BRAND WHITENESS

Brand Whiteness.

It’s one of the most successful advertising/marketing campaigns in this planet’s history.

There is not much that can challenge it, possibly Brand Christianity, but then that brand has been used extensively to prop up this one.

We are all impacted by it, our narrative, our world and our experiences.

It’s a global brand, done so well that even those who are not white believe in its sanctity, they too chose Brand Whiteness over anything and everything else, even when the Brand is vilifying them… well, it’s still better than the opposite, it’s better than being Black.

It’s been over a good 1600 years of Brand Whiteness, carefully curated and systemized so that we don’t even know how to untangle ourselves from its web.

What does life without it even look like?

It’s so powerful that those that benefit from it the most don’t even know that they are under it and will defend it to the hilt, not even realising that they have become its evangelists.

They’ve been conditioned to believe in its sanctity, not recognising that it’s a social construct is so deep-rooted in their psyche that they can’t even consider life without it.

When you realise that only around 15% of our world is actually Caucasian you start to understand the massive advertising and marketing effort that has changed impacted our world view.

So what does it look like? 

Brand Whiteness

White is better

White is more intelligent

White is superior

White is good

White is holiness

White is always right

White is normal

White is demure

White is pure

White is lawful

White is human

White is powerful

White is beautiful

White is clean

White is peaceful

White can never be wrong

White is what you need in your life for it to have any value

Nothing shines brighter than whiter

Anything that is not white is othered

It has propped itself up by also promoting the adverse using that advertising ploy other something so much that this brand is the only option.

Black is bad

Black is violent

Black is less than

Black is inhumane – white is human

Black is debased

Black is impure/immoral

Black is heathen/godless

Black is demeaning

Black is criminal

Black is ugly

Black is powerless

Black is always wrong

Black is stupid

Black is dirty

Black is not needed

Black is only useful if used for a white purpose

Nothing is darker and more evil than black

These are just a few of the messages that we receive. We have been subtly and overtly taught this through all of our interactions and experiences. The Advertising and Film/TV industry has certainly maintained this status quo as have our textbooks in school, history books and everything else that we engage with on a daily basis.

It is this brand that we must rid ourselves of.

Racism cannot be dismantled without the dismantling of Brand Whiteness. Until we stop being fed that “White is best and Black is the worst” then we won’t be able to change anything. This is why we are still in 2020 dealing with racism. This is why it’s OK to kill black people in cold bold, with a look of satisfaction on your face and get away with it and have people defend your actions.

This is why so many boards don’t have people who look like me on them, why adverts, films and movies are so lacking in diversity. Why companies don't take Diversity and Inclusion seriously.

Why managers and senior leaders think that they can make inappropriate comments to their black staff, block their promotions, steal their work and claim it as their own and get away with it.

Its why when a black person experiences an injustice, they are treated as the perpetrator, not the victim.

It's why a black politician who has held her seat since 1987 and has an amazing track record receives more racist hate mail that ALL of the other MP's put together.

It’s not that there aren’t any black people or non-white people who can operate at a senior its that Brand Whiteness says – No, not them White’s Only.

This is why so many people think that the second largest CONTINENT in the world is a country.

Africa is a made up of 54 countries. Cyril Husbands pointed out that it's 55 countries if Western Sahara's illegal annexation by Morocco is discounted as it should be (the Sahrawi have repeatedly and emphatically stated they desire independence.) But it's not known because of the amazing advertising campaign that keeps anything that is Black less than.

This is why people have no idea about African history, or the truth of Colonialism, how much wealth Africa has that has been stolen. 

This is why we have a political map that makes countries like the United Kingdom look several times bigger than it actually is and that makes Africa look so much smaller.

Did you know you can fit U.S., China, India, Japan, Mexico, and many European nations, combined into AFRICA?

You know why you don’t know this?

BRAND WHITENESS

If you are triggered by this post, ask yourself why? What is it that you are disagreeing with? Are you saying it’s racist? LOL That has been the defence for not accepting what is clear for those who experience every day casual and vicious racism. It’s laughable.

When we say White, it is with a capital W.

Why?

Because it’s not about you as an individual (unless you are doing your racist folly.) It’s about the systems that have been created to keep White people believing that they and everything to do with Whiteness is superior and keeping everyone else believing it too.

So, let’s get rid of Brand Whiteness and replace with something far better where all lives really do matter.