How Explicit Performances or Styles of Whiteness Reveal the Implicit Standards

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Performance, Style, and Personhood
The aspect of personhood is shrouded in controversy, which renders its comprehension an uphill task. Personhood, which refers to personality, is intricately interwoven with performance and style. This is so because people use different styles to perform their personhood. Style, in this context, refers to the different ways in which people do things. The topic of personhood continues to spark heated debates, especially on the issue of what influences it. Some people hold that biological factors, such as genes, play an instrumental role in defining the personality of individuals. On the other hand, some observers contend that personhood, to a considerable degree, depends on the surrounding environment. Essentially, they argue that people behave according to what they learn or the expectations of others. Noe belongs to the latter group of people; he intimates that personhood is performed. Further, he expounds on this by asserting that the styles of people, how they dress, eat, or talk, are influenced by the assessment of others. He says, "The fact that you are alone rarely means that you are truly alone, for almost everything we do is framed by the roles we are playing and the standards to which we are subject" (Noe 179). In a word, this implies people strive to behave in ways that are compatible with established standards. These social standards could be implicit or explicit. Explicit social standards are documented norms that outline the rules and objectives of a given group of people. Therefore, any individual hoping to belong to a certain group must read, understand, and pledge to conform to them. On the contrary, implicit norms are informal, and they appear in day-to-day interactions among people. They form the process through which individuals become an integral part of a group by accepting the standards they espouse. In the United States, explicit performances of whiteness lay bare the implicit standards that maintain cultures of white supremacy. For instance, some white communities frown upon engaging in marriage alliances with non-whites, and they do not hesitate to say so openly. This discourse aims to ventilate the extent to which social and political standards implicitly perpetuate white supremacy.
In the United States, some social norms like racism continue to be a thorn in the flesh, and one cannot overlook their prevalence and impact. The white community explicitly performs in particular ways that implicitly suggest they are superior to other races. One style the white community adopts explicitly is culture; the American mainstream culture strengthens white supremacy in different dimensions. For instance, the language white supremacists employ is, to a considerable extent, condescending to other races. It explicitly indicates that they are more superior to non-whites in all aspects of life, including such trivial aspects as skin color. Many white individuals speak in a manner that implicitly suggests they are superior; they can insult other communities with absolute impunity. Donald Trump, the former President of the United States and a staunch adherent of white supremacy, exemplified this trend in many of his speeches. According to Coates, Trump's political career was deeply anchored in the patinas that form the foundational basis of white supremacy. For instance, "His political career began in advocacy of birtherism, that modern recasting of the old American precept that black people are not fit to be citizens of the country they built” (Coates 26). This explains his prejudice towards black people, which he graphically depicted in the denigrating phrases he employed to illustrate his attitude towards them. For instance, at one time, he intimated that he loathed the idea of black people counting his money. Trump is just a representation of how white supremacists view other races and their sense of entitlement. One cannot help but wonder what happens behind the scenes if a public figure like Trump can be openly condescending to other races, especially the black community. Those who advocate birtherism, for instance, regard other races as second-class citizens and treat them as such. For instance, some communities still strictly forbid intermarrying with black people, which shows how deeply embedded racism is in the American system.
 Indeed, racism is a systemic problem that has continued to plague the country over the years. To perpetuate white supremacy, supremacists have also used such avenues as segregation and discrimination. The vice, though presently practiced implicitly, has been a vehicle that has effectively given white supremacy significant traction. It essentially means that white people are more privileged than other races; they can readily access employment and other social services. For instance, “the unemployment rate for young blacks in July 2016 was double that of young whites” (Coates 34). This inevitably translates to suppressed economic capacity for black people and other minority races. In turn, it means that black and other minority races cannot afford some of the luxuries readily affordable to white people. Surprisingly, there is racism among white people. More often than not, the white working-class are saddled together with black people. That history stretches back to the times of slavery, and the perception of working whites as having less whiteness has never dissipated. Conservative social scientist, Charles Murray, could not have captured the situation more succinctly when he said, “We so obviously despise them, and we so obviously condescend to them. White supremacists conduct themselves with some measure of recklessness since they know even the laws of the land favor them.
 The law regards supremacists with a heightened sense of leniency compared to other races. For instance, in the recent past, cases of extra-judicial killings of black people have rocke...