White Supremacy has been around since the 17th century and is still noticeable today. White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to all other races. It was believed that whites were the dominate race above all others. Cornell West’s intentions of writing the Prophesy Deliverance was to include the Christian tradition rooted in the African American struggle against white supremacy. Informed by progressive Marxist theory and fallibilist pragmatic thought and is tempered by a profound tragic sense of life (pg. Preface). White supremacy was a huge obstacle for African Americans regarding their identity, morals, and culture. The roots of U.S. White Supremacy lie in establishing economic exploitation by the theft of resources and …show more content…
The main reason blacks were brought to the United States was because they were a cheap and plentiful labor source. It was knowledge and disease resistance that helped to doom millions of Africans to servitude in the Americas. (Third Edition African in World History from Prehistory to the Present pg. 155) The belittle and dehumanizing of Africans started as soon as they were put on the ships in Africa to bring them over the United States. They were treated like cattle and animals on the ships and the conditions that they were in were almost unbearable. As many slaves spaces as possible were kept below ship decks chained to together. There were no facilities for the removal of human waste, except for a bucket that was passed around. The heat below in the tropics sent temperatures well over the hundred degree mark. (Third Edition African in World History from Prehistory to the Present pg. 161) Putting the slaves in these conditions and treating them like animals was the first step the whites took to show their power, control, and to show that they were superior to them. The enslavement of African people was the way that white landowners resolved their need for cheap labor. As enslavement formed slaves, Negroes, and blacks it also shaped white people as well. The white race was “invented’ as a social control mechanism to prevent revolts by enslaved African