White supremacy survives individual whites’ deaths because it is institutional

Evidence

While it’s tempting, especially faced with the enormity of the problem, to believe that the oldest generation of whites will take white supremacy with them to the grave, finally removing it from our religious and political lives, such blind hopes misunderstand the nature of white supremacy, particularly its tenacious ability to endure from generation to generation. Contrary to the assertions of white Christian theology’s freewill individualism, the hosts of white supremacy are not just individuals. Even after the last white American who grew up in Jim Crow America has died, the legacy of white supremacy will survive because, after hundreds of years of nurturing and reinforcement, it has become part of our culture and institutions. Sometimes it lies dormant, but until it is excised, it remains potentially active in overt and subtle ways. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long, 640

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s earlier chapters documenting white supremacy as institutionalized in churches rather than merely held by bigoted individuals. — connects to: White Christians have more at stake than black Americans in racial repair — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 680; White churches actively constructed, not merely tolerated, white supremacy. — Robert P. Jones, White Too Long: The Legacy of White…, 30; White supremacy survived slavery by re-inscribing itself in new institutions — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 54 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• White supremacy survived slavery by re-inscribing itself in new institutions #corroborates (0.95) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 54
• Institutional racism can persist without any individual racists #corroborates (0.90) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 2388
• White supremacy is a social organization valuing whites more, not just racial hatred #expands (0.85) — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 77
• White supremacy operates as an idea undergirding Western social structure #expands (0.80) — Ibram X. Kendi, Stamped from the Beginning, 1151
• Slavery, lynching, and segregation each institutionalized a distinct form of racism #exemplifies (0.80) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 59
• Institutionalized racial violence diffuses individual responsibility for perpetration #expands (0.75) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1727