In The Souls of Black Folk (1903) W.E.B. DuBois writes that “The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.” Is the problem of the color-line the problem of the 21^st century too?

In “White Supremacy as a Sociopolitical System” Charles Mills argues that in the major areas of American society (and in some respects the entire world)—such as in the juridical system, the economic and cultural spheres—white people dominate and are privileged in ways that are racially discriminating.

1. To conceptualize this state of affairs Charles Mills uses the term white supremacy—a term that after the civil rights laws of the 1960s fell out of vogue as a depiction of American society. (a) How is Mills use of the term “white supremacy” similar to the uses of the terms “class society” and “patriarchy”, and how do these three terms challenge what the (liberal) mainstream typically counts as political? (pp. 36 and 39-40) (b) Why does Mills think that the term “white supremacy” still applies to American society despite the absence of State-sanctioned segregation since the 1960s? (pp. 36-37) (c) How does Mills, following Law Professor Frances Lee Ansley, broadly define “white supremacy”? (p. 37) (d) Why does he think that in our current postcolonial era we can still be said to be living in an age of global white supremacy? (pp. 37-38)
2. What is the origin of white supremacy as a system, or set of systems, according to Mills—the original racial “big bang”, as he calls it? (p. 38)
3. What are the four reasons why Mills thinks that white supremacy as a concept entails a radically different understanding of political reality, pointing us theoretically toward the centrality of racial domination and subordination (and effecting what he thinks is no less than a fundamental paradigm shift)? (pp. 40-42)
4. According to Mills, white supremacy should be seen as a multidimensional system of domination not merely encompassing the “formally” political that is limited to the juridico-political realm of official governing bodies but extending to white domination in economic, cultural, cognitive-evaluative, somatic, and in a sense even “metaphysical” spheres. Briefly describe how, according to Mills, there is white supremacy in each of these spheres. (a) The juridico-political sphere. (b) The economic sphere. (c) The cultural sphere. (d) The cognitive-evaluative sphere. (e) The somatic sphere. (f) The metaphysical sphere. (pp. 42-48)

***The like to the Tues Feb 23 reading – Charles Mills, “White Supremacy as a Sociopolitical System” is repaired. Thanks Alex.***