White Fear: How the Browning of America Is Making White Folks Lose Their Minds

By 2043, no ethnic group will be the majority in America.

Two thirds of the world’s countries are already composed of a majority of people of color and—sooner than we know it—America will be just like the rest of the world.

In fact, a 2018 Pew Research Study showed that almost half (49 percent) of post-millennials (ages six to twenty-one) are Hispanic, African American, and Asian. By 2043, these growth trends among people of color will continue, and it is expected that less than 47 percent of the country will be White Americans. The political impact of these numbers can already be seen in the high turnout of millennials and post-millennials in the 2018 midterm elections. According to Axios, an estimated 31 percent of eighteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds voted, which was the highest voter turnout for that age group since 1994. These rapidly changing demographics will have a profound impact in the next two decades for our elections, government policies, economic growth, and a whole lot more.

Does this scare you?

The answer to that question might just depend on the color of your skin.

White supremacy has been at the foundation of this country’s infrastructure since the first enslaved Africans arrived on the shores of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, and it continues to have a lasting impact in this country. Racial division has defined America, and race continues to dominate the American psyche like no other. In fact, race is so embedded in the DNA of America that most of us are unaware of how deeply it affects how we live, move, and breathe.

While the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 provided necessary legislation and policy to give African Americans basic civil rights, these policies did not address the underlying, fundamental problem of why we needed to create legislation to address these issues in the first place: White Fear.

Why is it so important to understand White Fear? Without a proper understanding of this pulsating insanity and the history behind it, we will continue to be blindsided every time White Fear inevitably rears its head.

I define White Fear as the unwillingness to share power and resources and allow for the redefinition of America’s morals, values, and principles. White Fear is perpetuated by White Americans who are resistant to allowing America to live up to the promises of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

When I interviewed anti-racism educator Jane Elliott on my show Roland Martin Unfiltered in 2019, she summed up White Fear brilliantly: “The problem with white people is not white innocence. Nor is it white privilege. The problem is white ignorance. And until we get educated to the fact that we are not superior just because we have a lack of melanin in our skin, that’s how long we will have this problem. No one is responsible for the past. We are all responsible for the present and the future that we’re creating for ourselves and our children.”

Recognizing White Fear isn’t just about pointing out overt symbols of hooded Klan members and burning crosses. It’s about calling out voter suppression laws, gerrymandering, redlining, predatory loans, underfunded school systems, gentrification, police brutality, and any other practices that prevent people of color from taking equal part in the American Dream.

Without appropriately addressing White Fear, we aren’t doing anything more than spraying air freshener in a room filled with dog shit. When we don’t address White Fear, American classrooms will continue to be even more segregated than they were before Brown v. Board of Education. When we ignore White Fear, people of color will continue to be redlined into poorer, under-served neighborhoods and gentrified out of communities where they have lived and built family legacies for generations. When we are lulled into the false notion that White Fear has been erased by the election of the nation’s first African American president, he is replaced by a White supremacist who has done more to enforce the racial divide than any American leader in more than thirty years.

This book is a call for White Americans to take a hard look in the mirror and begin dealing with their own internal racial conflicts. It is designed to be a conversation piece for White Americans to start the necessary reprogramming of their thoughts, assumptions, and beliefs about this country, especially as it relates to race. It also sounds the alarm for White Americans to understand that the demographics and cultural norms of America are changing—regardless of whether they are ready or not. Therefore, White Americans either need to face their bigotry and shift into the reality of a swiftly changing America or be locked out of the reality of the New American Dream.

White Fear is also a call to action for people of color to begin recognizing and stepping into new opportunities in entrepreneurship, corporate development, local and national leadership, and economic empowerment as the dynamics of power begin to shift in this country. Recognizing the debilitating, demoralizing, and damaging effects of White supremacy is just the first step. White Fear will be a necessary tool for people of color to begin building their resources, developing their skills sets, and appropriately strategizing their moves to dismantle White supremacy and usher in the America that they deserve.

This book also presents my unapologetic take on what is happening today. From Black Lives Matter to challenging corporate media on their racial blind spots to fighting voter suppression, I have never shied away from speaking truth to power and telling it like it is. I make it perfectly clear throughout this book that this racial divide will not end with Donald Trump. We are in the midst of a racial war that will define what kind of nation we have for the next generation.

White Fear is about connecting the puzzle pieces about the pervasive nature of White Fear and educating people about the inevitable escalation of violence and tension that will continue as the demographics of this country swiftly change from majority White to a majority of Black, Latino, and Asian Americans. We have to begin preparing the next generation for this change. The prevalence of White Fear will cause the political and economic landscape of America to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

Finally, White Fear will identify these separate puzzle pieces, from Trump’s rise to the U.S. presidency to the decline of White American optimism to the diminishing blue-collar workforce, and create the larger picture of what will unfold in America over the next two decades. White Fear is a significant issue in our country, and we have to prepare ourselves for it. This is why White Fear matters—and why it matters right now.