And MY experience I was also raised by white people. I'm not saying and nor is he saying that all white people are inherently born a certain way because that is actually racism. He is saying that white people are socialized in a particular way that statistically speaking causes them to display specific social patterns of behavior.
The white family I was adopted into was generationally wealthy and white. My mother grew up during segregation. So back then some of the socialization she received was strictly racist it was on the books as law. My grandmother didn't necessarily have to teach her that. My grandfather or her grandfather didn't have to teach her that. But because socialization occurs while we are children before we get a choice in the matter some of it sticks even if our ideology as adults in the present is opposed to our own past socialization.
Most of her socialization revolved around ideas of class and behavior. This was heavily toted in the 50s and 60s.
Now you do have those white people who were left out of the social setting and were too poor to aim for class recognition. But then it would be logical to assume this would also affect the marginalized white individual sometimes to a higher degree since we know that when you are an outside observer who wishes to be accepted you often gather more information than someone who already has it made for them. I also know a white woman who was like this. Her daughter went to school with me for 15 years and her daughter was really overtly racist as a child but grew out of her overt racism as a child. Now it's covert and you would probably meet her and think she likes you. In fact this white friend of mine once relayed to me in college that she once got drunk and made out with a black man. The black man probably had a great time and thought my friend was really into him. I got to hear the other side. First off my friend had never gotten drunk before this. It was her first time. We had both grown up in the same private conservative school setting so we both had thoroughly absorbed our socialization by that point as good Christian white girls. Obviously I got out of the sunken place and she sort of did but she went into a different sunken place. Anyways she was terrified and ashamed of herself for making out with a black man. She talked about how she didn't know herself anymore. She went through an idenity crisis.
Now my other white female friend was very quiet and liked black men. She is just sort of average looking. Very sweet looking with not so clear skin and nothing very extraordinary about her face. A lot of people might even say that because she is unable to land a white man who wants to date her she primarily dates black men or men of color. She is much less racist. In fact I have never seen or even gotten an incling of any racist statement or behavior from her at all. But she does struggle with the fact that a lot of her black boyfriends are still attracted to more curvy women of color not just black but some are. She's been cheated on a number of times and is generally treated not so great by her boyfriends. I feel bad for her because she actually is probably one of the least racist white people I know but because of the black men she has been with that cheat on her with other women of color I've noticed she has started to display jealous behavior toward women of color.
Socialization never stops because we are social animals. So you can have a white woman like my mom who was raised to misidentify some racist stereotypes as class stereotypes. For instance speaking slang to her is just intolerable. She's gotten better at tuning it out but all in all she doesn't like improper language. She also sees social unrest as criminal behavior. So things like protesting is just not part of what people in her class do white or black.
Then you have other white women like my friend who grew up with me who had a mother in a social climbing class. In fact all the white women in their family are very jealous and upset about their class status even though they have enjoyed a lot of higher class benefits. But my guess is that their parents forever left out of the party passed this antagonsim to their children. Their mother had to dress them as perfectly as possible as children. My grandmother who married into a higher class also did this with my mother and uncle but the difference is that she married into it so my mother fit into the right social class based on her father's side of the family. Where as my friend I grew up with her mother struggled her whole life. So the way my friend grew up was almost like forcing a social class on a child with dresses and manners that caused all the women in their family to have incredible mental health problems as adults. Their mother would like scream at them over trivial manner problems and give them crazy punishments for wearing wrinkled clothing. They cracked under the pressure. One of them has a daughter who pulls out her own hair. The other married an abusive man. The other one has a personality disorder like criminal minds level. The son is an alchoholic in and out of jail. The last one will probably off herself eventually and the whole family will act all shocked and confused as to why.
Anyway this is a little confusing I know but my point is that very few white women escape class socialization factors. If they went to school in the US there is no way to escape it. So because in the US race and class are linked together very few white women if any would have escaped socialization about their own superiority. I have seen a few cases where there is an exception but usually invovles an incredibly unconventional childhood.Usually involves homeschooling and parents that completely live outside the social fabric of society. They exist but the likelihood that you know one of these white people statistically speaking is pretty low.
