The White Phantasy

—a world without Racism

How much does a society change over time? Since the Holocaust, has the mindset of the Germans, or more generally, the ideological phantasy of whiteness, changed? How do the white Americans today differ from those who not only performed lynchings but sent postcards of their attendance to the “progressive and liberal” Americans today? What is the difference between the Dutch Zwarte Piet and the Belgians paying money to witness Africans kept in their human zoos?

Judging from statistics, what has happened in Gaza since Oct 7 has been the most brutal in recent memory. Morally speaking, we have not changed since the time of our forefathers. The difference is that we are more concerned with the perception of our image rather than our actions. 

It is easy to blame all of the atrocities on the “Germans,” despite antisemitism as a well-observed behavior that was common amongst Europeans, who encouraged the transfer of Jews into the then British-occupied state, Palestine (refer to The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism by Mahmoud Abbas). And is it not the nature of white supremacy to determine the Holocaust of the Jewish people as the winner of suffering in the Arena of Victim Olympics? Who remembers the Bangladesh genocide? The Cambodian genocide? The Congo genocide? The list goes on. Why do we privilege one group’s suffering over others? Is it morally just when Israel injects contraception into Ethiopian Jewish women? How does this differ from Nazi or American eugenic programs?

George W Bush declared that the worst moment of the presidency was when Kanye West said during a Hurricane Katrina telethon that George Bush doesn’t care about Black people. Bush elaborated, “It’s one thing to say, 'I don't appreciate the way he's handled his business; it’s another thing to say, 'This man's a racist'. I resent it. It’s not true."

The white phantasy is defined by the right to demand the impossibility of racism. Notice that it’s not a call to end racism; it’s not to be an antiracist or to dismantle racism, but the right to insist on being not racist. Actions and effects of racism will remain, but the white ego will not permit such accusations, even at the cost of total human annihilation.