How White Supremacy Took Shape: Violence, Money, Pseudoscience and Art
How did the proponents of a white supremacist mythology prevail in the struggle to define America’s future? What can we learn from their success?
White Violence Defined the Threat Landscape
In politics, who you admire may be less important than who you fear.
Northern Industrialists Scuttled Reconstruction
Wealthy Northern industrialists, not the planters, defeated Reconstruction.
Science in Service of White Empire
Under an emerging mythology of white supremacy, there was no price to be paid for using the imprimatur of science to promote unfounded, sometimes downright batty assertions, with terrifying implications for real, living people.
Artists Packaged White Supremacy
Myths follow power, but in the years after the Civil War many powers vied to dominate the American future. Artists like Whitman made choices that tipped the scales in this battle toward terrible ends.
How White Supremacy Failed
By the post-WW2 era, white supremacy was becoming an obstacle to money and power.
There’s No “Us” in “California”: A Glimpse At Post-Racial America
California is a living experiment in the interest-convergence dilemma.
Wokeness Is Missing a “Theory of Us.” That’s OK.
A successful revolution must remove its Robespierres. We have many battles to win before being blessed with that problem, but it would be wise to prepare.
Building Blocks of a Unifying Mythology
Elements of a new mythology are out there, like notes on a piano waiting to be played.
Outlining a New Mythology
In a post-racial America, what are the values that should define “us?” What symbols, rituals, memorials, songs and other cultural artifacts would best cement those values into place? Who are the heroes to emulate and the villains to reject?