes or no question. She answers “no” but then has to defensively bring up “but I think one of my best friends is black”. This account always makes me laugh, you don’t even know if you have a black friend but, maybe? Well, whether the friend is really black or not, they’re “black enough” to bring up as a “but one of my best friends….” deflection.
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Loving the post Abagond,
It encapulates much in terms of the thinking behind one poster that I have been posting back and forth with recently only that person has yet (if ever) to reach the ‘epiphany’ stage and ‘recognise’ themselves as all of the above (though I doubt they would deny ‘identifying’ with some of the comments unashamedly).
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You forgot about “I don’t care if you’re purple!” lol.
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Great post again! 😀
#11 is my favorite. Nothing like Genghis Khan!
And here is a short guide to the white talk:
“Hey, you might be poor here, but there are much poorer people in the world.”
= I don’t care.
“You think you have it bad? Think about all those people who were killed in Auschwitz/by general warfare/in roman circuses.”
= I don’t care.
“I am not responsible of your situation, every man creates his own destiny!”
= I don’t care.
“You could do much better if you were not so negative!”
= I don’t care.
“Racism today is nothing like it used to be!” (I have actually heard this one :D!)
= I wish it was.
“If blacks are so good, why they don’t just get up and do something?”
= I do not care.
“If you stop whining, somebody might listen you.”
= I am not listening.
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It sounds to me like black people are frustrated because we have not been able to honestly talk about race in this country. The internet is changing that and there are a lot of white people who are now willing to discuss race and related issues.
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@ Lara-
“It sounds to me like black people are frustrated because we have not been able to honestly talk about race in this country. The internet is changing that and there are a lot of white people who are now willing to discuss race and related issues.”
Black people are frustrated because racism interferes with our equitable pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Black people want to abolish the system of racism white supremacy.
White people want to discuss race and race related issues…that’s all they want to do, and then not seriously at that!
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I agree that many white people are reluctant to discuss race, it makes them uncomfortable and they think black people are just going to get angry. I think you guys should be grateful for the white people who are willing to discuss race in good faith even if you don’t always like what they say.
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@ Lara-
What benefit is there for non-white people to engage in discussions of racism with WP? Absolutely none. You have proven that.
“I think you guys should be grateful for the white people who are willing to discuss race in good faith even if you don’t always like what they say.”
Perfect example of posted topic. Add that to the list.
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@ Lara
” I think you guys should be grateful for the white people who are willing to discuss race in good faith even if you don’t always like what they say.”
Just like we should be grateful for white people deciding that they shouldnt own us as property anymore (slavery)?
Just like we should be grateful for whites deciding to a stop lynching black men and raping black women at will (civil rights)?
You really got to love the rational of people like Lara…..
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“What benefit is there for non-white people to engage in discussions of racism with WP? Absolutely none. You have proven that.”
Many black people I know don’t seem interested in discussing race and would rather just live their lives, I’m fine with that. I don’t push the issue with people who aren’t interested.
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@Lara-
“Many black people I know don’t seem interested in discussing race and would rather just live their lives, I’m fine with that. I don’t push the issue with people who aren’t interested.”
Maybe they just aren’t interested in discussing race with you!
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“raping black women at will”
I’ve brought this up on some BWE blogs and they don’t want to hear it.
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@ Lara
“I’ve brought this up on some BWE blogs and they don’t want to hear it.”
No Lara, they dont want to hear you and you lame excuses and derailing arguments concerning White Supermacy.
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@Lara
I think you guys should be grateful for the white people who are willing to discuss race in good faith even if you don’t always like what they say.
Gratitude! I’m on my knees Lara…………………………..laughing so hard at your comment. I’m sure you think that you are some kind of Messiah who ‘deigns’ to grace this blog with your so called white POV.
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@Bulanik
@Demerera
There is even a weekend residential course for white women:
Abagond points out:
“In my own experience White American women are by far the hardest to talk to about racism. Even if you get past all their defences and they believe what you are saying, they act like they are going to cry. So you either stop or you push on and are made to look mean and heartless.”
I think you have to be at intermediary level to go on it though…..
LMAO
I have seen this with my very own eyes, the crocodile tears, the drama when they these females feel they have been unjustly ‘wronged’ Those big bad Black people tut tut – how dare they have their own mind/opinions and voice them in such an articulate way 😉
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“So you either stop or you push on and are made to look mean and heartless.”
Many white women are very feminine and don’t like confrontation. I tend to have a thicker skin than most so you would have to be really mean to make me cry.
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The feeding continues…
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This post and similar posts on this blog are so on point it’s scary.
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“I agree that many white people are reluctant to discuss race, it makes them uncomfortable and they think black people are just going to get angry. I think you guys should be grateful for the white people who are willing to discuss race in good faith even if you don’t always like what they say.
Many black people I know don’t seem interested in discussing race and would rather just live their lives, I’m fine with that. I don’t push the issue with people who aren’t interested.”
Maaaaan, my head hurts!
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Lara said
“Many white women are very feminine and don’t like confrontation. I tend to have a thicker skin than most so you would have to be really mean to make me cry.”
Oh please, Many white females do this to be manipulative. Many of them are deceivers. I know that trick to well. It was the same trick that had many innocent black men and even females hanging from trees.
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@brothawolf: 😀
Maybe we are approaching lara the wrong way here? We all think that she is either incredible stupid but serious, or a troll. But perhaps she is a comedian? You know, pointing us how white american woman really thinks, when she is a “good person”?
@Nana: I am a white man and I can tell from personal experience that white women are very crafty in their racism because they usually are socially skillfull. But under that facade, whuuwhee, they make David Duke look like MLK. Ok, not all of them but many more than one would believe. I have even heard one white woman say this: “I wanted to fuck that n***** because he is such an animal.” And yes, this was a woman who was in a relationship with that black man who had no clue about this. Eventually they divorced.
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In my own experience White American women are by far the hardest to talk to about racism
I guess ‘Lara’ puts paid to that notion! ‘She’ is the exception, hahahaha!!
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“It was the same trick that had many innocent black men and even females hanging from trees.”
I’ve never heard of even one case where a black woman was lynched because of something a white woman said. Because many white men don’t see it as their job to fight our battles for us most of the time they will stay out of a confrontation between two females.
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@Lara
You do not need to hear about it, you only need to read about it, Lara.
Actually reading is a more effective method for collecting information than just waiting for the information to slowly crawl its way toward your right or left ear just so you could process it.
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Please you guys. Enough is enough. Please don’t encourage this Lara person.
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@ Hey Now:
Oh yes, purple people! I added that to the post. Thanks!
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I agree with this post. Most white Americans, seem to think they are not racist, but the few times I read comments on stories in uber “liberal” Huffington Post on stories which feature black people or other people from predominantly non-white areas from around the world (90% of them negative), I am often disgusted and amazed on the racist comments that follow.
Call them racist at your own peril. I did that once….boy, the comments in reply were unbelievable to me because I was on HuffPost not Fox News.
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This is the absolute truth. I get really annoyed at some of the idiots on the internet, and everything they say comes across like reading from a play script. Do they rehearse?
And @Lara “grateful”? Wtf- I hope you’re just a troll.
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Or better yet, they aren’t racist, but they do have a racist “insert nearest dearest family member” and yet they themselves are blind to racism. #appledoesntfallfarfromthetree :p
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Basically Good – what white people are, but blacks are not. Blacks do bad stuff “because they’re black”. The evening news proves it!
Yip – That good old stereotyping and generalising prevails. Seen and ‘heard’ examples of this sooooo often. When its pointed out to the said individual, they are incredulous that you cant understand/see what they are saying – but they’re not narrow minded and certainly NOT racist!!!!
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“When its pointed out to the said individual, they are incredulous that you cant understand/see what they are saying”
Is it possible that white people just see they world differently than black people do?
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For instance the two examples of racism written about here the other day did not seem like racism to me. I appreciate people taking the time to tell me, but I just didn’t see it.
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@Lara
Is it possible that white people just see they world differently than black people do?
Give me your so called ‘white’ take on why this would be? Be aware though that I will only listen to ‘real’ life examples rather than generalisations….
@Lara
For instance the two examples of racism written about here the other day did not seem like racism to me. I appreciate people taking the time to tell me, but I just didn’t see it.
Before you go on any further Lara, I think it is high time that you gave your definition of racism so that it is clear where you are coming from and how you have come about your understanding of this going forward…..
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This whole white people are the devil thing is getting old. It must be AA thing or something. I just find alot of articles to be just as bias as a white racist. Both black and white people do the same things.I seriously can’t decide who says more self-serving crap. Replace gay and any culture outside of AA culture, it’s the same thing with black. I don’t know where W.African/AA get this I’m special and should never be respondible for my actions. This year, a black man jumped on me and beat the living hell out of me because my kind doesn’t belong. It wasn’t the first I gotten harassed, by both white/black americans. I’m so sick of hearing, “No, it’s not my fault. My group is perfect” Abagond, I also pissed that North/East African/Fula?Berber people are rarely mentioned. You have no women of that descent on your lists. But you got the nerve to write how Egpyt is so black. I guess we’re only important if white people deem us to. How is your West Africans are the true blacks, any different from Neo-nazis and their perfect Aryans. This has made delete my bookmark from this site. It’s slowing becoming a pity party.
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To sum up the article. White people are bad……………………………
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I have a pretty hard time talking about racism to black and white Americans. I find Latinos, Middle Eastern, Somali, and indigenous peoples easier to talk to. It’s hard to explain my experiences to people I don’t have a personal connection with.
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@ Usagi:
If you approach black Americans – or anyone, for that matter – with the same kind of closed mind and dismissive stereotypes that you apply to this blog, then yes, you will have a hard time. You cannot expect people to listen to you if you do not LISTEN to them.
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“If you approach black Americans – or anyone, for that matter – with the same kind of closed mind and dismissive stereotypes that you apply to this blog, then yes, you will have a hard time. You cannot expect people to listen to you if you do not LISTEN to them.”
THANK YOU!
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Whatever. I’ve read about 95 percent of your articles and I still feel the same. I do understand history, but if you were faced with the exact same bias from both groups, it’s hard to take anyone seriously. I believe Americans, in general, have a distorted view on race, religion or subcultures. I probably read about 20 articles before I even started commenting. I don’t get and I’ll never will. I don’t understand why you fell ONLY and ONLY white folks act this way. From my personal experiences, it’s not. Maybe by examine similar problems in different communities can help get to the root of the problem.
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This is not what the world is coming too. This is what the world is leaving behind!
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@ Usagi
Going by your comments on this thread, you have seriously misread this blog. But given how dismissive you seem to be of what other people say or think I am not surprised.
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Love this post! It is very educating and enlightening!
1. Guilty…I have actually said this verbatim.
2. Guilty…I have actually said this verbatim.
3. Guilty…I have been clueless but was not told it was racist and I remained clueless until I read your blogs.
4. Guilty…I have apologized and accused of misunderstanding and left it at that.
5. Guilty…See #4
6. Guilty…See #4
7. Guilty…I have used…”Not all whites”, “Purple people”, and “The r word”.
8. Not Guilty…I have always felt that it was a horrible word and would never use it. I never felt it to be a burden not to.
9. Guilty…I have said “Black people are just as racist as white people.” before I realized my encounters were much less than white racist encounters.
10. Guilty…I have thought or said…2. verbatim, 5. “there were white people back then that were against slavery”, “Not everyone back then were racist”
11. Not familiar with this one…will look into it more before I plead.
12. Not Guilty.
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[…] The Secret Course on Whiteness […]
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I thought of this post when I read this comic strip: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/03-answers-in-hennessy/perfect-for-each-other/
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