Charles W. Mills White Domination

The Interconnectedness of White Domination and White Racism Charles W. Mills, within his chapter featured in Race and Epistemologies of Ignorance, establishes the claim: "You can have white racism, in particular white cognizers, in the sense of the existence of prejudicial beliefs about people of color without (at that time and place) white domination of those people of color having been established…" (Mills 21). To understand this, the definition of domination must be established. Contrary to popular belief, domination does not necessarily comprise solely of control, but also influence. Essentially, Mills' fundamental claim is that absent white supremacy/domination, white racism is able to subsist. On face, the period of European expansionism

This moment in history was not marked by a physical manifestation of white domination by virtue of the fact that the infiltration of European invaders had yet to occur, however, still bore witness to white racism as a product of white domination in the form of a metaphysical white influence; though white domination was not known by the Native

White racism cannot exist standalone; it exists in a causal relationship with white domination. Domination must be established first before racism can occur. This form of domination does not have to be overt or physical in nature and needs no reciprocity in acknowledgment of said domination, but characterized by a covert metaphysical dominance that can be known solely by the suspects themselves. The colonialists exhibited white racism as a consequence of the influence of the ideology of white dominance created through the accounts of those who visited the Americas: "One will experience a strain, a cognitive tension between possible egalitarian findings and overarching category, insofar as "savage" already has embedded in it a narrative, a set of assumptions about innate inferiority, which will preclude certain possibilities," (Mills 27). Thus, the physical act of coming to the Americas confirmed a one-sided, de jure form of white domination which then manifested itself into white racism. The concept of white domination when established in colonialists, allows for the exhibition of white racism: "Concepts orient us to the world, and it is a rare individual who can resist this inherited orientation. Once established in the social mind-set, its influence is difficult to escape…" (Mills