Lisa Anderson-Levy's Perspective -- February 4, 2021
Over the last few weeks, I have witnessed the astonishment of white folks surprised by the insurrection at the nation’s capital on Jan 6th. White fear and violence are threaded throughout US history, which people of color have known and survived for over four hundred years. White violence in the US began with the colonization and genocide of native people and has continued through the systematic exclusion and murder of people of African, Asian, and Latinx descent, among others.
Historically, whiteness defined itself against “non-white” others who were understood to be dangerous, criminal, and therefore “un-American.” The fear of racialized others is essential to white identity in the US. The insurrection was shocking because many white people don’t see themselves as violent. The power of whiteness allows some to believe that virulent racism or white nationalist ideations are the beliefs of a crazy few rather than a central legacy of whiteness. Ignoring this history will not make it disappear.