Yes

by Elizabeth M Young

Created on: September 05, 2011

Throughout the world, laws are written to promote one type of supremacy or another. Some laws are written to promote the supremacy of corporations, and this is increasingly so in America since the Bush administration in America. Some laws are written strictly to promote the supremacy of oppressive governments, as with laws that strictly regulate commerce or childbearing in China. 

White supremacy is a fact of American life and government. For every law that eliminated or reduced favor based on race, there have been citizens groups, courts, members or groups in law enforcement and others who have fiercely fought to overturn or to resist implementing those laws. 

An example of American law that was strictly written to enforce White supremacy lies in the disparate sentencing laws for powdered cocaine and crack cocaine. The sentencing laws were written to exploit the clear knowledge that whites favored powder cocaine and that the poor or people of color favored the much cheaper crack cocaine. One major actor who went on to star in "family oriented" films is a convicted felon who was caught with enough powdered cocaine to sell to his college classmates. He was given a light sentence while his classmate, a black person who had only enough crack for himself spent several years in prison. The white actor was clearly given a break that allowed him to become famous and wealthy.

More disparity in criminal sentencing is built into the laws that allow or even encourage the courts to give far worse sentences to the poor and to people of color than to whites and those who have money.

Another example of laws that promotes white supremacy are in the drunk driving laws. Because white males commit this crime on a regular basis, it was better to make the most ineffective laws and enforcement system possible. Otherwise some of the most powerful people in the country would not be in those positions. They would have been ruined, as poor and of color drug abusers are ruined.

White supremacy is evident in the enforcement of environmental law and in the placement of toxic production facilities. Environmental racism is a fact of life in America, and the law is more in effect to prohibit building polluting facilities in white communities or areas that are valuable to corporations and power players.

White supremacy is evident in the laws that get passed when a victim of a crime is blond haired, blue eyed and white. With the exception of the James Byrd Act, rarely is the public ready to get behind a law that is named for a Black, Asian or Hispanic child, man or woman.

White supremacy in America has given a disproportionate number of whites the money, access and power to get laws passed that will further their interests and meet their needs. Even if the white person is fighting for a social good, it is likely to be their money, skin color and connection that will get them into the halls of power while the people are kept waiting outside.

Even giving women the right to vote became a white supremacist cause, because white women could add to the numbers of white voters when other races gained their rights to vote.

Yes, the law, the enforcement of the law, the intent of the law, and the formulation of the law and the execution of the law is constantly reviewed for benefits to the "majority", with the word "majority" standing for "white". 

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