2: The Three Pillars of White Supremacy

This chapter describes White supremacy as a European phenomenon rooted in colonial expansion, capitalism, and human exploitation. The opening vignette highlights a significant disparity in the level of attention received by individuals belonging to different groups. The legacies of enslavement and colonization continue to affect lives and communities in a variety of ways, such as disproportionate representation, policies on immigration, and legal status. This chapter explores how the transatlantic slave trade and European efforts to colonize the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island combined under White supremacy to characterize the efforts made to attempt to erase Indigenous people's cultures and ways while simultaneously enslaving people of African descent to generate profit for the homeland.