Chapter 12 The White Supremacy Matrix: The Ultimate Racial Other

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[00:00:00]I'm Chris Granderson. Welcome to my channel, Xenogenesis, where I apply evolutionary behavior sciences to black community issues. And today, I've just recorded an excerpt from my book, the chapter on white supremacy, which is chapter 12. Because I've been getting a lot of questions about it. Uh, a lot of you have bought the book. Thank you so much. But I know reading a big book isn't for everyone. So, um, I thought it might be nice to put some excerpts from the book. If you enjoy this, let me know in the comments and I'll definitely make some more.

[00:00:32]The ultimate racial other.

[00:00:34]Usain Bolt is known for his superiority as a speedster because he was surrounded by slower guys. These slower guys made Usain what he is. If they were just as fast or became just as fast, these guys would have taken his superiority away.

[00:00:52]Usain would not have been happy with these guys who removed his superior status from him. Usain is a cool, laid-back, fun-loving Jamaican, so he wouldn't. But when people or tribes are in the alpha dog superior position, it is common for them to do underhanded things to their competitors to prevent their rivals from getting as fast as them or overtaking them. In the same vein, to be the superior race, there needs to be an inferior one because higher status people need lower status people to compare themselves favorably with. Consequently, white superiority thrives on black inferiority.

[00:01:34]Superiority and inferiority are positional social states of mind. They are social resources with great value.

[00:01:43]Having superiority is sweet, while imposing inferiority on one's competitors is sweeter still. A reduction in black perceived inferiority is a reduction in the perception of white superiority.

[00:01:59]In other words, black social advancement takes a bite out of white supremacy.

[00:02:05]The perception of white superiority has been historically heavily framed this way against black inferiority. So it needs to see black dysfunction to continue to feel comfortable that it is superior.

[00:02:21]Gordon Alport said of this attitude from the point of view of white people it was a cultural device for enhancing self-esteem.

[00:02:30]Inferiority cannot close the gap on superiority.

[00:02:34]If this is perceived to be happening, then a reason must be found to explain it in such a way that superiority can continue to feel superior. In this way, perceives black social improvement or worse, black excellence disrupts the white supremacy matrix and delegitimizes it. when that black boxer I spoke of in chapter one became the first black heavyweight champion of the world by beating a white man in the ring to do it. This feeling of a challenge to white superiority was the cause of a violent reaction from many in the white community and why several states banned showings of the fight in theaters.

[00:03:20]This feeling is in line with the outcome of a 2014 study that concluded white participants responded to racial progress by exhibiting evidence of threat. Lower implicit self-worth relative to baseline.

[00:03:36]This reaction is consistent with our argument that racial progress threatens the status hierarchy and thus whites who traditionally occupy dominant positions in society.

[00:03:50]Our progress, the progress of black people is threatening to them and should be.

[00:03:56]If they are up, then their racial opposite should be faced down in the mud. If we aren't, then that is a red flag of a developing problem that according to this study harms their perception of self.

[00:04:13]Behavioral scientists only have some tenuous ideas about how to deal with this. No one actually knows how to stop this feeling amongst whites. Part of the reason they have no idea is that they do not approach this from an evolutionary understanding of why whites are feeling this way. Additionally, this is the explanation for the bizarre data showing that whites feel they are now the group most racially discriminated against.

[00:04:42]Subsequently, discrimination against whites becomes the reason blacks are perceived to have made progress. This perception then allows whites to maintain their sense of racial superiority or self-worth as Golden Alport described it.

[00:05:01]Furthermore, it informs us that they do not believe blacks can make progress via their own agency. Blacks can only improve if whites are unfairly held down. A perception that makes sense if blacks are believed to be incapable of closing the socioeconomic gap between themselves and whites on their own steam.

[00:05:25]This is just one more slice of evidence indicating how we are perceived as inferior humans right now in the 21st century. The downside of this feeling is that when it motivates behavior that is harmful to blacks through how the institutions that are under white control are used against us, race-based political choices and actions that they believe will be harmful to blacks will also be pursued.

[00:05:53]This is how the institutional power used on black Caribbeans during the Windrush scandal can take place for years with no one in the highest halls of government doing a thing to stop it. This understanding is something to be incorporated in any group level effort to improve black ability to access better economic and social outcomes for the population.

[00:06:17]The ultimate racial other is the ultimate racial threat. That truth means we can never hide and will always be a danger that is closely monitored.

[00:06:29]We will need to tread very carefully in how we choose to pursue those goals or progress.

[00:06:36]You have understood nothing in this book if you believe we can quite openly improve ourselves as a group and go merrily along our way without a strong response to undermine that improvement from some whites with power.

[00:06:53]The defense mechanism operates based on this expectation of white dominance.

[00:06:58]Like any other organism that has a dominance instinct, when dominance is challenged, it will stimulate a defensive response. For some whites, they will not know who they are if they can't maintain an image of what they believe and want blacks to be. That response is not about being white. It is about being human. As my favorite science fiction writer, Octavia Butler, told us, "Humans are hierarchical. It is our evolved predisposition for always desiring and seeking a highquality ranking relative to others expressing itself that is the source of the defense mechanism.

[00:07:38]The human evolved mental adaptation we are dealing with here in this case is status sensitivity.

[00:07:45]This is the defense mechanism that motivates white behavior to shut down collective black efforts to stand and go forth in this world.

[00:07:54]Marcus Garvey did not account for this in his Panaffrican struggle to help black people stand and go forth. Neither did the black empowerment movements we just reviewed and the anti-racism protests certainly did not account for the status sensitivity reaction. The tactic to put into play is to conceal your growing capability level and strength until it is too late for the opponent to halt your progress because you have grown too strong for him to stop you without great cost to himself.

[00:08:26]We didn't do this. In fact, we never do this.

[00:08:30]These are mistakes that are repeating themselves over the course of more than 100 years of black struggle against racial discrimination and the imposed perception of black inferiority.

[00:08:44]That is why the results of those past movements failed to produce the desired outcomes we wanted. When you practice the dark arts, you always plan for the status sensitivity defensive reaction from whoever the rival is because if they are human, then that defensive reaction is unavoidable.

[00:09:04]If you have a great image of yourself that you socially greatly benefit from, what would you do to something that threatens to strip you of that public image and all the benefits that come along with that identity? Whatever your mind conjures up in answer to that question, that should be your expectation of what will be done to undermine the black ability to improve its social position. This is what humans do when they are in the alpha position and are being chased down by those they want to continue to dominate.

[00:09:36]Many black people feel if they can just present strong evidence of racial disparities between blacks and whites, then whites will be motivated to support policies that reduce those disparities.

[00:09:47]This is a goal many black people work hard to accomplish. Research by psychologists Rebecca Hetti and Jennifer Eberahart in 2014 looked into this belief.

[00:09:58]They presented white members of the public with evidence of racial inequities based on tough on crime policies like the three strikes law and stop and frisk program in California and New York City respectively.

[00:10:13]This did not motivate whites to want to bring those policies down so that they could reduce racial disparities.

[00:10:19]On the contrary, the more these policies put high numbers of blacks in prison, the more likely whites were to support these tough on crime policies. If they felt it was less harmful to blacks, they decreased their support for the policy.

[00:10:37]So, here again is an example of blacks following the wrong strategy.

[00:10:42]showing them what was wrong and thinking, "Okay, they will choose to help out and do what is ethically correct," is not the choice whites in this study made. Blacks followed the wrong strategy and suffered the consequences. We did not plan for the status sensitivity defense mechanism. If we get a better understanding of our tribal psychology, this would be a strategy we would expect to fail and thus choose not to follow it.

[00:11:11]The truth is, we are still choosing to put evidence of racial disparities in front of white faces and thinking that if we have done a good job presenting the evidence, they will make changes to lower the disparities.

[00:11:26]We don't understand how such evidence only supports their perception of themselves as superior and blacks as inferior.

[00:11:35]For many of them, these racial disparities exist because blacks are a substandard model. And that is what the evidence in their opinion is showing.

[00:11:45]This meets with what their expectation is for the ultimate racial other dysfunction. Black dysfunction.

[00:11:54]Outcomes like these are right in line with my analogy that blacks are the LA Lakers and whites are the Boston Celtics. We should expect the Boston Celtics to favor putting more of the Lakers in jail. It helps the Celtics stay champions of the league. The conclusion from this study is one more feather in the cap of the collection of evidence showing intergroup prejudice and discrimination doing what it was designed by evolution to do to deal with difficulties outside tribes of humans represent to the success of our tribe.

[00:12:32]Understanding this, it should be clear how blacks can't escape being perceived as a threat to this white supremacy matrix if we try to improve our social and economic situation relative to theirs. We are less threatening as a race when we live in ghettos and deprived urban areas as we do in London or Manchester or New York or Detroit.

[00:12:55]Our placement in such ghettos is expected because that is where people expect blacks. the perceived inferior people to be. When it looks like too many of us escape that state and better our living situation, it disrupts the white perception of themselves as better than black and the status sensitivity defense mechanism gets switched on.