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“If The Average White Person Doesn’t Hate Black People, Why Does Racism Persist?”

A comment presented from one of my articles became the title of this essay and prompted me to write it.

Dr. Cynthia Alease Smith
Momentum
9 min readOct 27, 2023

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The title is a question I received, like so many of the questions I am asked by cognitively dissonant people identifying as white, who more than likely consider themselves average as well. I am struck by the question at once, principally because this particular commenter actually expects me to know the answer to a question that opens with an inconsistency of reality I am expected to assume and then draw my answer from as though the paradox of Racism exists in a vacuum and without any defined rationale. This to me is exceedingly arrogant and makes me angry, very angry. The mass delusion between the lines is like a paradoxical math question without a rational answer:

if the average of x ≠ 0, then why is x = 0?

Of the many reasons to be incensed over the subject of white supremacism’s relationship with wanton hatred of Black people and whether or not the case is true for many average white people today, I am furious about the consistent desire over the generations to manipulate history by outright changing it or softening it to the extent of creating a fantasy about the Enslavement using…

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Momentum
Momentum

Published in Momentum

Momentum is a blog that captures and reflects the moment we find ourselves in, one where rampant anti-Black racism is leading to violence, trauma, protest, reflection, sorrow, and more. Momentum doesn’t look away when the news cycle shifts.

Dr. Cynthia Alease Smith
Dr. Cynthia Alease Smith

Written by Dr. Cynthia Alease Smith

Anti-Racism Essayist & Educator offering discussions about Race, Racism, White Supremacy and the language used, from perspectives not ordinarily considered.

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