UU Band of Writers, August 5, 2018
W is for _____
by Eric Meece, UU Band of Writers
W is for white. White is a symbol for purity. It represents all colors blended together. It is positive. White light is something desirable to see around someone. White hats are worn by the good guys. White represents good, and black, its opposite, represents bad.
Nevertheless, sometimes black is considered good, as when a business is said to be in the black. This means it is doing well, as opposed to being in the red. Black Friday is a good day for business. But Black Thursday was the day the bottom dropped out of the stock market in 1929. So the meaning of symbols can change too.
You can't have white without black, or black without white. That means you can't have good things without some bad things, or fulfillment without challenges, victory without obstacles to defeat, a good ride without ups and downs, and so on. White and black are considered dull colors; they are linear and are posited on a scale from black to white with shades of gray in between. And no color is duller than gray. On the other hand, color is based on a wheel, or at least a spectrum. Any one of the colors of the rainbow or the color wheel implies a relationship to all the others. Color whirls you around like you're on a ferris wheel. Colors are exciting; they put you on the edge. White and black put you to sleep.
White is also a symbol for racial purity. White people should be allowed in the country, according to politicians like Donald Trump, while dark-skinned people and "people of color" are not welcome. Today, "open borders" is a slogan that arouses fear of immigrants. Trump says we are being overrun by immigrants from shit-hole countries. This gets him white votes. White identity politics works in the USA, and often in Europe too. We need to make Italy great again, said Mussolini. We need to make America great again, says Trump. They both meant to make their country white again.
But we always had open borders in the USA until 1882, when the Chinese were excluded. Then came eugenics, which extolled the virtues of white inbreeding to develop a superior race. It was the basis of the 1924 law that severely restricted immigrants except northern Europeans. Since the sixties immigration was opened to more people, but Latin Americans have often been restricted. Now Trump has banned travel from selected Muslim countries, and imposed a no tolerance policy for Latin Americans crossing the border. Children are separated from parents, and non-whites are picked up off the street and deported because of old drunk driving citations. That's the way totalitarian societies often work. There's relative freedom for white people or the dominant race; oppression for others.
Anti-immigration laws are sold as a reasonable measure to keep out criminals and terrorists, and keep immigration down to manageable levels so the country and its institutions are not overwhelmed. This seems correct in our times, when there are real threats from abroad; but the fact remains that white people are and have always been accepted in the USA, while those kept out are and have been non-white. Now, "when Mexico sends its people, they're not sending their best," according to Mr. Trump. "They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime," and "they're rapists." Racial purity is the goal of this false propaganda, and the excuse for oppression of people of color in the USA-- and elsewhere too. But we should remember that although white may ideally be the original combination of all colors, and may symbolically stand for what's good, it also can mean fear of impurity-- and it's also dull.