White separatism - Definition and Overview

White separatism is a political movement to obtain sovereignty for and split white people from another people or peoples.

Since separatism is predicated on separation of sovereign powers, white separatism is incompatible with white supremacy, racial segregation or apartheid as these are all predicated on a single sovereignty.

There are frequent attempts by supremacists of all stripes, be they multicultural supremacists such as Carol Swain (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0521808863/asiannation-20/002-2114338-6363237) or white supremacists such as Matt Hale, to confuse the concept of white separatism with white supremacy. Most white separatists view this mutually-reinforcing relationship between opposing supremacist viewpoints as serving to absorb dissenting constituents into the supremacist groups in a contest for world supremacy between opposing views.

History

White separatism originated as early as the writings of Thomas Jefferson (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson) when he said:

Nothing is more certainly written in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free; nor is it less certain that the two races, equally free, cannot live in the same government. Nature, habit, opinion have drawn indelible lines of distinction between them.

This view was reiterated at the dawn of the civil rights era when Abraham Lincoln, addressing the African American community wrote (http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraham-lincoln-06/ebook-page-36.asp):

There is much to encourage you. For the sake of your race you should sacrifice something of your present comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the white people...General Washington himself endured greater physical hardships than if he had remained a British subject, yet he was a happy man because he had engaged in benefiting his race, in doing something for the children of his neighbors, having none of his own. The colony of Liberia has been in existence a long time. In a certain sense it is a success. The old President of Liberia, Roberts, has just been with me--the first time I ever saw him. He says they have within the bounds of that colony between three and four hundred thousand people, or more than in some of our old States, such as Rhode Island or Delaware, or in some of our newer States, and less than in some of our larger ones...The question is, if the colored people are persuaded to go anywhere, why not there? Address On Colonization To A Deputation Of Colored Men. Washington, August 14, 1862. [1] (http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraham-lincoln-06/ebook-page-36.asp)