Supremacism: The U.S. Government's Concealment of Systemic Oppression and the Adoption of 'Crazy' Before 'Sexist'

Supremacism is not only a term that is wholely embraced by the U.S. government; it is a term that the U.S. government and other institutions created to perpetuate their own privilege and systemic oppression under patriarchy.

On May 31, 2009, Dr. George Tiller, one of only three nationwide self-identified as providing late-term abortions and largely considered to be the nation's most celebrated and terrorized abortionist, was shot and killed as he served as an usher during church. Anti-choice activist, Scott Roeder, has been charged with first-degree murder and two counts of aggravated assault. An anti-choice extremist group is rumored to be attempting to purchase Tiller's Witchita clinic, Women's Health Care Services.

Nevermind the fact that Tiller was (and is, even in death) under constant threat of violence, political and social regulation, and disrepute. Nevermind that he was shot in both arms in 1993 and has seemingly had several brushes with death solely due to his ideologies and legal professional practice. Nevermind that the nation and its women have lost a health care icon and leader in the continuous movement for choice and reproductive justice. Let's acknowledge first that this murder was an act of Domestic Terrorism. Let's also acknowledge that this terrorism occured primarily on the basis of sexism.

On June 10, 2009, 88 year-old James W. von Brunn opened fire with a rifle at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, killing a security guard and wounding others. He is now hospitalized in critical condition after being shot by museum officers. Rumor has it that there were explosives found in his car, that he had a list of lawmakers on him when he entered the museum, and that his history of violence against the U.S. goverment and other individuals was pervasive enough to cause the government to track him. His racist website and his book entitled "Kill the Best Gentiles", alleging a Jewish conspiracy to kill the best white gene pools (along with the crimes he has committed) make clear that Brunn is a racist. His murder, too, is an act of Domestic Terrorism resulting from his racism.

Even though Obama responded to the shooting at the Holocaust Museum by stating that this act reminds us that "we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms" (Huff Post) - even though this statement at least hints at a recognition of racism being at the core of this terrorism - the media and the U.S. government (and in turn, the American People) refer to Brunn as a white supremacist.

The term "supremacist" is used to refer to someone who harbors intense and often violent hatred of a specific group of people due to race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, class, and anything else they can come up with that challenges their existence and pisses them off. It is used to cover up words indicating oppression - racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism - so that society doesn't have to acknowledge the problem, its cause, effect, and solution, perpetuating oppression and privileged institutions. It is applied to each of these protected categories holistically which means the term erases it having to be applied to anything individually and thus, the concept of systemic oppression all together.

"Supremacism" was coined by the U.S. government - an institution that powerfully maintains the privileged system in our society - and is only used in connection with people and cases which appear to be a threat to the nation and what it is theoretically founded upon. Exhibit A: Tiller's murder is viewed by left radicals as an incident of domestic terrorism but by the larger public as a tragic murder, some may go so far as to claim that it was fueled by the agenda of the religious right. Considering the press coverage, it seems that Tiller's murder was a rather significant event for the American public and its activists. Perhaps even EXTREME?! If Tiller's murder is clearly an act of domestic terrorism resulting from extreme sexism, why is his killer not referred to as a supremacist?

The U.S. government and American public refers to Holocaust Museum shooter, Brunn, as a supremacist and not Tiller's killer, Roeder, because this country has a need to protect the victims of a widely-taught racial genocide that it partook in before it protects everyday victims that it perpetuates. This country protects the predominately non-U.S. citizen victims of the Holocaust (even though, and perhaps because, the U.S. participated in Japanese concentration camps and persecuted the homosexuals in Nazi Germany, refusing to acknowledge their own participation whether in a history book or in a museum honoring their victims) but doesn’t protect the women who are citizens. Further, this nation's citizens and government are willing to admit the supposedly rare incident of racist violence but refuses to acknowledge the continual racist violence and sexist violence of every day American life. The U.S. government and its citizens are comfortable referring to someone as a white supremacist but feels the concept of a male supremacist to be fictitious (ignoring the realities of rape culture, which powerfully and most clearly demonstrates the notion of the male supremacist).

When referring to someone as a supremacist, the U.S. government is concealing the systemic oppression that it is. The government is concealing Brunn's racism by calling him a white supremacist. The government is concealing Roeder's sexism by skipping over supremacist and referring to him simply as a murderer. The term "supremacist" is a convenient tool for the U.S. government and American People to ignore systemic oppression, the impact it has both on individuals and society, and significantly, the role they play in perpetuating it, making this domestic terrorism easier and easier to come by and easier and easier to dismiss as crazy. As long as racism and sexism are covered by the term "supremacist", then the term will serve to write off all acts of racism and sexism as non-existent and the acts of violence in the name of racism and sexism that are worthy of headlines as crazy, isolated incidents... In a nut shell, it's the "little acts" of racism and a lack of discussion around them that enable supremacist acts to continue. We must talk about racism and sexism in order to combat supremacism; we must recognize all acts of sexism and racism as extreme (or supremacist) as well.