201-533: White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine of scientific racism and was a key justification for European colonialism . As a political ideology , it imposes and maintains cultural, social , political , historical or institutional domination by white people and non-white supporters. In
402-458: A "scientific" theory of white superiority and black inferiority . One such slave owner, future president Thomas Jefferson , wrote in 1785 that blacks were "inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind." In the antebellum South , four million slaves were denied freedom. The outbreak of the Civil War saw the desire to uphold white supremacy being cited as a cause for state secession and
603-691: A White or West Eurasian race among a small set of human races and imputed physical, mental, or aesthetic superiority to this White category. These ideas were discredited by twentieth-century scientists. In 1758, Carl Linnaeus proposed what he considered to be natural taxonomic categories of the human species. He distinguished between Homo sapiens and Homo sapiens europaeus , and he later added four geographical subdivisions of humans: white Europeans , red Americans , yellow Asians and black Africans . Although Linnaeus intended them as objective classifications, his descriptions of these groups included cultural patterns and derogatory stereotypes. In 1775,
804-572: A racial designation," and that the replacement of White with yellow as a description came through pseudoscientific discourse. A three-part racial scheme in color terms was used in seventeenth-century Latin America under Spanish rule. Irene Silverblatt traces "race thinking" in South America to the social categories of colonialism and state formation : "White, black, and brown are abridged, abstracted versions of colonizer, slave, and colonized." By
1005-634: A Nordic admixture and suitable for Aryanization . In the United States, the groups most associated with the white-supremacist movement are the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Nations , and the White American Resistance movement, all of which are also considered to be antisemitic . The Proud Boys , despite claiming non-association with white supremacy, have been described in academic contexts as being such. Many white-supremacist groups are based on
1206-567: A Reconstruction belief that the government could protect civil and political rights . In the American Civil War , eleven Southern states, all of which permitted slavery , seceded from the United States following the election of Lincoln to the presidency and formed the Confederate States of America . Though Lincoln initially declared secession "legally void" and declined to negotiate with Confederate delegates to Washington, following
1407-521: A White race or pan-European identity. The term "White race" or "White people", defined by their light skin among other physical characteristics, entered the major European languages in the later seventeenth century, when the concept of a "unified White" achieved greater acceptance in Europe , in the context of racialized slavery and social status in the European colonies. Scholarship on race distinguishes
1608-496: A black man raped, assaulted, talked to or glanced at them. The Tulsa race massacre , the destruction of Black Wall Street, was spurred by an incident between a white female elevator operator and a black man. As the Oklahoma Historical Society points out, the most common explanation is that he stepped on her toe. As many as 300 people were killed because of it. The torture and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955,
1809-702: A black man, a bird-watcher, that she was going to call the police and tell them that he was threatening her life. The Tuskegee Institute has estimated that 3,446 blacks were the victims of lynchings in the United States between 1882 and 1968, with the peak occurring in the 1890s at a time of economic stress in the South and increasing political suppression of blacks. If 1,297 whites were also lynched during this period, blacks were disproportionally targeted, representing 72.7% of all people lynched. According to scholar Amy L. Wood, "lynching photographs constructed and perpetuated white supremacist ideology by creating permanent images of
2010-576: A broad array of institutions and social settings. White people White is a racial classification of people generally used for those of mostly European ancestry . It is also a skin color specifier, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, ethnicity and point of view. Description of populations as "White" in reference to their skin color is occasionally found in Greco-Roman ethnography and other ancient or medieval sources, but these societies did not have any notion of
2211-551: A change in skin color. Similarly, the Rigveda uses krsna tvac "black skin" as a metaphor for irreligiosity. Ancient Egyptians, Mycenaean Greeks and Minoans generally depicted women as having pale or white skin while men were depicted as dark brown or tanned. As a result, men with pale or light skin, leukochrōs (λευκόχρως, "white-skinned") could be considered weak and effeminate by Ancient Greek writers such as Plato and Aristotle . According to Aristotle "Those whose skin
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#17328983972452412-575: A coalition of freedmen, supportive white Southerners , and Northern transplants . They were opposed by " Redeemers ," who sought to restore white supremacy and reestablish the Democratic Party 's control of Southern governments and society. Violent groups, including the Ku Klux Klan , the White League , and the Red Shirts , engaged in paramilitary insurgency and terrorism to disrupt the efforts of
2613-639: A collective and an individual level ( ceteris paribus , i. e. , when individuals are compared that do not differ relevantly except in ethnicity). Legal scholar Frances Lee Ansley explains this definition as follows: By "white supremacy" I do not mean to allude only to the self-conscious racism of white supremacist hate groups . I refer instead to a political, economic and cultural system in which whites overwhelmingly control power and material resources, conscious and unconscious ideas of white superiority and entitlement are widespread, and relations of white dominance and non-white subordination are daily reenacted across
2814-776: A component of Reconstruction, the Interior Department ordered a meeting of representatives from all Indian tribes who had affiliated with the Confederacy. The council, the Southern Treaty Commission , was first held in Fort Smith, Arkansas in September 1865, and was attended by hundreds of Native Americans representing dozens of tribes. Over the next several years the commission negotiated treaties with tribes that resulted in additional re-locations to Indian Territory and
3015-438: A controlled white citizenry juxtaposed to images of helpless and powerless black men." White supremacy has also played a part in U.S. school curriculum. Over the course of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries, material across the spectrum of academic disciplines has been taught with a heavy emphasis on white culture, contributions, and experiences, and a lack of representation of non-white groups' perspectives and accomplishments. In
3216-472: A definite Scottish influence in that region, while the Canterbury Association recruited settlers from the south of England, creating a definite English influence over that region. In the 1870s, MP Julius Vogel borrowed millions of pounds from Britain to help fund capital development such as a nationwide rail system, lighthouses, ports, and bridges, and encouraged mass migration from Britain. By 1870
3417-559: A devastating economic and material impact on the South, where most combat occurred. The enormous cost of the Confederate war effort took a high toll on the region's economic infrastructure. The direct costs in human capital , government expenditures, and physical destruction totaled $ 3.3 billion. By early 1865, the Confederate dollar had nearly zero value, and the Southern banking system
3618-590: A low of $ 80 in 1879. By the end of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, the South was locked into a system of poverty. How much of this failure was caused by the war and by previous reliance on slavery remains the subject of debate among economists and historians. In both the North and South, modernization and industrialization were the focus of the post-war recovery, built on the growth of cities, railroads, factories, and banks and led by Radical Republicans and former Whigs. From its origins, questions existed as to
3819-490: A lynching actually, occurred because a white woman said that he "grabbed her and was menacing and sexually crude toward her". This practice, this exercise in racial extremism has been dragged into the modern era through the weaponizing of 9-1-1, often by white women, to invoke the power and force of the police who they are fully aware are hostile to black men. This was again evident when a white woman in New York's Central Park told
4020-405: A math problem in a 19th-century textbook read, "If 5 white men can do as much work as 7 negroes..." implying that white men are more industrious and competent than black men (p. 99). In addition, little to nothing was taught about black Americans' contributions, or their histories before being brought to U.S. soil as slaves. According to Wayne (1972), this approach was taken especially much after
4221-783: A policy of "malice toward none" announced in his second inaugural address, Lincoln asked voters only to support the Union in the future, regardless of the past. Lincoln pocket vetoed the Wade–Davis Bill, which was much more strict than the ten percent plan. Following Lincoln's veto, the Radicals lost support but regained strength after Lincoln's assassination in April 1865. Upon President Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, Vice President Andrew Johnson became president. Radicals considered Johnson to be an ally, but upon becoming president, he rejected
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#17328983972454422-684: A professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee : Before the age of exploration, group differences were largely based on language, religion, and geography. ... the European had always reacted a bit hysterically to the differences of skin color and facial structure between themselves and the populations encountered in Africa, Asia, and the Americas (see, for example, Shakespeare's dramatization of racial conflict in Othello and The Tempest ). Beginning in
4623-507: A racial or social grouping, from a diverse and often conflicting range of political and cultural perspectives; in anti-racism activism in France, from right-wing political dialogue or propaganda, and other sources. Whites in France have been studied with regard the group's historical involvement in French colonialism ; how "whites in France have played a major international role in colonizing areas of
4824-533: A racist faction of the skinhead subculture , despite the fact that when the skinhead culture first developed in the United Kingdom in the late 1960s, it was heavily influenced by black fashions and music , especially Jamaican reggae and ska , and African American soul music . White-supremacist recruitment activities are primarily conducted at a grassroots level as well as on the Internet. Widespread access to
5025-459: A result believed "that the war would be in no way different from having to fight with women." Classicist James H. Dee states "the Greeks do not describe themselves as 'White people' – or as anything else because they had no regular word in their color vocabulary for themselves." People's skin color did not carry useful meaning; what mattered is where they lived. Herodotus described
5226-437: A result, a system of sharecropping was developed, in which landowners broke up large plantations and rented small lots to the freedmen and their families. Thus, the main structure of the Southern economy changed from an elite minority of landed gentry slaveholders into a tenant farming agriculture system. Historian David W. Blight identified three visions of the social implications of Reconstruction: The Civil War had
5427-610: A shift towards greater use of White as a legal category alongside a hardening of restrictions on free or Christian blacks. White remained a more familiar term in the American colonies than in Britain well into the 1700s, according to historian Theodore W. Allen . Western studies of race and ethnicity in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries developed into what would later be termed scientific racism . Prominent European pseudoscientists writing about human and natural difference included
5628-405: A social system in which white people enjoy structural advantages ( privilege ) over other ethnic groups, on both a collective and individual level, despite formal legal equality. White supremacy has ideological foundations that date back to 17th-century scientific racism , the predominant paradigm of human variation that helped shape international relations and racial policy from the latter part of
5829-577: A speech at the Brookings Institution , McAleenan cited a series of high-profile shooting incidents, and said "In our modern age, the continued menace of racially based violent extremism, particularly white supremacist extremism, is an abhorrent affront to the nation, the struggle and unity of its diverse population." The new strategy will include better tracking and analysis of threats, sharing information with local officials, training local law enforcement on how to deal with shooting events, discouraging
6030-539: A status like new territories. Sumner argued that secession had destroyed statehood but the Constitution still extended its authority and its protection over individuals, as in existing U.S. territories . The Republicans sought to prevent Johnson's Southern politicians from "restoring the historical subordination of Negroes". Since slavery was abolished, the Three-fifths Compromise no longer applied to counting
6231-478: A test for admittance, a test used in practice to exclude people from Asia, Africa, and some European and South American countries, depending on the political climate. Although they were not the prime targets of the policy, it was not until after World War II that large numbers of southern European and eastern European immigrants were admitted for the first time. Following this, the White Australia Policy
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6432-483: A threat to "American" culture, i.e. white culture, at the turn of the 20th century. With the emergence of Twitter in 2006, and platforms such as Stormfront , which was launched in 1996, an alt-right portal for white supremacists with similar beliefs, both adults and children, was provided in which they were given a way to connect. Jessie Daniels, of CUNY-Hunter College , discussed the emergence of other social media outlets such as 4chan and Reddit , which meant that
6633-487: A traditional KKK group. A sign that greets people who enter the town states " Diversity is a code for white genocide ." The KKK group interviewed in the documentary summarizes its ideals, principles, and beliefs, which are emblematic of white supremacists in the United States. The comic book super hero Captain America was used for dog whistle politics by the alt-right in college campus recruitment in 2017, an ironic co-optation because Captain America battled against Nazis in
6834-910: A very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race or at any rate a more worldly-wise race ... has come in and taken their place." British historian Richard Toye , author of Churchill's Empire , concluded that "Churchill did think that white people were superior." A number of Southern African nations experienced severe racial tension and conflict during global decolonization , particularly as white Africans of European ancestry fought to protect their preferential social and political status. Racial segregation in South Africa began in colonial times under
7035-536: Is 1877, when the federal government withdrew the last troops stationed in the South as part of the Compromise of 1877. Later dates have also been suggested. Fritzhugh Brundage proposed in 2017 that Reconstruction ended in 1890, when Republicans failed to pass the Lodge Bill to secure voting rights for Black Americans in the South. Heather Cox Richardson argued that same year for a periodization from 1865 until 1920, when
7236-721: Is also today present among neo-Confederates . White supremacy underlies a spectrum of contemporary movements including white nationalism , white separatism, neo-Nazism , and the Christian Identity movement. In the United States, white supremacy is primarily associated with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), Aryan Nations , and the White American Resistance movement, all of which are also considered to be antisemitic . The Proud Boys , despite claiming non-association with white supremacy, have been described in academic contexts as being such. In recent years, websites such as Twitter (known as X since July 2023), Reddit , and Stormfront , and
7437-415: Is credited with restoring the federal Union, limiting reprisals against the South, and establishing a legal framework for racial equality via the constitutional rights to national birthright citizenship , due process , equal protection of the laws , and male suffrage regardless of race. The Reconstruction era has typically been dated from the end of the American Civil War in 1865 until the withdrawal of
7638-691: Is great danger that ... the liberating slaves of traitorous owners, will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn them against us—perhaps ruin our fair prospect for Kentucky." After Frémont refused to rescind the emancipation order, Lincoln terminated him from active duty on November 2, 1861. Lincoln was concerned that the border states would secede from the Union if slaves were given their freedom. On May 26, 1862, Union Major General David Hunter emancipated slaves in South Carolina, Georgia , and Florida, declaring all "persons ... heretofore held as slaves ... forever free". Lincoln, embarrassed by
7839-478: Is now Lebanon , Israel , Palestine and Jordan ) and Libyans, but considerably lighter than the Nubians (modern Sudan ). The assignment of positive and negative connotations of White and Black to certain persons date to the very old age in a number of Indo-European languages , but these differences were not necessarily used in respect to skin colors. Religious conversion was sometimes described figuratively as
8040-620: Is now made to classify people according to skin color. As at the 2016 census, it was estimated by the Australian Human Rights Commission that around 58% of the Australian population were Anglo-Celtic Australians with 18% being of other European origins, a total of 76% for European ancestries as a whole. According to the 2023 New Zealand census 67.8% or 3,383,742 people identified with a European ethnic origin, down from 70.2% in 2018, and 90.6% in 1966 . In 1926 , 95.0% of
8241-400: Is openly white nationalist or white separatist because "white nationalism and white separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups". Use of the term to self-identify has been criticized as a dishonest rhetorical ploy. The Anti-Defamation League argues that white supremacists use the phrase because they believe it has fewer negative connotations than
White supremacy - Misplaced Pages Continue
8442-562: Is similar to that of many Christian Identity groups because it believes in the antisemitic conspiracy theory that there is a "Jewish conspiracy" in control of governments, the banking industry and the media. Matthew F. Hale , founder of the World Church of the Creator, has published articles stating that all races other than white are "mud races", which is what the group's religion teaches. The white-supremacist ideology has become associated with
8643-448: Is their greatest enemy. Different groups of white supremacists identify various racial, ethnic, religious, and other enemies, most commonly those of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, Indigenous peoples of the Americas and Oceania, Asians , multiracial people , Middle Eastern people , Jews , Muslims , and LGBTQ+ people. In academic usage, particularly in critical race theory or intersectionality , "white supremacy" can also refer to
8844-497: Is too dark are cowardly: witness Egyptians and the Ethiopians. Those whose skin is too light are equally cowardly: witness women. The skin color typical of the courageous should be halfway between the two." Similarly, Xenophon of Athens describes Persian prisoners of war as "white-skinned because they were never without their clothing, and soft and unused to toil because they always rode in carriages" and states that Greek soldiers as
9045-630: The Xanthochroi or "light Whites" of Northern Europe with the Melanochroi or "dark Whites" of the Mediterranean. Although modern neo-Nazis often invoke Nazi iconography on behalf of White nationalism , Nazi Germany repudiated the idea of a unified White race, instead promoting Nordicism . In Nazi propaganda, Eastern European Slavs were often referred to as Untermensch (subhuman in English), and
9246-414: The de facto creation (initially by treaty) of an unorganized Oklahoma Territory . President Lincoln signed two Confiscation Acts into law, the first on August 6, 1861, and the second on July 17, 1862, safeguarding fugitive slaves who crossed from the Confederacy across Union lines and giving them indirect emancipation if their masters continued insurrection against the United States. The laws allowed
9447-459: The 2016 United States Presidential Election reflect ongoing challenges with white supremacy. Psychologist Janet Helms suggested that the normalizing behaviors of social institutions of education, government, and healthcare are organized around the "birthright of...the power to control society's resources and determine the rules for [those resources]". Educators, literary theorists, and other political experts have raised similar questions, connecting
9648-560: The Aethiopians as black and the Thracians as having red hair and blue eyes. In his description of the Scythians, Hippocrates states that the cold weather "burns their white skin and turns it ruddy." The term "White race" or "White people" entered the major European languages in the later seventeenth century, originating with the racialization of slavery at the time, in the context of
9849-618: The Age of Enlightenment until the late 20th century (marked by decolonization and the abolition of apartheid in South Africa in 1991, followed by that country's first multiracial elections in 1994 ). White supremacy was dominant in the United States both before and after the American Civil War , and it persisted for decades after the Reconstruction Era . Prior to the Civil War, many wealthy white Americans owned slaves ; they tried to justify their economic exploitation of black people by creating
10050-588: The Atlantic slave trade and the enslavement of indigenous peoples in the Spanish Empire . It has repeatedly been ascribed to strains of blood, ancestry, and physical traits, and was eventually made into a subject of pseudoscientific research, which culminated in scientific racism , which was later widely repudiated by the scientific community. According to historian Irene Silverblatt, "Race thinking… made social categories into racial truths." Bruce David Baum, citing
10251-477: The Civil War to maintain whites' hegemony over emancipated black Americans. Other racial groups have received oppressive treatment, including Mexican Americans , who temporarily were prevented from learning the same curriculum as white Americans because they supposedly were intellectually inferior, and Asian Americans, some of whom were prevented from learning much about their ancestral lands because they were deemed
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#173289839724510452-591: The Confederate States Army surrendered and the Southern states repealed secession and accepted the Thirteenth Amendment —most of which happened by December 1865. Lincoln broke with the Radicals in 1864. The Wade–Davis Bill of 1864 passed in Congress by the Radicals was designed to permanently disfranchise the Confederate element in the South. The bill asked the government to grant African American men
10653-488: The Confederate assault on the Union garrison at Fort Sumter , Lincoln declared that "an extraordinary occasion" existed in the South and raised an army to quell "combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings." Over the next four years, 237 named battles were fought between the Union and Confederate armies, resulting in the dissolution of the Confederate States in 1865. During
10854-618: The Dutch Empire . It continued when the British took over the Cape of Good Hope in 1795. Apartheid was introduced as an officially structured policy by the Afrikaner -dominated National Party after the general election of 1948 . Apartheid's legislation divided inhabitants into four racial groups — "black", "white", "coloured", and "Indian", with coloured divided into several sub-classifications. In 1970,
11055-599: The Emancipation Proclamation , Port Royal Experiment , and the earnest debate of Reconstruction policies during the Civil War. By 2017, among scholars it was "widely understood" in the words of Luke Harlow, that Reconstruction started in either "1863 with the Emancipation Proclamation or 1865 with the end of the war". The Reconstruction Era National Historical Park proposed 1861 as a starting date, interpreting Reconstruction as beginning "as soon as
11256-546: The France national football team after he suggested that 7 of the 23-player squad were White. In 2020, French politician Nadine Morano stated that French actress Aïssa Maïga , who was born in Senegal , should "go back to Africa " if she "was not happy with seeing so many white people in France". According to the 2022 Irish census, 4,444,145 or 87.4% of the total population declared their race as “ White Irish ” and Other White, this
11457-620: The Hampton Roads Conference . In August 1862, Lincoln met with African American leaders and urged them to colonize some place in Central America . Lincoln planned to free the Southern slaves in the Emancipation Proclamation and he was concerned that freedmen would not be well treated in the United States by Whites in both the North and South. Although Lincoln gave assurances that the United States government would support and protect any colonies that were established for former slaves,
11658-517: The INED and INSEE for Whites in France has been analyzed, from some academic perspectives, as masking racial issues within the country, or a form of false racial color blindness . Writing for Al Jazeera , French journalist Rokhaya Diallo suggests that "a large portion of White people in France are not used to having frank conversations about race and racism." According to political sociologist Eduardo Bonilla-Silva , "whites in France lie to themselves and
11859-585: The Nordic theory , which regarded Nordics as the "master race", superior to all others, including other Aryans (Indo-Europeans). Rosenberg got the racial term Untermensch from the title of Klansman Lothrop Stoddard 's 1922 book The Revolt Against Civilization: The Menace of the Under-man . It was later adopted by the Nazis from that book's German version Der Kulturumsturz: Die Drohung des Untermenschen (1925). Rosenberg
12060-596: The Reconstruction Acts of 1867 which outlined the terms in which the rebel states would be readmitted to the Union. Under these acts Republican Congress established military districts in the South and used Army personnel to administer the region until new governments loyal to the Union—that accepted the Fourteenth Amendment and the right of freedmen to vote—could be established. Congress temporarily suspended
12261-542: The Rhodesian Bush War which was fought by African nationalists , Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith acceded to biracial political representation in 1978 and the state achieved recognition from the United Kingdom as Zimbabwe in 1980. Nazism promoted the idea of a superior Germanic people or Aryan race in Germany during the early 20th century. Notions of white supremacy and Aryan racial superiority were combined in
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#173289839724512462-590: The Scythian Budini as having deep blue eyes and bright red hair and the Egyptians – quite like the Colchians – as melánchroes ( μελάγχροες , " dark-skinned ") and curly-haired . He also gives the possibly first reference to the common Greek name of the tribes living south of Egypt, otherwise known as Nubians , which was Aithíopes ( Αἰθίοπες , "burned-faced"). Later Xenophanes of Colophon described
12663-473: The Wade–Davis Bill in opposition, which instead proposed that a majority of voters must pledge that they had never supported the Confederate government and disfranchised all those who had. Lincoln vetoed the Wade–Davis Bill, but it established a lasting conflict between the presidential and congressional visions of reconstruction. In addition to the legal status of the seceded states, Congress debated
12864-591: The abolition of slavery and the reintegration of the eleven former Confederate States of America into the United States. During this period, three amendments were added to the United States Constitution to grant citizenship and equal civil rights to the newly freed slaves . To circumvent these legal achievements, the former Confederate states imposed poll taxes and literacy tests and engaged in terrorism to intimidate and control black people and to discourage or prevent them from voting. Throughout
13065-428: The civil rights movement . In an analysis of American history textbooks, she highlights word choices that repetitively "normalize" slavery and the inhumane treatment of black people. She also notes the frequent showcasing of white abolitionists and actual exclusion of black abolitionists and the fact that black Americans had been mobilizing for abolition for centuries before the major white American push for abolition in
13266-589: The naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach asserted that "The white color holds the first place, such as is that of most European peoples. The redness of the cheeks in this variety is almost peculiar to it: at all events it is but seldom to be seen in the rest". In the various editions of his On the Natural Variety of Mankind , he categorized humans into four or five races, largely built on Linnaeus' classifications. But while, in 1775, he had grouped into his "first and most important" race "Europe, Asia this side of
13467-451: The scapegoating of disenfranchised populations to white superiority. As of 2018, there were over 600 white-supremacist organizations recorded in the U.S. On July 23, 2019, Christopher A. Wray , the head of the FBI , said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the agency had made around 100 domestic terrorism arrests since October 1, 2018, and that the majority of them were connected in some way with white supremacy. Wray said that
13668-422: The " degenerative hypothesis " of racial origins. He claimed that Adam and Eve were Caucasian inhabitants of Asia, and that other races came about by degeneration from environmental factors such as the sun and poor diet. He consistently believed that the degeneration could be reversed in a proper environmental control and that all contemporary forms of man could revert to the original Caucasian race . Between
13869-400: The "Nordic peoples" to be a superior race. By the early 19th century, white supremacy was attached to emerging theories of racial hierarchy. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer attributed cultural primacy to the white race: The highest civilization and culture, apart from the ancient Hindus and Egyptians , are found exclusively among the white races; and even with many dark peoples,
14070-412: The "purity" of the Nordic or Germanic race. Gobineau's theories, which attracted a strong following in Germany, emphasized the existence of an irreconcilable polarity between Aryan or Germanic peoples and Jewish culture. As the Nazi Party 's chief racial theorist, Alfred Rosenberg oversaw the construction of a human racial "ladder" that justified Hitler's racial and ethnic policies . Rosenberg promoted
14271-426: The "spread of white nationalist symbols and ideas could be accelerated and amplified." Sociologist Kathleen Blee notes that the anonymity which the Internet provides can make it difficult to track the extent of white-supremacist activity in the country, but nevertheless she and other experts see an increase in the number of hate crimes and amount of white-supremacist violence. In the latest wave of white supremacy, in
14472-583: The 1500s, Europeans began to develop what became known as "scientific racism," the attempt to construct a biological rather than cultural definition of race ... Whiteness, then, emerged as what we now call a "pan-ethnic" category, as a way of merging a variety of European ethnic populations into a single "race" ... . In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, "East Asian peoples were almost uniformly described as White, never as yellow." Michael Keevak's history Becoming Yellow , finds that East Asians were redesignated as being yellow-skinned because "yellow had become
14673-468: The 1866 midterm elections, gaining large majorities in both houses of Congress . In 1867 and 1868, the Radical Republicans passed the Reconstruction Acts over Johnson's vetoes, setting out the terms by which the former Confederate states could be readmitted to the Union. Constitutional conventions held throughout the South gave Black men the right to vote. New state governments were established by
14874-480: The 1940s, became minority views within the white community by the mid-1970s, and continued to decline in 1990s' polls to a single-digit percentage. For sociologist Howard Winant , these shifts marked the end of "monolithic white supremacy" in the United States. After the mid-1960s, white supremacy remained an important ideology to the American far-right . According to Kathleen Belew , a historian of race and racism in
15075-413: The 19th century, Geography lessons contained teachings on a fixed racial hierarchy, which white people topped. Mills (1994) writes that history as it is taught is really the history of white people, and it is taught in a way that favors white Americans and white people in general. He states that the language used to tell history minimizes the violent acts committed by white people over the centuries, citing
15276-535: The 19th century, with white supremacists maintaining the belief that white people were members of an Aryan " master race " that was superior to other races, particularly the Jews, who were described as the "Semitic race", Slavs , and Gypsies , who they associated with "cultural sterility". Arthur de Gobineau , a French racial theorist and aristocrat, blamed the fall of the ancien régime in France on racial degeneracy caused by racial intermixing, which he argued had destroyed
15477-555: The 19th century. She ultimately asserts the presence of a masternarrative that centers Europe and its associated peoples (white people) in school curriculum, particularly as it pertains to history. She writes that this masternarrative condenses history into only history that is relevant to, and to some extent beneficial for, white Americans. Elson (1964) provides detailed information about the historic dissemination of simplistic and negative ideas about non-white races. Native Americans, who were subjected to attempts of cultural genocide by
15678-781: The 2012 annual report of Germany's interior intelligence service, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution , at the time there were 26,000 right-wing extremists living in Germany, including 6,000 neo-Nazis . Fifty-one people died from two consecutive terrorist attacks at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre by an Australian white supremacist carried out on March 15, 2019. The terrorist attacks have been described by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern as "One of New Zealand's darkest days". On August 27, 2020,
15879-469: The Afrikaner-run government abolished non-white political representation , and starting that year black people were deprived of South African citizenship. South Africa abolished apartheid in 1991. In Rhodesia a predominantly white government issued its own unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom in 1965 during an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to avoid majority rule. Following
16080-536: The Australian colonies, Great Britain and Ireland, Germany (forming the next biggest immigrant group after the British and Irish), France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, the United States, and Canada. In the 1860s, the discovery of gold started a gold rush in Otago. By 1860 more than 100,000 British and Irish settlers lived throughout New Zealand. The Otago Association actively recruited settlers from Scotland, creating
16281-475: The Black community on education, the majority of Blacks had achieved literacy. Sumner soon concluded that "there was no substantial protection for the freedman except in the franchise". This was necessary, he stated, "(1) For his own protection; (2) For the protection of the white Unionist; and (3) For the peace of the country. We put the musket in his hands because it was necessary; for the same reason we must give him
16482-664: The Blood Law. To preserve the Aryan or Nordic race , the Nazis introduced the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, which forbade sexual relations and marriages between Germans and Jews, and later between Germans and Romani and Slavs . The Nazis used the Mendelian inheritance theory to argue that social traits were innate, claiming that there was a racial nature associated with certain general traits, such as inventiveness or criminal behavior. According to
16683-459: The Bureau was "aggressively pursuing [domestic terrorism] using both counterterrorism resources and criminal investigative resources and partnering closely with our state and local partners," but said that it was focused on the violence itself and not on its ideological basis. A similar number of arrests had been made for instances of international terrorism. In the past, Wray has said that white supremacy
16884-577: The Caucasian label, while Thomas Henry Huxley (1870) classified the same populations as Mongoloid, and Lothrop Stoddard (1920) classified as " brown " most of the populations of the Middle East , North Africa and Central Asia, and counted as "White" only the European peoples and their descendants, as well as some populations in parts of Anatolia and the northern areas of Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia. Some authorities, following Huxley (1870), distinguished
17085-462: The Confederacy. During the war, a war among pro-Union and anti-Union Native Americans had raged. Congress passed a statute that gave the president the authority to suspend the appropriations of any tribe if the tribe is "in a state of actual hostility to the government of the United States ;... and, by proclamation, to declare all treaties with such tribe to be abrogated by such tribe". As
17286-487: The Dutch. The discovery of diamonds and gold led to a greater influx of English speakers who were able to develop the mining industry with capital unavailable to Afrikaners. They have been joined in more subsequent decades by former colonials from elsewhere, such as Zambia and Kenya , and poorer British nationals looking to escape famine at home. Both Afrikaners and English have been politically dominant in South Africa during
17487-613: The Ganges, and all the country situated to the north of the Amoor, together with that part of North America, which is nearest both in position and character of the inhabitants", he somewhat narrows his "Caucasian variety" in the third edition of his text, of 1795: "To this first variety belong the inhabitants of Europe (except the Lapps and the remaining descendants of the Finns) and those of Eastern Asia, as far as
17688-604: The Holocaust . Christian Identity is another movement closely tied to white supremacy. Some white supremacists identify themselves as Odinists , although many Odinists reject white supremacy. Some white-supremacist groups, such as the South African Boeremag , conflate elements of Christianity and Odinism. Creativity (formerly known as "The World Church of the Creator") is atheistic and it denounces Christianity and other theistic religions . Aside from this, its ideology
17889-411: The Internet has led to a dramatic increase in white-supremacist websites. The Internet provides a venue for open expression of white-supremacist ideas at little social cost because people who post the information are able to remain anonymous. White separatism is a political and social movement that seeks the separation of white people from people of other races and ethnicities . This may include
18090-447: The Internet was going to create a "chain reaction of racial enlightenment that will shake the world." Daniels documents that racist groups see the Internet as a way to spread their ideologies, influence others and gain supporters. Legal scholar Richard Hasen describes a "dark side" of social media: There certainly were hate groups before the Internet and social media. [But with social media] it just becomes easier to organize, to spread
18291-469: The Ironclad Oath, which would effectively have allowed no former Confederates to vote. Historian Harold Hyman says that in 1866 congressmen "described the oath as the last bulwark against the return of ex-rebels to power, the barrier behind which Southern Unionists and Negroes protected themselves". Radical Republican leader Thaddeus Stevens proposed, unsuccessfully, that all former Confederates lose
18492-598: The North during the Grant administration. The 1876 presidential election was marked by widespread Black voter suppression in the South, and the result was close and contested. An Electoral Commission resulted in the Compromise of 1877 , which awarded the election to Republican Rutherford B. Hayes on the understanding that federal troops would be withdrawn from the South, effectively bringing Reconstruction to an end. Post-Civil War efforts to enforce federal civil rights protections in
18693-505: The Pierpont government separated the northwestern counties of the state and sought admission as West Virginia .) As additional territory came under Union control, reconstructed governments were established in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. Debates over legal reconstruction focused on whether secession was legally valid, the implications of secession for the nature of the seceded states, and
18894-690: The Radical program of Reconstruction. He was on good terms with ex-Confederates in the South and ex- Copperheads in the North. He appointed his own governors and tried to close the Reconstruction process by the end of 1865. Thaddeus Stevens vehemently opposed Johnson's plans for an abrupt end to Reconstruction, insisting that Reconstruction must "revolutionize Southern institutions, habits, and manners .... The foundations of their institutions ... must be broken up and relaid, or all our blood and treasure have been spent in vain." Johnson broke decisively with
19095-649: The Reconstruction governments and terrorize Republicans. Congressional anger at President Johnson's repeated attempts to veto radical legislation led to his impeachment , but he was not removed from office. Under Johnson's successor, President Ulysses S. Grant , Radical Republicans passed additional legislation to enforce civil rights, such as the Ku Klux Klan Act and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 . However, continuing resistance to Reconstruction by Southern whites and its high cost contributed to its losing support in
19296-559: The Republicans in Congress when he vetoed the Civil Rights Act on March 27, 1866. While Democrats celebrated, the Republicans rallied, passed the bill again, and overrode Johnson's repeat veto. Full-scale political warfare now existed between Johnson (now allied with the Democrats) and the Radical Republicans. Since the war had ended, Congress rejected Johnson's argument that he had the war power to decide what to do. Congress decided it had
19497-689: The Sea Islands who became free overnight on November 7, 1861, after the Battle of Port Royal when all the white residents and slaveholders fled the area after the arrival of the Union. After the Battle of Port Royal, reconstruction policies were implemented under the Port Royal Experiment which were education , landownership , and labor reform. This transition to a free society was called "Rehearsal for Reconstruction." The conventional end of Reconstruction
19698-412: The South ended in 1890 with the failure of the Lodge Bill . Historians continue to disagree about the legacy of Reconstruction. Criticism of Reconstruction focuses on the early failure to prevent violence, corruption, starvation, disease, and other problems. Some consider the Union's policy toward freed slaves as inadequate and its policy toward former slaveholders as too lenient. However, Reconstruction
19899-492: The South would gain additional seats in Congress. If Blacks were denied the vote and the right to hold office, then only Whites would represent them. Many, including most White Southerners, Northern Democrats , and some Northern Republicans, opposed voting rights for African-Americans. The small fraction of Republican voters opposed to Black suffrage contributed to the defeats of several suffrage measures voted on in most Northern states. Some Northern states that had referendums on
20100-1089: The South; some of them were men who had escaped to the North and gained educations, and returned to the South. They did not hold office in numbers representative of their proportion in the population, but often elected Whites to represent them. The question of women's suffrage was also debated but was rejected. Women eventually gained the right to vote with the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1920. From 1890 to 1908, Southern states passed new state constitutions and laws that disenfranchised most Blacks and tens of thousands of poor Whites with new voter registration and electoral rules. When establishing new requirements such as subjectively administered literacy tests , in some states, they used " grandfather clauses " to enable illiterate Whites to vote. The Five Civilized Tribes that had been relocated to Indian Territory (now part of Oklahoma ) held Black slaves and signed treaties supporting
20301-665: The Southern Reconstruction era that was the genesis of the Ku Klux Klan. Nazi Germany promulgated white supremacy based on the belief that the Aryan race , or the Germans, were the master race . It was combined with a eugenics programme that aimed for racial hygiene through compulsory sterilization of sick individuals and extermination of Untermenschen ("subhumans"): Slavs , Jews and Romani , which eventually culminated in
20502-462: The U.S. government through the use of American Indian boarding schools , were characterized as homogenously "cruel," a violent menace toward white Americans, and lacking civilization or societal complexity (p. 74). For example, in the 19th century, black Americans were consistently portrayed as lazy, immature, and intellectually and morally inferior to white Americans, and in many ways not deserving of equal participation in U.S. society. For example,
20703-427: The Union (derisively called " scalawags " by White Democrats), and Northerners who had migrated to the South (derisively called " carpetbaggers ")—some of whom were returning natives, but were mostly Union veterans—organized to create constitutional conventions. They created new state constitutions to set new directions for Southern states. Congress had to consider how to restore to full status and representation within
20904-687: The Union captured territory in the Confederacy" at Fort Monroe in Virginia and in the Sea Islands of South Carolina . According to historians Downs and Masur, "Reconstruction began when the first US soldiers arrived in slaveholding territory, and enslaved people escaped from plantations and farms, some of them fleeing into free states, and others trying to find safety with US forces." Soon afterwards, early discourse and experimentation began in earnest regarding Reconstruction policies. The Reconstruction policies provided opportunities to enslaved Gullah populations in
21105-424: The Union those Southern states that had declared their independence from the United States and had withdrawn their representation. Suffrage for former Confederates was one of two main concerns. A decision needed to be made whether to allow just some or all former Confederates to vote (and to hold office). The moderates in Congress wanted virtually all of them to vote, but the Radicals resisted. They repeatedly imposed
21306-559: The Union, hostile to loyal Unionists, and enemies of the Freedmen. Radicals used as evidence outbreaks of mob violence against Black people, such as the Memphis riots of 1866 and the New Orleans massacre of 1866 . Radical Republicans demanded a prompt and strong federal response to protect freedmen and curb Southern racism. Stevens and his followers viewed secession as having left the states in
21507-508: The United States , white militancy shifted after the Vietnam War from supporting the existing racial order to a more radical position (self-described as " white power " or " white nationalism ") committed to overthrowing the United States government and establishing a white homeland. Such anti-government militia organizations are one of three major strands of violent right-wing movements in
21708-524: The United States, many people who were considered non-white were disenfranchised , barred from government office, and prevented from holding most government jobs well into the second half of the 20th century. Professor Leland T. Saito of the University of Southern California writes: "Throughout the history of the United States, race has been used by whites for legitimizing and creating difference and social, economic and political exclusion." The denial of social and political freedom to minorities continued into
21909-399: The United States, with white-supremacist groups (such as the Ku Klux Klan , neo-Nazi organizations, and racist skinheads ) and a religious fundamentalist movement (such as Christian Identity ) being the other two. Howard Winant writes that, "On the far right the cornerstone of white identity is belief in an ineluctable, unalterable racialized difference between whites and nonwhites." In
22110-596: The ability to vote of approximately 10,000 to 15,000 former Confederate officials and senior officers, while constitutional amendments gave full citizenship to all African Americans, and suffrage to the adult men. With the power to vote, freedmen began participating in politics. While many enslaved people were illiterate, educated Blacks (including fugitive slaves ) moved down from the North to aid them, and natural leaders also stepped forward. They elected White and Black men to represent them in constitutional conventions. A Republican coalition of freedmen, Southerners supportive of
22311-415: The administration of Reconstruction under presidential control, rather than that of the increasingly unsympathetic Radical Congress. On March 3, 1862, Lincoln installed a loyalist Democrat, Senator Andrew Johnson, as military governor with the rank of brigadier general in his home state of Tennessee. In May 1862, Lincoln appointed Edward Stanly military governor of the coastal region of North Carolina with
22512-516: The adversary [Radicals in Congress], and set an example the other states will follow." Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens, leaders of the Radical Republicans, were initially hesitant to enfranchise the largely illiterate freedmen. Sumner preferred at first impartial requirements that would have imposed literacy restrictions on Blacks and Whites. He believed that he would not succeed in passing legislation to disenfranchise illiterate Whites who already had
22713-400: The age of the Internet, Blee sees the movement as having become primarily a virtual one, in which divisions between groups become blurred: "[A]ll these various groups that get jumbled together as the alt-right and people who have come in from the more traditional neo-Nazi world. We're in a very different world now." David Duke , a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan , wrote in 1999 that
22914-596: The arts in their struggle with need, want and misery, which in their many forms were brought about by the climate. The eugenicist Madison Grant argued in his 1916 book, The Passing of the Great Race , that the Nordic race had been responsible for most of humanity's great achievements, and that admixture was "race suicide". In this book, Europeans who are not of Germanic origin but have Nordic characteristics such as blonde/red hair and blue/green/gray eyes, were considered to be
23115-456: The balance of power, giving the Republicans two-thirds majorities in both houses of Congress, and enough votes to overcome Johnson's vetoes. They moved to impeach Johnson because of his constant attempts to thwart Radical Reconstruction measures, by using the Tenure of Office Act . Johnson was acquitted by one vote, but he lost the influence to shape Reconstruction policy. In 1867, Congress passed
23316-464: The campaign and presidency of Donald Trump , have contributed to an increased activity and interest in white supremacy. Different forms of white supremacy have different conceptions of who is considered white (though the exemplar is generally light-skinned, blond-haired, and blue-eyed — traits most common in northern Europe and that are viewed pseudoscientifically as being traits of an Aryan race ), and not all white-supremacist organizations agree on who
23517-468: The collection of racial or ethnic information in 1978, and the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), therefore, does not provide census data on White residents or citizens in France. French courts have, however, made cases, and issued rulings, which have identified White people as a demographic group within the country. White people in France are defined, or discussed, as
23718-432: The colonies were able to remain self-sufficient. Frederick Douglass , a prominent 19th-century American civil rights activist, criticized Lincoln by stating that he was "showing all his inconsistencies, his pride of race and blood, his contempt for Negroes and his canting hypocrisy". African Americans, according to Douglass, wanted citizenship and civil rights rather than colonies. Historians are unsure if Lincoln gave up on
23919-449: The comics, and was created by Jewish cartoonists. There has been debate whether Winston Churchill , who was voted "the greatest ever Briton" in 2002, was "a racist and white supremacist". In the context of rejecting the Arab wish to stop Jewish immigration to Palestine , he said: I do not admit that the dog in the manger has the final right to the manger, though he may have lain there for
24120-458: The community retained a thoroughly Dutch character. The Kingdom of Great Britain captured Cape Town in 1795 during the Napoleonic Wars and permanently acquired South Africa from Amsterdam in 1814. The first British immigrants numbered about 4,000 and were introduced in 1820. They represented groups from England , Ireland , Scotland , or Wales and were typically more literate than
24321-537: The concept of a unified, distinguishable "White race" as a social construct with no scientific basis. According to anthropologist Nina Jablonski : In ancient Egypt as a whole, people were not designated by color terms ... Egyptian inscriptions and literature only rarely, for instance, mention the dark skin color of the Kushites of Upper Nubia. We know the Egyptians were not oblivious to skin color, however, because artists paid attention to it in their works of art, to
24522-425: The concept of preserving genetic purity, and do not focus solely on discrimination based on skin color. The KKK's reasons for supporting racial segregation are not primarily based on religious ideals, but some Klan groups are openly Protestant . The 1915 silent drama film The Birth of a Nation followed the rising racial, economic, political, and geographic tensions leading up to the Emancipation Proclamation and
24723-635: The confiscation of lands for colonization from those who aided and supported the rebellion. However, these laws had limited effect as they were poorly funded by Congress and poorly enforced by Attorney General Edward Bates . In August 1861, Major General John C. Frémont , Union commander of the Western Department, declared martial law in Missouri , confiscated Confederate property, and emancipated their slaves. Lincoln immediately ordered Frémont to rescind his emancipation declaration, stating: "I think there
24924-557: The demographic mix in the U.S. as a result. With 38 U.S. states having banned interracial marriage through anti-miscegenation laws , the last 16 states had such laws in place until 1967 when they were invalidated by the Supreme Court of the United States ' decision in Loving v. Virginia . These mid-century gains had a major impact on white Americans' political views; segregation and white racial superiority, which had been publicly endorsed in
25125-487: The election of Warren G. Harding to the presidency marked the end of a national sentiment in favor of using government power to promote equality. In 2024, Manisha Sinha periodized Reconstruction from 1860—when Abraham Lincoln won office as a president opposed to slavery—until 1920, when America ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution affirming the right of women to vote, which Sinha called "the last Reconstruction amendment" because it drew upon
25326-545: The establishment of a white ethnostate by removing non-whites from existing communities or by forming new communities elsewhere. Most modern researchers do not view white separatism as distinct from white-supremacist beliefs. The Anti-Defamation League defines white separatism as "a form of white supremacy"; the Southern Poverty Law Center defines both white nationalism and white separatism as "ideologies based on white supremacy." Facebook has banned content that
25527-614: The extent that the pigments at the time permitted. The Ancient Egyptian ( New Kingdom ) funerary text known as the Book of Gates distinguishes "four groups" in a procession. These are the Egyptians , the Levantine and Canaanite peoples or "Asiatics", the " Nubians " and the "fair-skinned Libyans ". The Egyptians are depicted as considerably darker-skinned than the Levantines (persons from what
25728-502: The extinction of slavery in twenty years". On March 26, 1862, Lincoln met with Senator Charles Sumner and recommended that a special joint session of Congress be convened to discuss giving financial aid to any border states who initiated a gradual emancipation plan. In April 1862, the joint session of Congress met; however, the border states were not interested and did not make any response to Lincoln or any congressional emancipation proposal. Lincoln advocated compensated emancipation during
25929-500: The final remaining federal troops stationed in the Southern United States in 1877, though a few other periodization schemes have also been proposed by historians. In the twentieth century, most scholars of the Reconstruction era began their review in 1865, with the end of formal hostilities between the North and South. However, in his landmark 1988 monograph Reconstruction , historian Eric Foner proposed 1863, starting with
26130-537: The formation of the Confederate States of America . In an 1890 editorial about Native Americans and the American Indian Wars , author L. Frank Baum wrote: "The Whites, by law of conquest , by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians." The Naturalization Act of 1790 limited U.S. citizenship to whites only. In some parts of
26331-450: The former Confederate states? What was the citizenship status of the leaders of the Confederacy? What was the citizenship and suffrage status of freedmen? After the war ended, President Andrew Johnson gave back most of the land to the former White slave owners. By 1866, the faction of Radical Republicans led by Representative Thaddeus Stevens and Senator Charles Sumner was convinced that Johnson's Southern appointees were disloyal to
26532-442: The franchise." The support for voting rights was a compromise between moderate and Radical Republicans. The Republicans believed that the best way for men to get political experience was to be able to vote and to participate in the political system. They passed laws allowing all male freedmen to vote. In 1867, Black men voted for the first time. Over the course of Reconstruction, more than 1,500 African Americans held public office in
26733-565: The globe such as the African continent ." They have been described as a privileged social class within the country, comparatively sheltered from racism and poverty. Der Spiegel has reported how "most white people in France only know the banlieues as a kind of caricature". Banlieues , outer-city regions across the country that are increasingly identified with minority groups, often have residents who are disproportionately affected by unemployment and poverty. The lack of census data collected by
26934-507: The grandson of Thomas Robb , the national director of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, "presents the Klan's ideology in a format aimed at kids — more specifically, white kids." The short episodes inveigh against race-mixing, and extol other white-supremacist ideologies. A short documentary published by TRT describes Imran Garda's experience, a journalist of Indian descent, who met with Thomas Robb and
27135-505: The ground that a loyal Negro is more worthy than a disloyal White man." As president in 1865, Johnson wrote to the man he appointed as governor of Mississippi, recommending: "If you could extend the elective franchise to all persons of color who can read the Constitution in English and write their names, and to all persons of color who own real estate valued at least two hundred and fifty dollars, and pay taxes thereon, you would completely disarm
27336-488: The group, and rhetoric surrounding Whites in France experiencing poverty have been, at times, utilised by various right-wing political elements in the country. University of Lyon 's political scientist Angéline Escafré-Dublet has written that "the equivalent to a White backlash in France can be traced through the debate over the purported neglect of the 'poor Whites' in France". In 2006, French politician Jean-Marie Le Pen suggested there were too many "players of colour" in
27537-493: The hosting of hate sites online, and encouraging counter-messages. In a 2020 article in The New York Times titled "How White Women Use Themselves as Instruments of Terror", columnist Charles M. Blow wrote: We often like to make white supremacy a testosterone-fueled masculine expression, but it is just as likely to wear heels as a hood. Indeed, untold numbers of lynchings were executed because white women had claimed that
27738-497: The idea of African American colonization at the end of 1863 or if he actually planned to continue this policy up until 1865. Starting in March 1862, in an effort to forestall Reconstruction by the Radicals in Congress, Lincoln installed military governors in certain rebellious states under Union military control. Although the states would not be recognized by the Radicals until an undetermined time, installation of military governors kept
27939-437: The image of Till's body in the casket, one hundred days after his murder Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person. Sociologist Stephen Klineberg has stated that U.S. immigration laws prior to 1965 clearly "declared that Northern Europeans are a superior subspecies of the white race". The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 opened entry to the U.S. to non-Germanic groups, and significantly altered
28140-605: The immigration of physically unhealthy elements, and simply excludes the immigration of certain races." German praise for America's institutional racism, previously found in Hitler's Mein Kampf , was continuous throughout the early 1930s. Nazi lawyers were advocates of the use of American models. Race-based U.S. citizenship and anti-miscegenation laws directly inspired the Nazis' two principal Nuremberg racial laws —the Citizenship Law and
28341-412: The influence of the soil and the temperature, together with the mode of life, have the greatest influence". Blumenbach's conclusion was, however, to proclaim all races' attribution to one single human species. Blumenbach argued that physical characteristics like skin color, cranial profile, etc., depended on environmental factors, such as solarization and diet. Like other monogenists , Blumenbach held to
28542-466: The institution of slavery, Congress passed the Confiscation Acts to seize Confederates' slaves, providing a precedent for president Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation . Congress later established a Freedmen's Bureau to provide much-needed food and shelter to the newly freed slaves. As it became clear that the war would end in a Union victory, Congress debated the process for
28743-436: The largest of which by European birthplace were: 15,082 from the United Kingdom, Italy (13,361) and Serbia (5,935). Among racial origins for the non-Maltese, 58.1% of all identified as Caucasian. Reconstruction Era The Reconstruction era was a period in United States history and Southern United States history that followed the American Civil War and was dominated by the legal, social, and political challenges of
28944-572: The late nineteenth century, the Colonial/State and later federal governments of Australia restricted all permanent immigration to the country by non-Europeans. These policies became known as the " White Australia policy ", which was consolidated and enabled by the Immigration Restriction Act 1901 , but was never universally applied. Immigration inspectors were empowered to ask immigrants to take dictation from any European language as
29145-495: The leaders declined the offer of colonization. Many free Blacks had been opposed to colonization plans in the past because they wanted to remain in the United States. Lincoln persisted in his colonization plan in the belief that emancipation and colonization were both part of the same program. By April 1863, Lincoln was successful in sending Black colonists to Haiti as well as 453 to Chiriqui in Central America; however, none of
29346-500: The legal and social inequality of the races in the United States. The end of the war was accompanied by a large migration of newly freed people to the cities, where they were relegated to the lowest paying jobs, such as unskilled and service labor. Men worked as rail workers, rolling and lumber mills workers, and hotel workers. Black women were largely confined to domestic work employed as cooks, maids, and child nurses, or in hotels and laundries. The large population of slave artisans during
29547-645: The legal consequences for Confederate veterans and others who had engaged in "insurrection and rebellion" against the government and the legal rights of those freed from slavery. These debates resulted in the Reconstruction Amendments to the United States Constitution. During the Civil War, the Radical Republican leaders argued that slavery and the Slave Power had to be permanently destroyed. Moderates said this could be easily accomplished as soon as
29748-404: The legal significance of the Civil War, whether secession had actually occurred, and what measures, if any, were necessary to restore the governments of the Confederate States. For example, throughout the conflict, the United States government recognized the legitimacy of a unionist government in Virginia led by Francis Harrison Pierpont out of Wheeling . (This recognition was rendered moot when
29949-558: The legitimate method of their readmission to the Union. The first plan for legal reconstruction was introduced by Lincoln in his Proclamation of Amnesty and Reconstruction, the so-called " ten percent plan " under which a loyal unionist state government would be established when ten percent of its 1860 voters pledged an oath of allegiance to the Union, with a complete pardon for those who pledged such an oath. By 1864, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arkansas had established fully functioning Unionist governments under this plan. However, Congress passed
30150-419: The mid-20th century, resulting in the civil rights movement . The movement was spurred by the lynching of Emmett Till , a 14-year-old boy. David Jackson writes it was the image of the "murdered child's ravaged body, that forced the world to reckon with the brutality of American racism ." Vann R. Newkirk II wrote "the trial of his killers became a pageant illuminating the tyranny of white supremacy." Moved by
30351-532: The mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, race scientists, including most physical anthropologists classified the world's populations into three, four, or five races , which, depending on the authority consulted, were further divided into various sub-races. During this period the Caucasian race , named after people of the Caucasus Mountains but extending to all Europeans, figured as one of these races and
30552-512: The mid-nineteenth century, there were few restrictions on immigration, although members of ethnic minorities tended to be assimilated into the Anglo-Celtic populations. People of many nationalities, including many non-White people, emigrated to Australia during the goldrushes of the 1850s. However, the vast majority was still White and the goldrushes inspired the first racist activism and policy, directed mainly at Chinese immigrants . From
30753-499: The mid-seventeenth century, the novel term español ("Spaniard") was being equated in written documents with blanco , or "White". In Spain's American colonies, African , Native American ( indios ), Jewish , or morisco ancestry formally excluded individuals from the "purity of blood" ( limpieza de sangre ) requirements for holding any public office under the Royal Pragmatic of 1501. Similar restrictions applied in
30954-559: The military, some religious orders, colleges, and universities, leading to a nearly all-White priesthood and professional stratum. Blacks and indios were subject to tribute obligations and forbidden to bear arms, and black and indio women were forbidden to wear jewels, silk, or precious metals in early colonial Mexico and Peru. Those pardos (people with dark skin) and mulattos (people of mixed African and European ancestry) with resources largely sought to evade these restrictions by passing as White. A brief royal offer to buy
31155-445: The modern concept from pre-modern descriptions, which focused on physical complexion rather than the idea of race. Prior to the modern era , no European peoples regarded themselves as "White", but rather defined their race in terms of their religion, ancestry, ethnicity, or nationality . Contemporary anthropologists and other scientists, while recognizing the reality of biological variation between different human populations, regard
31356-474: The non-Māori population reached over 250,000. Other smaller groups of settlers came from Germany, Scandinavia, and other parts of Europe as well as from China and India, but British and Irish settlers made up the vast majority and did so for the next 150 years. White people in France are a broad racial-based, or skin color -based, social category in French society. In statistical terms, the French government banned
31557-524: The order, rescinded Hunter's declaration and canceled the emancipation. On April 16, 1862, Lincoln signed a bill into law outlawing slavery in Washington, D.C., and freeing the estimated 3,500 slaves in the city. On June 19, 1862, he signed legislation outlawing slavery in all U.S. territories. On July 17, 1862, under the authority of the Confiscation Acts and an amended Force Bill of 1795, he authorized
31758-629: The past, this ideology had been put into effect through socioeconomic and legal structures such as the Atlantic slave trade , European colonial labor and social practices, the Scramble for Africa , Jim Crow laws in the United States, the activities of the Native Land Court in New Zealand, the White Australia policies from the 1890s to the mid-1970s, and apartheid in South Africa. This ideology
31959-461: The past; due to the controversial racial order under apartheid , the nation's predominantly Afrikaner government became a target of condemnation by other African states and the site of considerable dissension between 1948 and 1991. There were 4.6 million Whites in South Africa in 2011, down from an all-time high of 5.2 million in 1995 following a wave of emigration commencing in the late twentieth century. However, many returned over time. In
32160-402: The population of Blacks. After the 1870 Census, the South would gain numerous additional representatives in Congress, based on the full population of freedmen. One Illinois Republican expressed a common fear that if the South were allowed to simply restore its previous established powers, that the "reward of treason will be an increased representation". The election of 1866 decisively changed
32361-513: The population was of European descent. The establishment of British colonies in Australia from 1788 and the boom in whaling and sealing in the Southern Ocean brought many Europeans to the vicinity of New Zealand . Whalers and sealers were often itinerant, and the first real settlers were missionaries and traders in the Bay of Islands area from 1809. Early visitors to New Zealand included whalers, sealers, missionaries, mariners, and merchants, attracted to natural resources in abundance. They came from
32562-420: The position in the political spectrum of the person – where European ethnic groups and nations labeled or treated other Europeans as members of another, somehow "inferior race". Between the Enlightenment era and interwar period, the racist worldviews fit well into the liberal worldview, and they were almost general among the liberal thinkers and politicians. Definitions of White have changed over
32763-461: The prewar period did not translate into a large number of free artisans during Reconstruction. The dislocations had a severe negative impact on the Black population, with a large amount of sickness and death. During the war, Lincoln experimented with land reform by giving land to African-Americans in South Carolina . Having lost their enormous investment in slaves, plantation owners had minimal capital to pay freedmen workers to bring in crops. As
32964-410: The primary authority to decide how Reconstruction should proceed, because the Constitution stated the United States had to guarantee each state a republican form of government . The Radicals insisted that meant Congress decided how Reconstruction should be achieved. The issues were multiple: Who should decide, Congress or the president? How should republicanism operate in the South? What was the status of
33165-403: The privileges of Whiteness for a substantial sum of money attracted fifteen applicants before pressure from White elites ended the practice. In the British colonies in North America and the Caribbean, the designation English or Christian was initially used in contrast to Native Americans or Africans. Early appearances of White race or White people in the Oxford English Dictionary begin in
33366-444: The public domain" and intensified the New Zealand head tax . In 1921, Massey wrote in the Evening Post : "New Zealanders are probably the purest Anglo-Saxon population in the British Empire. Nature intended New Zealand to be a white man's country, and it must be kept as such. The strain of Polynesian will be no detriment". This is one of many quotes attributed to him regarded as being openly racist. Supporters of Nordicism consider
33567-536: The rate of damage in smaller towns was much lower. Farms were in disrepair, and the prewar stock of horses, mules, and cattle was much depleted. Forty percent of Southern livestock had been killed. The South's farms were not highly mechanized, but the value of farm implements and machinery according to the 1860 Census was $ 81 million and was reduced by 40% by 1870. The transportation infrastructure lay in ruins, with little railroad or riverboat service available to move crops and animals to market. Railroad mileage
33768-429: The readmission of the seceded states. Radical and moderate Republicans disagreed over the nature of secession, the conditions for readmission, and the desirability of social reforms as a consequence of the Confederate defeat. Lincoln favored the " ten percent plan " and vetoed the radical Wade–Davis Bill , which proposed strict conditions for readmission. Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865, just as fighting
33969-439: The recent 2021 census of Hong Kong, 61,582 people identified as white representing 0.8% of the total population. In the Far East at Southeast Asia , in the Philippines , a genetic study by the National Geographic , shows that 5% of the population are Southern Europeans that had arrived due to the Spanish colonization of the archipelago, most of which are Spanish Filipinos The recent 2021 Australian census does not use
34170-405: The recruitment of freed slaves into the U.S. Army and seizure of any Confederate property for military purposes. In an effort to keep border states in the Union, Lincoln, as early as 1861, designed gradual compensated emancipation programs paid for by government bonds. Lincoln desired Delaware , Maryland , Kentucky , and Missouri to "adopt a system of gradual emancipation which should work
34371-475: The relatively under-developed economic status of Eastern European countries such as Poland and the USSR was attributed to the racial inferiority of their inhabitants. Fascist Italy took the same view, and both of these nations justified their colonial ambitions in Eastern Europe on racist, anti-Slavic grounds. These nations were not alone in their view; during the long nineteenth century and interwar period , there were numerous cases – regardless of
34572-479: The right to vote and that anyone who willingly gave weapons to the fight against the United States should be denied the right to vote. The bill required voters, fifty-one percent of White males, to take the Ironclad Oath swearing that they had never supported the Confederacy or been one of its soldiers. This oath also entailed having them to swear a loyalty to the Constitution and the Union before they could have state constitutional meetings. Lincoln blocked it. Pursuing
34773-412: The right to vote for five years. The compromise that was reached disenfranchised many Confederate civil and military leaders. No one knows how many temporarily lost the vote, but one estimate placed the number as high as 10,000 to 15,000. However, Radical politicians took up the task at the state level. In Tennessee alone, over 80,000 former Confederates were disenfranchised. Second, and closely related,
34974-498: The river Obi, the Caspian Sea and the Ganges; and lastly, those of Northern Africa." Blumenbach quotes various other systems by his contemporaries, ranging from two to seven races, authored by the authorities of that time, including, besides Linnæus, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon , Christoph Meiners and Immanuel Kant . In the question of color, he conducts a rather thorough inquiry, considering also factors of diet and health , but ultimately believes that "climate, and
35175-417: The ruling caste or race is fairer in colour than the rest and has, therefore, evidently immigrated, for example, the Brahmins , the Incas , and the rulers of the South Sea Islands . All this is due to the fact that necessity is the mother of invention because those tribes that emigrated early to the north, and there gradually became white, had to develop all their intellectual powers and invent and perfect all
35376-462: The same country. Some countries do not ask questions about race or colour at all in their census. The social definition has also been added where possible. White Dutch people first arrived in South Africa around 1652. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, some 2,000 Europeans and their descendants were established in the region. Although these early Afrikaners represented various nationalities, including German peasants and French Huguenots ,
35577-416: The seventeenth century. Historian Winthrop Jordan reports that, "throughout the [thirteen] colonies the terms Christian , free , English , and white were ... employed indiscriminately" in the seventeenth century as proxies for one another. In 1680, Morgan Godwyn "found it necessary to explain" to English readers that "in Barbados , 'white' was 'the general name for Europeans.'" Several historians report
35778-432: The shooter was sentenced to life without parole . In 2016, there was a rise in debate over the appropriateness of the naming of Massey University in Palmerston North after William Massey , whom many historians and critics have described as a white supremacist. Lecturer Steve Elers was a leading proponent of the idea that Massey was an avowed white supremacist, given Massey "made several anti-Chinese racist statements in
35979-534: The subject limited the ability of their own small populations of Blacks to vote. Lincoln had supported a middle position: to allow some Black men to vote, especially U.S. Army veterans. Johnson also believed that such service should be rewarded with citizenship. Lincoln proposed giving the vote to "the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks". In 1864, Governor Johnson said: "The better class of them will go to work and sustain themselves, and that class ought to be allowed to vote, on
36180-468: The term white supremacist . Dobratz and Shanks-Meile reported that adherents usually reject marriage "outside the white race" . They argued for the existence of "a distinction between the white supremacist's desire to dominate (as in apartheid , slavery , or segregation ) and complete separation by race". They argued that this is a matter of pragmatism, because, while many white supremacists are also white separatists, contemporary white separatists reject
36381-437: The term “white” on their census form, therefore results showed 54.7% of the population identifying with a European ancestry. From 1788, when the first British colony in Australia was founded, until the early nineteenth century, most immigrants to Australia were English, Scottish, Welsh and Irish convicts . These were augmented by small numbers of free settlers from the British Isles and other European countries. However, until
36582-425: The use of the words, for example, "discovery," "colonization," and " New World " when describing what was ultimately a European conquest of the Western Hemisphere and its indigenous peoples . Swartz (1992) seconds this reading of modern history narratives when it comes to the experiences, resistances, and accomplishments of black Americans throughout the Middle Passage , slavery , Reconstruction , Jim Crow , and
36783-530: The view of philosopher Jason Stanley , white supremacy in the United States is an example of the fascist politics of hierarchy, in that it "demands and implies a perpetual hierarchy" in which whites dominate and control non-whites. The presidential campaign of Donald Trump led to a surge of interest in white supremacy and white nationalism in the United States, bringing increased media attention and new members to their movement; his campaign enjoyed their widespread support. Some academics argue that outcomes from
36984-400: The view that returning to a system of segregation is possible or desirable in the United States. The term white supremacy is used in some academic studies of racial power to denote a system of structural or societal racism which privileges white people over others, regardless of the presence or the absence of racial hatred. According to this definition, white racial advantages occur at both
37185-425: The vote. In the South, many poor Whites were illiterate as there was almost no public education before the war. In 1880, for example, the White illiteracy rate was about 25% in Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, South Carolina, and Georgia, and as high as 33% in North Carolina. This compares with the 9% national rate, and a Black rate of illiteracy that was over 70% in the South. By 1900, however, with emphasis within
37386-405: The war zone ensured the system would be ruined at war's end. Restoring the infrastructure—especially the railroad system—became a high priority for Reconstruction state governments. Over a quarter of Southern White men of military age—the backbone of the White workforce—died during the war, leaving their families destitute, and per capita income for White Southerners declined from $ 125 in 1857 to
37587-405: The war, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which declared that "all persons held as slaves" within the Confederate territory "are, and henceforward shall be free." The Civil War had immense social implications for the United States. Emancipation had altered the legal status of 3.5 million persons, threatened the end of the plantation economy of the South, and provoked questions regarding
37788-410: The war, the Union was confronted with the issue of how to administer areas it captured and how to handle the steady stream of slaves who were escaping to Union lines. In many cases, the United States Army played a vital role in establishing a free labor economy in the South, protecting freedmen's legal rights, and creating educational and religious institutions. Despite its reluctance to interfere with
37989-435: The word, for people to know where to go. It could be to raise money, or it could be to engage in attacks on social media. Some of the activity is virtual. Some of it is in a physical place. Social media has lowered the collective-action problems that individuals who might want to be in a hate group would face. You can see that there are people out there like you. That's the dark side of social media. A series on YouTube hosted by
38190-426: The work of Ruth Frankenberg , states, "the history of modern racist domination has been bound up with the history of how European peoples defined themselves (and sometimes some other peoples) as members of a superior 'white race'." Alastair Bonnett argues that "white identity", as it is presently conceived, is an American project, reflecting American interpretations of race and history. According to Gregory Jay,
38391-408: The world by proclaiming that they do not have institutional racism in their nation." Sociologist Crystal Marie Fleming has written; "While many whites in France refuse to acknowledge institutionalized racism and white supremacy , there is widespread belief in the specter of 'anti-white racism'". Accusations of anti-White racism, suggestions of the displacement of, or lack of representation for,
38592-429: The years, including the official definitions used in many countries, such as the United States and Brazil . Through the mid to late twentieth century, numerous countries had formal legal standards or procedures defining racial categories (see cleanliness of blood , casta , apartheid in South Africa , hypodescent ). Below are some census definitions of White, which may differ from the social definition of White within
38793-414: Was a decline from 92.4% in 2016 and 94.24% in 2011 . People who identified as “White Irish” in 2022 were 3,893,056 or 76.5% of the total population, a decline from 87.4% in 2006. As of the 2021 census, 89.1% self-identified as Caucasian racial origin. Maltese -born natives make up the majority of the island with 386,280 people out of a total population of 519,562. However, there are minorities,
38994-415: Was a significant and "pervasive" threat to the U.S. On September 20, 2019, the acting Secretary of Homeland Security , Kevin McAleenan , announced his department's revised strategy for counter-terrorism, which included a new emphasis on the dangers inherent in the white-supremacy movement. McAleenan called white supremacy one of the most "potent ideologies" behind domestic terrorism-related violent acts. In
39195-436: Was drawing to a close . He was replaced by President Andrew Johnson . Johnson vetoed numerous Radical Republican bills, he pardoned thousands of Confederate leaders, and he allowed Southern states to pass draconian Black Codes that restricted the rights of freedmen. His actions outraged many Northerners and stoked fears that the Southern elite would regain its political power. Radical Republican candidates swept to power in
39396-439: Was in collapse by the war's end. Where scarce Union dollars could not be obtained, residents resorted to a barter system. The Confederate States in 1861 had 297 towns and cities, with a total population of 835,000 people; of these, 162, with 681,000 people, were at some point occupied by Union forces. Eleven cities were destroyed or severely damaged by military action, including Atlanta, Charleston, Columbia, and Richmond, though
39597-441: Was incorporated as a formal category of both pseudoscientific research and, in countries including the United States, social classification. There was never any scholarly consensus on the delineation between the Caucasian race, including the populations of Europe, and the Mongoloid one, including the populations of East Asia. Thus, Carleton S. Coon (1939) included the populations native to all of Central and Northern Asia under
39798-407: Was located mostly in rural areas; over two-thirds of the South's rails, bridges, rail yards, repair shops, and rolling stock were in areas reached by Union armies, which systematically destroyed what they could. Even in untouched areas, the lack of maintenance and repair, the absence of new equipment, the heavy over-use, and the deliberate relocation of equipment by the Confederates from remote areas to
39999-673: Was relaxed in stages: non-European nationals who could demonstrate European descent were admitted (e.g., descendants of European colonizers and settlers from Latin America or Africa ), as were autochthonous inhabitants (such as Maronites , Assyrians and Mandeans ) of various nations from the Middle East, most significantly from Lebanon and to a lesser degree Iraq , Syria and Iran . In 1973, all immigration restrictions based on race and geographic origin were officially terminated. Australia enumerated its population by race between 1911 and 1966, by racial origin in 1971 and 1976, and by self-declared ancestry alone since 1981, meaning no attempt
40200-426: Was the issue of whether the 4 million freedmen were to be received as citizens: Would they be able to vote? If they were to be fully counted as citizens, some sort of representation for apportionment of seats in Congress had to be determined. Before the war, the population of slaves had been counted as three-fifths of a corresponding number of free Whites. By having 4 million freedmen counted as full citizens,
40401-514: Was the leading Nazi who attributed the concept of the East-European "under man" to Stoddard. An advocate of the U.S. immigration laws that favored Northern Europeans, Stoddard wrote primarily on the alleged dangers posed by " colored " peoples to white civilization, and wrote The Rising Tide of Color Against White World-Supremacy in 1920. In establishing a restrictive entry system for Germany in 1925, Hitler wrote of his admiration for America's immigration laws: "The American Union categorically refuses
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