Breaking Systems of Oppression

Andrea Smith’s “Heteropatriarchy and the Three Pillars of White Supremacy” introduces an alternative framework for the organization of women and people of color (Smith 67). Such framework is non-singular, contrasting the previous which have proven to be limiting to these groups (Smith 67). Through the discussion of the three pillars which are separate, but interrelated and heteropatriarchy within society Smith provides a helpful starting point for organizers to break from systems of oppression and ultimately deconstruct White supremacy (Smith 73).

Smith’s three pillars Slavery/Capitalism, Genocide/Colonialism, and Orientalism/War are distinct and interrelated logics which work separately as well as collectively to oppress minority groups. The first, Slavery/Capitalism reduces Black people as no more than property whereby Blackness is equated with slaveability (Smith 67). Smith continues in her discussion through the examination of various forms of slavery such as the formal slave systems, sharecropping, and the prison-industrial complex (Smith 67). The United States system of Capitalism commodifies people lending itself to create a racial hierarchy within society (Smith 67). This structure conveys a promise in which all nonblack people have the opportunity to escape the commodification of Capitalism because they are not Black. Thus, non-Blacks accept their pillar of oppression because at least they are not property and therefore, slaveable like Blacks (Smith 67). This allows Blacks throughout the country to changeover from the property of slave owners to the property of the state (Smith 67).

The second pillar Genocide/Colonialism suggests indigenous peoples must always be disappearing to allow non-indigenous peoples rightful c...

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...erarchy is naturalized through introducing patriarchy heteronormativity (Smith 72).

Consequently, only through the awareness and destruction of the heteropatriarchal structure and three pillars of white supremacy can people of color break from their systems of oppression. White supremacy is protected by the heteropatriarchal family system which allows for the pillars of oppression to exist (McIntosh 1). The heteropatriachal family system is supported by Christianity and oppresses groups which do not follow the traditional such as followers of Islam, non-heterosexuals, and non-Whites. The three pillars of oppression work with the traditional family model to target and dominate non-Whites. Oppressed minority groups may deconstruct these systems by aligning with one another to combat forces of white supremacy throughout society; heteropatriarchy and the three pillars.