History Lesson 4 The Birth of Whiteness

Brought to you by Baldy’s Music Group

The Birth of Whiteness is a spoken word performance exposing how race was constructed to divide and control. After Bacon’s Rebellion of 1676, poor whites and enslaved Africans briefly stood united against Virginia’s elite. Terrified by this unity, the ruling class created the Tidewater Codes — laws banning interracial alliances and inventing “whiteness” as a new status.

Poor Europeans were given small privileges — land, arms, and authority over slaves — a bribe that cost the elite nothing but secured their loyalty. This system fractured solidarity, entrenched inequality, and safeguarded power for the few.

Whiteness was not natural. It was built in Virginia — and its poison still shapes society today.