It was good to see Joe Biden address the issue, but there is more he needs to know, says writer and broadcaster Nels Abbey
To hear Joe Biden address the issue is heartening, but there is more he needs to know about how norms affect our livesto Howard University, a historically Black higher learning institution, he offered a forthright perspective on white supremacy. “On the best days, enough of us have the guts and the hearts to stand up for the best in us. To choose love over hate, unity over disunion, progress over retreat.
The problem is that it doesn’t do Black people the favours he may think. Biden defined white supremacy in terms with which society is now most comfortable: a phenomenon on extreme, unhinged, uncouth and often violent fringes. That may be a form in which he sees it evident in the US. All countries are different; manifestations vary. But here’s the thing: most Black people who use the term define and view white supremacy quite differently.
To us, white supremacy is not just an armed white man with a swastika tattooed on his forehead. It is the 1994 juxtaposed with the Anti-drug Abuse Act of 1986 – which together led to the mass incarceration of, principally, Black men. It also explains the enormous sentencing disparity between powder cocaine and cheaper crack cocaine, which was more widely available in poorer and predominantly Black communities.
White supremacy is not just a klansman burning a cross, it is the fact that no one was held liable for the horrors inflicted on the people of Iraq. If the victims of the Iraq war were white, it is hard to believe that the architects of the assault would be on BBC Radio 4 opining on the issues of the day.
Jordan Neely, who was choked to death on the New York subway on 1 May 2023. He is pictured with his aunt Carolyn.
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