White Supremacy In The Underground Railroad

In Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad,” white supremacy is portrayed as a pervasive and destructive force that shaped the lives of African Americans. Through vivid depictions of brutal violence and systematic oppression portrayed through various chapters, Whitehead reveals two distinct but similar ways white supremacy perpetuated slavery. White hegemony and White fear displayed how white supremacy was used to justify the violence and exploitation against African Americans.
Whitehead demonstrates how white supremacy permeates every aspect of American society. Ridgeway was the essence of White hegemony in the novel. Ridgeway's acts are justified by his worldview, the American Imperative, which states that it is the American Imperative

The fact about Social Darwinism is that many white people, particularly Ridgeway, had the same ideas regarding slavery and buying slaves. Ridgeway mentions to Cora–the protagonist's runaway slave–that she and her mother are the best of their race. Moreover, Ridegway continues to shine a light on white supremacy through this chapter as he describes how the weak “have been weeded out, they die in the slave ships,”(227) and they needed the slaves to be strong to endure the harsh labors they were put through but not so fit they could outrun them. With this attitude and thought in mind, Ridgeway goes to tremendous efforts to maintain fear among the slaves in order to establish order, and white supremacy continues through his generation. The white supremacist's strong belief in social Darwinism dictates that some races are inherently superior to others and that the "survival of the fittest" should be the guiding principle of society. This belief is used to justify the enslavement of black people and the brutal treatment they received at the hands of their oppressors. Ridgeway ties Social Darwinism to the American imperative throughout the final sections of Tennesse because white people are at the top of the ladder, holding all the power simply because they can steal land and kidnap Africans to bring them to the states and enslave