Why Supremacy Is the Problem, Even If You Don’t Believe In It 

Every single governor now fighting for the enforcement of the post-Voting Rights Act evisceration of right-to-vote laws (e.g., Pat McCrory, Greg Abbott, Scott Walker) is a racist in the most meaningful sense of the word. By “most meaningful sense of the word” I mean that my indictment has nothing to do with how they think they feel about people of color. Racism is the system of laws, process, education and institutions put in place to maintain white supremacy. And governors like Pat McCrory in North Carolina are determined to preserve that system.

That makes those who vote for him at the very least collaborators with racism, and that makes his colleagues who support his policy agenda either racists themselves or collaborators or colluders with racism for political expediency.
This is what makes supremacist logic so insidious: it will seldom put on you more discomfort than you can bear. It gives you some way to fit into its agenda as long as you allow for the ultimate goal of leaving a particular people in power, which in the case of US voting rights, is white people. Racism, in this case, is the power and insistence to disenfranchise people of color.

Now here’s what makes racism in America so difficult to dismantle. In general, white conservatives’ response to such a blatant indictment is simply to say it’s not true and defiantly continue to do that which serves them. However, those who are inclined to react in defiance could not maintain power through defiance alone. they need the collusion of those who know better, but aren’t willing to insist on better. Welcome to the stage good liberals. In general, white liberals’ response to such a blatant indictment is to minimize the racism being demonstrated as not being such a big deal or as being more complex than such a simple declarative can capture.  As a result, supremacy remains empowered and systemic inequity continues unabated.