White supremacy is the ideology driving race based oppression in the U S. It is a comprehensive belief system that shapes the lives and livelihoods of whites and people of color alike. White supremacy asserts the inherent superiority of white people over all other races, most specially the descendants of enslaved Africans. And that is deeply embedded and the social and economic fabric of all white settler states, making it a global phenomenon. White supremacy is anchored to the discredited concept of races, a social construct emerging in the late 17th century. First to define the legal status of individuals viewed as property. Later as pseudo scientific categories, justifying the kidnapping, exploitation, murder, and dispossession of enslaved Africans and displaced Native Americans. Tales of courage and sacrifice made by white settlers, white soldiers and white statement who carved civilization from an empty baron and hostile wilderness are central to the origin myth of all white settler states.

That said, what we now call white privilege is best understood as a social relationship based on the cumulative unearned advantages afforded most whites as a birthright against the cumulative, disadvantages and burdens, and on most blacks and many other people of color. These conditions are rooted in asymmetries of power, bait into the nations of founding documents institutions, culture and habits of mind.

Today’s access to the benefits of whiteness is no longer rooted exclusively in skin color. Indeed, even some people of color, especially lighter skin ones, can secure a level of entry into white America by actively distancing themselves from American born, blacks, indigenous and other people of color and embracing dominant white cultural norms and values.

Still, the darker ones skin, the harder it is to access quality housing, healthcare, education, and living wage jobs with benefits. The ability to fully exercise white privilege is still mediated by one social economic class and a capitalist social order. In other words, a white person might be spared the dangerous and indignities of racial profiling, routine brutalization by police and the courts and most forms of discrimination.

But access to the full range of privileges and opportunities afforded white elites remain beyond their grasp. The genius of white supremacy ideology lies in its ability to redirect the anger and frustration of poor whites onto scapegoated, people of color, LBGTQI folks, Jewish Catholics, immigrants, and other marginalized groups throughout history.