Deep within the heart of America’s identity lies a deceptive falsehood—a lie that countless Americans cling to, despite its glaring contradictions. We’ve all experienced the shock and disappointment of being deceived, but what if the lie was so deeply ingrained, so profoundly woven into our self-identity, that most of us willingly embraced it, disregarding all evidence to the contrary? There is, in fact, such a lie. It was first conceived roughly three centuries ago, and has been spreading ever since.
I’m talking about the illusion of whiteness. It’s a sham, a concept devoid of truth, yet we hold onto it with unwavering determination, oblivious to the havoc it wreaks on our world.
Our ancestors concocted whiteness for one purpose alone—to seize power. This lie was first told sometime in the early 17th century and codified into written law in April, 1691. It was designed to enforce an insidious caste system, based entirely upon a fictitious racial hierarchy. Whiteness, specifically elevated itself above all other artificially constructed racial groups. In the name of this fallacy, white Americans and Europeans attempted to justify the genocide and enslavement of millions upon millions of other human beings for our own profit.
On the surface, it may appear that the lie of whiteness is dutifully serving its intended purpose, while seemingly keeping white people immune from its harmful side effects. But even a brief examination reveals a harsh truth—a truth that our predecessors could never have foreseen. Whiteness has backfired in ways that inflict profound suffering upon us all. The anxiety and neuroses that plague white America, the escalating rates of suicides, homicides, and mass shootings—all trace their roots back to our own creation turning against us.
While it’s undeniable that those outside the confines of whiteness endure greater suffering, as it was designed to be, we must confront the undeniable reality that whiteness erodes our very being—our mental, emotional, spiritual, and even physical well-being. The invention of whiteness and the compulsory racism it enforces exact a heavy toll. Fear, hatred, paranoia, biases, prejudices, nationalism, and xenophobia—all these are unintended symptoms fueled by intergenerational trauma, neuroticism, self-hatred, guilt, and the loss of ethnic identity.
Unless we can begin to see whiteness for what it truly is – a self-induced coma maintained through complicit denial, we have no hope of healing ourselves. More importantly, we have no hope of healing America. It is time for us to wake up to what has been right in front of us all along. Our country is sick, yet we persist in treating the symptoms while ignoring the root cause—the lie at the core of our nation, the lie of whiteness.
