The enduring ideology of white supremacy

In his book Two Nations: Black and White, Separate, Hostile, Unequal (1992), Andrew Hacker gave a striking sense of the value white people put on being white by recounting the following parable:

"You will be visited tonight by an official you have never met.  He begins by telling you that he is extremely embarrassed.  The organization he represents has made a mistake....you were to have been born black: to another set of parents, far from where you were raised....this error must be rectified, and as soon as possible.  So at midnight tonight, you will become black....However, inside, you will be the person you always were....His organization is prepared to offer you some reasonable recompense.  Would you, he asks, care to name a sum of money you might consider appropriate?....He finishes by saying that their records show you are scheduled to live another fifty years – as a black man or woman in America.  How much financial recompense would you request?"

Professor Hacker reported that white students often ask for $50 million, "or $1 million for each coming black year" in order to buy protection from the discrimination and the danger faced by being black in America .