All Black Folks Experience Racism
Yes, all Black people experience racism — both in subtle and overt ways and regardless of whether or not they are conscious of it or whether or not they openly discuss it.
Black people encounter multiple anti-Black indignities on a regular basis, no matter how rich, educated or powerful they are. The singular success of a Black man or woman (for example, media proprietor Oprah Winfrey, golfer Tiger Woods or President Barack Obama) is never a valid argument against the existence of racism.
Using that logic, it could be said that the success of Frederick Douglass, a former slave who became a social reformer, a great orator and a statesman, and Amanda America Dickson, the child of a slave and her owner who became one of the wealthiest Black women of her time, during the 19th century would be grounds for disproving slavery existed.
Racism is White Supremacy
Racism, at its very root, is a system of supremacy — white supremacy. Not all white people are racists. But we’re talking about a system, not individuals.
First and foremost, racism historically and continually uses whiteness and proximity to whiteness as a means to control resources and access to institutional and social power in American society, often at the expense of Blacks and people of color.
Even when whiteness intersects with other marginalized social categories such as class, sexuality, gender, ability and nationality, white identity and perceived whiteness (via whiter-looking skin) often affords an individual a better chance of moving through life much easier than their counterparts.
