The whittling down of racism to sheet-wearing goons allowed a cloud of racial innocence to cover many whites who, although 'resentful of black progress' and determined to ensure that racial inequality remained untouched, could see and project themselves as the 'kind of upstanding white citizen(s)' who were 'positively outraged at the tactics of the Ku Klux Klan". First and foremost, it was conscience soothing. This simple but wickedly brilliant conceptual and linguistic shift served multiple purposes. Confronted with civil rights headlines depicting unflattering portrayals of KKK rallies and jackbooted sheriffs, white authority transformed those damning images of white supremacy into the sole definition of racism. “The second key maneuver, which flowed naturally from the first, was to redefine racism itself.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |