The White Man as Political Construct

An infection has come to that political construct known as The White Man. 

Let me be clear that I am not talking of men who are white, I am talking of the expectations and demands of a society that describes him as "White". 

He has been fed hate and violence in media from mainstream to social. The neoliberal economy has cast an invisible fence around him so that his humanity is reduced to whatever serves the bottom line. 

The first fence was constructed centuries ago when he was taught to be 'rational', not rational by questioning the beliefs of his time, but to eschew  his feelings, to be suspicious of love, and to be faithful to the role of defender and warrior. He has been the consistent target of propaganda.

The White Man is not a race or species but a construct that was useful when Europeans invaded other continents such as Africa, Asia Australia and America.  European nations who had a long history of war with each other found a new identity when they discovered aboriginal societies who had darker complexions whom they stole land, goods and women from, and began a new career in slavery. 

Designating the people as savage, uncivilized, meant that the rape of the land and the people were easier for the conscience of the invaders.  The White Man was born, grew rich, authoritarian, and powerful. The White Man scoffed at literature, poetry, music, dance and art, after he colonized other continents. Again let me say I am not talking about men who are white but the mythology of the man.

Self reflection was inconvenient to the soldiers, teachers, and governors who had to brutalize others in order to succeed. But unknown to many was the brutalization of his own spirit as he was ordered into 'being a man' who would never complain of weakness, exhaustion, boredom and inner rage.  

His senses had to be replaced with a hard doctrine of power, and a promise of wealth and success. Doubts had to be silenced while the land was mined for gems, metal, and free labour. He had to turn away from the suffering he was ordered to inflict on others to maintain an empire of huge bank accounts and gigantic lies.  Lies such as the idea of progress depended on beating up those who were lower on the pecking order. 

It's not that this was invented by The White Man, its that he was moved from a personal relationship to the world, albeit full of dangers and hardships, to a constructed doctrine. The notion of white supremacy was and is the most devastating indoctrination. It guaranteed the ongoing domination of all for the profit for a few. Each century has wielded new lies to keep the whip in the hands of the unquestioning White Man. It tied his senses to the bridle of a mythical progress. 

Misogyny took the love of life out of his world and castrated his sensuality.  The men who have not found the success they were told was theirs 'as long as they obeyed the rules', have been tossed into slums  of despair. They have been discarded, labelled as rubbish and they are the ones now attempting to raise the flag of white supremacy again, in the hope that fascism, force, degradation of the other will fall under the boot of his rage.

What The White Man needs is friendship, meaningful work, dignity and empathy, denied him through an indifferent cruel economy.  He needs time and place to find his humanity among women, LGBTQ realities, asians, africans and aboriginals who have managed  to hold onto their humanity.

Far from being oppressed by immigrants, he may with a little poetry, and responsible democratic government, find the salvation of the white man as he returns to nature and discards the straightjacket of exploited machismo.