The White Witch

Abstract

The white witch represents the white woman in the black imagination—the temptress in her manifold forms—a white Delilah, a watchful slave mistress, a white woman who pursues a black man yet cries “rape” when their tryst is discovered. The white witch is usually blond-haired and blue eyed, and is often associated with money, sex, or some other temptation. White women also surface in these narratives as “Delilahs”; Delilah refers to “the woman who betrayed Samson to the Philistines (see Judges xvi), used allusively to mean a temptress or treacherous paramour” (OED). According to scripture, on learning Samson’s weakness, Delilah betrayed him to the Philistines; her betrayal led to his destruction and weakened his nation (Judges 16:1–31). The Delilah, then, impacts the man who loves her as well as all those who depend on him. In African-American literature and film, white Delilahs are not born but created, often victims of their historical precedents, sometimes embracing the role and sometimes fighting to shatter its mythology.¹

O, brothers mine, take care! Take care!

The great white witch rides out to-night.

—James Weldon Johnson, “The White Witch”

I will share this: The most dreadfully cute fact about my mother is that she has taken to checking “other” on her census form. In the line slotted for explanation she writes, in her flowery longhand, “Semitic American mother of black children.”

—Lisa Jones