White Supremacy? It’s not them. It’s us.
This is my great-grandfather,
G.W. Cary:
Confederate veteran.
White supremacist.
Domestic terrorist.
Over the last few days I have heard so many “nice” white people, both liberal and conservative, lamenting the insurrection at the Capitol – yet drawing a line in the sand, saying “not me.”
Not so fast.
Our nation’s true history has been omitted from history books, cleverly erased and replaced with heroic monuments to create a fictitious past. In tandem, our family histories have been cleaned up and reinterpreted.
And we’ve done it so we can enjoy the fruits of white supremacy while denying our complicity.
We’re complicit.
Take my great-grandfather, for instance. As an active member of a white supremacist group, my great-grandfather attempted to overthrow the government of New Orleans.
The Battle of Liberty Place
“On September 14, 1874, 1,500 members of the White League — a militia of Confederate veterans opposed to the civil rights goals of Reconstruction — attacked New Orleans and overthrew the Louisiana government. Two years before, a pro-Reconstruction politician named William Pitt Kellogg was elected governor of Louisiana, largely on the strength of his support among African American voters. That same year, Caesar Carpenter Antoine, an African American man, was elected lieutenant governor.”
Equal Justice Initiative: White Militia Wages Coup Against Integrated Louisiana Government
DOES THIS SOUND FAMILIAR?
I grew up hearing that my great-grandfather had been a stand-up guy, a real hero. I never expected to find a coded reference to an insurrection in my great-grandfather’s obituary.
What my great-grandfather did is no different than what happened at the capitol on January 6th, 2021.
He and his White League comrades should have been charged and imprisoned for their treasonous and seditious acts, just as today’s traitors, including President Trump, should be locked away.
Yet, if I had not been randomly scanning for obituaries online, I would never have known about my great grandfather’s treasonous actions.
Like many, I grew up with a mythological account of my ancestors’ heroism. My mother equally extoled the virtues of organizations like the United Daughters of the Confederacy, who my mother assured me were, “just lady’s social groups dedicated to preserving southern culture.” Nope. I bought it then, but I’m not buying it now.
It’s time for white families to own up.
Our pasts are not what we believe them to be. Just as Confederate monuments are coming down around the country, so too must we tear down our whitewashed family narratives of Southern patriotism – and even Northern heroism – and confront both this nation’s history of slaveholding and institutional racism and our own complicity with white supremacy.
Time is not on our side; we are long past due for a sobering look at the truth. It is only when white families have acknowledged our history and begun the process of truth-telling that Black families will finally feel seen.
It is only when white families finally reject the belief of white supremacy that this country as a whole can move forward toward repair.
