I thank my mother for me having a reasonable vocabulary. I participated in my elementary school’s spelling bee competition in fifth and sixth grade. We spent many nights in the basement going over old words and introducing new ones, eating Old Dutch potato chips, and drinking Pepsi from 16 oz bottles. I finished second in my school in fifth grade, and the following year, I finished first and advanced to the city championships, where I finished eighth. Not once during that time did I come across the word leukophobia.
I was exposed to leukophobia in an online discussion with a woman defending a police officer in a small Georgia town who lost her job for displaying the confederate flag in her yard. The reason provided by their Internal Affairs department was that she “engaged in conduct that was unbecoming” and “brought discredit to the Roswell Police Department.” The woman claimed the officer lost her job because of leukophobia, a fear of the color white, and in the context, she used it, the fear of white people.
I expressed to “Nancy” in a different conversation that the fear of the color white, while an actual psychological disorder, doesn’t translate to the fear of white people. Let’s look at leukophobia so I can later explain why her word use is incorrect.
What are leukophobia causes?
Genetics and your environment raise the risk of specific phobias.
Genetics: A family history of mood disorders increases the likelihood of phobias. It’s also possible for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder to run in families. But not everyone with a family history ends up with these issues.
Environment: Emotional trauma related to the color white often causes leukophobia. For example, you or a loved one may have been injured in a car accident due to snowy conditions.
What are leukophobia symptoms?
Leukophobia symptoms include behavioral changes and physical responses.
Behaviors
Not wanting to leave your house in fear of seeing something white.
Working in professions where you feel you have more control over the exposure to the color white.
Avoiding people who might not understand how this color makes you feel.
Physical symptoms
Breathlessness, dizziness, dry mouth, excessive sweating, headaches, muscle tension, nausea, racing heart (palpitations), sense of imminent doom.
What leukophobia isn’t is the belief that any action taken to hinder white people in any situation is based on an unreasonable fear. The fear of white people, when it exists, is situational and based on lived experience. Even though I live in Trump Country, I don’t fear interacting with white people, dining in restaurants, and shopping in any store though that would have once been dangerous for me. Throughout my day, I rarely think about white people, though I’d think twice about going to a biker bar with Confederate flags on display.
When I do fear white people, it is when they give their collective support to racist policies and issues. I am concerned when they raise non-existent concerns about things their children aren’t being taught, so they can only teach what they want to hear. I fear governors who ban teaching Black History in AP classes while the same schools teach AP European History and classes about Spanish, Japanese, German, and Italian culture.
My experience tells me to fear others than the usual suspects; I fear Democratic politicians who say all the right things during an election cycle and do nothing once in office. I fear those who equivocate on moral issues based on polling and their likelihood of reelection. I would certainly fear a police sergeant in Georgia displaying a Confederate flag in her yard. Despite any possible claim of heritage and not hate, she showed her complete disrespect for the Black citizens of her community, and I don’t want her to be the one carrying a gun and making split-second decisions involving my life.
I shared with Nancy that her use of leukophobia was just an excuse that allowed her to explain away hateful behavior by making it the other person’s fault. The fear of white people, when it exists, is based on real things some white people think and do. There are people in 2024 looking to start race wars. This was true in 1969 with the Charles Manson killings, in 1995 when the Oklahoma City bombing took place, in 2015 when Dylann Roof killed Black parishioners he’d just finished praying with, in Charlottesville in 2017, and in Internet chat rooms right now. It isn’t always illogical to be afraid of some white people, not for them being white, which her use of leukophobia presumes. But for the increased likelihood that a white officer with a gun that demonstrates she gives no f***s about Black people might use it to kill someone’s child out of the ubiquitous “fear for her life.”
Nancy stopped communicating with me after that; I suspect she went elsewhere where her belief that leukophobia is the only reason for being opposed to white nationalism and white supremacy. I will go about my life, meeting and interacting with white folks without a care, yet recognizing when I run across those who don’t mean me well.
This article originally appeared on Medium and is edited and republished with author's permission. Read more of William Spivey's work on Medium.