From what I've seen, white supremacy is taught by example and immersion, from a child's earliest years. Most people don't remember it just like most people don't remember being taught to feed themselves or use the bathroom, also taught by example and immersion from earliest years.

This relates to The Dress That Broke The Internet, as discussed in a recent article in Wired Magazine. Link is below.

Pascal Wallisch, a neuroscientist who works on consciousness and perception at NYU, studied this phenomena. Eventually he gathered over 10,000 responses as to whether The Dress was black and blue, or white and gold, along with some demographic information. It turned out that the people who saw The Dress as white and gold were mostly from rural backgrounds. They had lived and worked outdoors during their formative years, so their brains interpreted the picture as an underexposed photo taken in natural daylight. So their brains "photoshopped in" the missing yellow tones and "saw" white and gold. Those who saw The Dress as blue and black were mostly from cities, used to living and working indoors. Their brains interpreted the picture as taken under artifical light and "saw" the colors as shown -- black and blue. This processing took place at the subliminal level, so each group insisted their view was "right" and couldn't imagine seeing it any other way. The article then went on to say that maybe that's why people interpreted COVID -- and many other public experiences -- differently also, according to where they come from and what they experienced while growing up.

Reading that conclusion, I thought of racism. CHOSSA folks generally see racism as part of their daily lives. Euro-mutts who are marginalized in other ways can often see racism also, by analogy. But white folks who were born and raised in white supremacy and never had any reason to chafe at it -- now they're like people who see The Dress one way and can't imagine seeing it any other way.

Is there hope? I think there is. Dr. David Campt, who writes here on Medium, promotes his RACE method of honest and compassionate dialogue for white folks to talk to each other. This is in line with Malcolm X's injunction that white folks educate ourselves and each other.

I admire Dr. Campt's work, and have attempted to put it into practice. However, from what I've seen, it takes more than dialogue. It seems to me that the only thing that really changes a person's mind on deeply-held issues is to witness or experience a life-changing event. Staunch conservatives are known to soften their stance on a hot button issue (eg abortion, gay marriage, opiate addiction, etc) when it directly impacts themselves or someone they care about. I think this is why many white folks got on board after seeing the murder of George Floyd. Unfortunately, the propoganda machine swooped in and counteracted this movement and many fell away. I suspect that those who fell away hadn't experienced significant marginalization and violence for themselves, so the impact of what they had seen eventually faded in the wake of the counter-narrative.

This is why it is so important to teach our country's history, all of it. Other white people don't like it when I point out instances of racism and privledge in everyday life, or sing songs at open mic about the bits of history that people who look like me don't like to talk about. It's necessary, though. With enough information and experiences, some people can change.

Thanks for the work you do!!

https://www.wired.com/story/the-dress-neuroscience-breakthrough/