To be White in America was—and still is—at the top of the racial hierarchy and thus automatically eligible for the full rights and benefits of American citizenship. As Painter notes, “A notion of freedom lies at the core of the American idea of whiteness. Accordingly, the concept of slavery—at any time in any society—calls up racial difference, carving a permanent chasm of race between the free and the enslaved.”10 In other words, to be White was, and is still, to be free. In contrast, to be any other race is to have one’s rights and freedoms diminished. To be Black, in particular, is to be at
...more
