It seems likely then that Zinn’s book (A People’s History) is an accurate reflection of thedominant perception of whites in American, and perhaps world, culture.
by Ian Jobling
Last February, I invented the term “leukophobia”—from leukos,the Greek word for “white” or “fair-colored”—to describe the fear andloathing of white people that is at the heart of contemporary culture.Although the term has been controversial, I am still convinced of theneed for it, as there is no equivalent word already in existence and Icannot think of a better neologism. However, my brief, initialdefinition left “leukophobia” a frustratingly vague and undefinedconcept.
Here I would like to lay out a more comprehensive and precise definition of the term. The basis for this definition will be A People’s History of the United Statesby University of Boston professor Howard Zinn. This book is ideal forthe task, first, because it epitomizes the leukophobic perspective onUS history, as I argued in Get Howard Zinn Out of Our Schools. Moreover, the success of A People’s History, which is amongthe most popular American history books of all times and is regularlyused in high school and college history classes, indicates that Zinn’sperspective is not a marginal, extremist one, but shared by a largeswath, and perhaps a majority, of the American population, including asignificant portion of the education profession. The book is thus awindow into Americans’ beliefs about race.
The purpose of this article is not to debunk A People’s History, a task that many others, including myself,have already performed. Rather, I will use Zinn’s history as anillustration of the widely held stereotypes about white people thattogether make up the phenomenon of leukophobia. These stereotypes willbe described as a series of laws that govern Zinn’s description of theraces and their interactions.
At the heart of Zinn’s leukophobiais his belief that white people are motivated by a distinctive greed,which originates in the capitalist economic system. This greed divorceswhite people from the principle of community, sharing, andnon-possessiveness that characterizes non-white societies. Greed causeswhite people to form authoritarian, hierarchical, exploitative, andviolent societies and destroys the balance between the human andnatural worlds that non-white societies enjoy.