Race as we know it, including whiteness, is man-made. It did not make humans into distinct races in anything like the way we talk about them. People constructed race with a particular agenda in mind. Whiteness and white supremacy were invented to justify slavery or other forms of exploitation. If most white people just go about their lives, they can have a white supremacist society without individual racists. To overcome our history and make a more just society, we'll need a lot of white people getting involved," he says.