CNN’s Bell: White Supremacy Also Entails People Who Have No Response Because They Never Owned Slaves

In a Friday appearance on CNN’s “New Day,” W. Kamau Bell, host of the network’s documentary series “United Shades of America,” discussed defining white supremacy in the United States.

According to Bell, white supremacy is not just a white person disliking a black person. He argued white supremacy also includes when someone who feels they can have no response to racism in the country because “they never personally owned slaves.”

“I think a lot of people believe … white supremacy is just when a white person doesn’t like a black person, but that’s just prejudice,” Bell explained. “In America, white supremacy is a system that promotes whiteness — and white maleness specifically, and white Christian maleness specifically — over everyone else.”

“And so, we really want to talk about like it’s blockbusting, it’s red-lining, but it’s also just people who feel like they have no response for racism in this country because they never personally owned slaves. So … we have a list early in the episode that goes through the entire — not the entire thing, but multiple levels of white supremacy, so people understand it’s not just a feeling — it’s actually a measurable force in America,” he concluded.

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