Source: Lecture 5, UC Berkeley ES21AC – A Comparative Survey of Racial and Ethnic Groups
Tags: Andrea Smith, three pillars of white supremacy, slavery, capitalism, genocide, colonialism, orientalism, heteropatriarchy, social death, racial project, lynching, citizenship, cultural citizenship, legal citizenship, Dawes Act, enemy alien, enemy combatant, Ethnic Notions
Andrea Smith's framework identifies three distinct pillars of white supremacy: slavery/capitalism, genocide/colonialism, and orientalism. Each pillar targets different racialised groups through different logics. The lecture also examines heteropatriarchy as a structure that naturalises hierarchy and enables colonial and racial domination.
Three Pillars of White Supremacy (Andrea Smith)
A framework arguing that white supremacy operates through three separate but interlocking logics, each targeting different populations. The framework challenges the idea that all racialised groups share a single, unified experience of oppression.
Shared oppression (critique)
Smith questions whether the concept of "shared oppression" is adequate. Different racialised groups are targeted through different logics, meaning solidarity requires understanding those differences rather than assuming identical experiences.
Pillar 1: Slavery and Capitalism
The logic that links Blackness to property, commodification, and slaveability. Produces a state of unfreedom in which certain people are made more available to terror and violence. Connected to the concept of social death.
Pillar 2: Genocide and Colonialism
The logic that indigenous peoples must disappear so that non-indigenous people can claim their lands. Requires permanent absence rather than mere subordination.
Pillar 3: Orientalism
The logic of marking certain peoples as perpetual foreigners, inferior and threatening. Produces legal categories such as "enemy alien" and "enemy combatant" that structure racial exclusion.
Heteropatriarchy
A system in which two genders are recognised and male dominance over female is naturalised. Protects and reproduces structures of class, oppression, violence, and the privatised family. Described in the lecture as foundational to colonial hierarchy.
Racial project
Simultaneously an interpretation or representation of racial dynamics and an effort to reorganise society along racial lines. Lynching is cited as a racial project.
Social death
The total exclusion of a person from social and legal recognition. Under slavery, enslaved people were rendered non-persons, stripped of kinship, belonging, and legal standing.
Cultural citizenship
Access to the practical benefits and recognition of citizenship, distinct from holding legal documents. Varies by geography (e.g., available in California but not in Texas, in the examples given).
Legal citizenship
Formal, document-based citizenship status.
Dawes Act (1800s)
Federal legislation that forced Native Americans into US citizenship (rather than offering it as a right) and distributed land to heads of household, imposing a hierarchical, patriarchal property structure on indigenous communities.
Smith argues that the concept of "shared oppression" is limited.
White supremacy does not operate through a single logic. Instead, it works through three distinct pillars, each targeting different racialised groups in different ways.
Links Blackness to property, commodification, and slaveability.
Produces a state of unfreedom in which Black people are made more available to terror.
Connected to the concept of social death: total exclusion from social belonging and legal personhood.
Lynching as a racial project:
Lynching functioned as both an act of racial violence and a racial project.
Photographs of lynchings were distributed as postcards, normalising racial terror and making it a public spectacle.
A racial project is simultaneously an interpretation/representation of racial dynamics and an effort to reorganise society along racial lines.
Routinisation of racial violence:
The lecture raises the question of where routinised racial violence ends.
Social membership of punishment means that even those not directly carrying out violence are complicit through participation in the social order that permits it.
Recognises two genders with male dominance over female.
Protects and reproduces structures of class, oppression, violence, and the private family.
Family as a tool and technology:
The rhetoric of "investing in family" is politically deployed.
Black women have been blamed for crime, with the argument that preserving the family unit will reduce crime. This displaces structural responsibility onto individuals.
Family is used as a technology of social control.
Heteropatriarchy and colonialism:
"In order to colonise, you should naturalise hierarchy." Patriarchy contributes directly to colonial hierarchy.
Heteropatriarchy is described as being at the heart of gender violence in prisons.
Representations (film Ethnic Notions):
Black women were presented as docile, framed as the antithesis of white womanhood.
If a Black woman was depicted as sexual, she became a threat (as a potential mistress, capable of being desired by the master). Sexuality and docility were managed as tools of racial and gender control.
The logic here is disappearance. Indigenous peoples must be made permanently absent so that non-indigenous people can claim their lands.
This is distinct from slavery's logic of exploitation. Colonialism requires erasure, not labour extraction.
Dawes Act (1800s):
Forced Native Americans into US citizenship rather than granting a right to gain citizenship.
Distributed land to heads of household, imposing a patriarchal, hierarchical property structure.
Functioned as a tool of assimilation and territorial dispossession.
Citizenship as a concept (two dimensions):
Legal citizenship: formal documents, legal status.
Cultural citizenship: practical access to the benefits and recognition that legal citizenship is supposed to guarantee. Varies by location, meaning the same legal status produces very different lived experiences depending on geography.
Operates through a logic of superiority and inferiority applied to individuals and communities.
Produces legal categories such as "enemy alien" and "enemy combatant."
These terms structure racial exclusion through law, framing certain populations as inherently foreign and threatening.
Technology of orientalism:
Oriental subjects are "made historical," placed outside the present and outside modernity.
This framing justifies exclusion by treating certain peoples as belonging to the past rather than the contemporary political community.
⚠️ Know all three pillars and the distinct logic of each. A common exam move is to ask you to distinguish between them or apply them to a specific historical example.
⚠️ The critique of "shared oppression" is central to Smith's argument. Be ready to explain why a single narrative of racial oppression is insufficient.
⚠️ Lynching as a racial project is a strong exam example. Be able to define "racial project" and show how lynching fits the definition (interpretation + reorganisation).
⚠️ The two types of citizenship (legal vs. cultural) appear throughout the course. Be prepared to explain the gap between them and give examples.
⚠️ Heteropatriarchy is framed as foundational to colonialism, not a separate issue. The connection between gender hierarchy and racial/colonial hierarchy is a likely essay theme.
⚠️ The Dawes Act is a concrete example of Pillar 2 in action. Know what it did and how it served colonial goals.
Q: What are Andrea Smith's three pillars of white supremacy, and what logic does each one operate through?
A: Pillar 1 (slavery/capitalism) operates through the logic of commodification and slaveability, linking Blackness to property and social death. Pillar 2 (genocide/colonialism) operates through the logic of disappearance, requiring the permanent absence of indigenous peoples so their lands can be claimed. Pillar 3 (orientalism) operates through a logic of foreign threat, marking certain groups as perpetually inferior and alien.
Q: Why does Andrea Smith argue that the concept of "shared oppression" is limited?
A: Because different racialised groups are targeted through fundamentally different logics. Black, indigenous, and Asian/Middle Eastern communities do not experience white supremacy in the same way. Effective solidarity requires understanding these distinct mechanisms rather than assuming a single, common experience.
Q: How does the lecture define lynching as a "racial project"?
A: A racial project simultaneously interprets racial dynamics and reorganises society along racial lines. Lynching interpreted Blackness as deserving of punishment and reorganised social relations by terrorising Black communities into subordination. The distribution of lynching photographs as postcards made this a public, normalised spectacle.
Q: Explain the difference between legal citizenship and cultural citizenship.
A: Legal citizenship is formal, document-based status. Cultural citizenship is the practical access to the benefits and recognition that legal status is supposed to provide. The lecture notes that cultural citizenship varies by geography: the same legal documents may grant meaningful access in one state but not in another.
Q: How does the lecture connect heteropatriarchy to colonialism?
A: The lecture argues that colonisation requires naturalising hierarchy, and patriarchy is a primary means of doing so. Heteropatriarchy establishes male dominance as natural, which then supports broader hierarchies of class, race, and colonial control. It is described as foundational to colonial structures rather than a separate or secondary issue.
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