"Feel like this is somewhat of a simplification. What you are describing is more of an ascendence on the economic ladder and larger cyclical trends. Black families having the disposable income to spend on the training and classes, etc. for gymnasts. Vietnamese immigrants undercutting complacent fisherman (it's difficult to compete with someone who isn't trying to live a middle class lifestyle)."
- No. Not so long ago (and to an extent, even today), it didn't matter how much money a Black person had, if the white person didn't want them to join in. I'm reminded of Oprah Winfrey's experience in Switzerland where a white woman working in a purse store obviously didn't recognize the billionaire, and refused to allow her to examine a certain purse, saying, "I'm sorry, but you can't afford it."
And when it comes to immigrants, I know the immigrant community very well indeed, and I can assure you that while they do know better than most Americans how not to waste money, they want that "middle-class lifestyle" even more than most Americans do.
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"Which is kind of funny because the argument of lazy, complacent whites enjoying a declining supremacy and failing to compete is based upon the Protestant Work Ethic which is probably the supreme white supremacy."
It's not at all based on the "protestant work ethic". The same ethic can be found in pretty much every culture on the planet. Cultures and religions may be wildly different, but people are generally the same, with the same range of personalities, all over the world.
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"Sorry to be a pest about this but there's a very definite reason the term white supremacy was only really used by half witted rednecks and klansmen trying to take credit for centuries of progress to hide their own short comnings."
The terms used were different, but such racial superiority was the assumption for centuries, even in Europe as America was just beginning to be settled.
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"It's imprecise and highly charged. It's more suited to propaganda than discussion. Often the term is applied to society at large where it is simply the case that institutions reflect and respond to the majority of persons which in the US is currently white people."
I don't know about you, but I grew up racist, in a racist family, in a deeply racist society (MS Delta). Two things to bear in mind: (1) when pretty much the entire white population lives and breathes racism, it's not just propaganda, but mandatory dogma. And that is no exaggeration. (2) Most people don't even realize they're racist. We didn't think we were, either. Racism doesn't require malicious attacks or hateful public proclamations - all it requires are untoward assumptions about those of another race or ethnicity.
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"Yes. This can be to the detriment of minority groups and often is but ascribing a broad and overarching intent to any and every institution without offering evidence specific to those institutions is intellectually dishonest."
- Did you ever ask yourself why police brutality tends to happen so much more often with Black people than with whites? Hopefully you're not one of those who assumes it's because Black people are somehow naturally more violent. But here's a clue: it's not because each and every cop is a racist hating on Black people (though some certainly do). It's because the *culture* of state law enforcement unknowingly imparts upon its police the perception that "Hey - those Black people, watch out for them!"
You've got a choice - you can believe that (1) minorities are somehow so different from white people that of course they get in more trouble with the law, or (2) maybe, just maybe they aren't bulls**tting you about the racism they face every day of their lives, and that - along with the resultant poverty and lack of education - is the cause of the disparity in the numbers.
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"Often, laws and institutions are used to control and manipulate people on the basis of class and economic status rather than strictly racial lines. Calling this white supremacy hides the economic and class supremacy that is truly the source of peoples oppression and immiseration."
Google "segregation academies". I attended one, an all-white school in an 80%-Black town. The implementation of the segregation academy system was pushed by U.S. Senator James O. Eastland, a family acquaintance down in the Delta - he lived not far down the road from us. He offered to get me into the Naval Academy, and for some reason I refused. But he started the segregation academy system in protest against Brown v. Board of Education.
Eastland, by the way, was twice president pro tem, and for a generation was the most powerful racist in America, much more so than Georgia Gov. George Wallace of "Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" infamy. BTW, many of those politicians in office in the Deep South are the sons and daughters of those who so hatefully opposed civil rights. Oh, they won't say it publicly, but get them to trust you and talk to them away from recording devices, you'll find out just how little their attitudes have changed.
So please don't tell me that institutional racism is somehow a myth. I've lived it, been a part of it, committed it, and after learning how wrong it is, spent many years wondering just how I had never seen what is so obvious now.
