White Guilt

There is a difference between being opposed to the fallacies or oppression a certain subset of people were/are guilty of and being consumed or driven by sharing the skin color of that subset.  They might or might not philosophically approach racism correctly on the level of belief or action irregardless of this, but for anyone experiencing white guilt, there are feelings of anxiety or shame present over the happenstance fact that their skin is white.  I say they might or might not because simply feeling something does not dictate a person's worldview and actions unless allowed to.  Not every white person will feel "white guilt," and among those who do, the reactions could range from silent unease with their own happenstance race to internal/external dislike of white people as a whole for the way that people of color have been treated because of white supremacists.  Involuntary emotions in this context are not racist, yet going beyond this passive experience would.

Someone living today is not the same as someone who both lived and died in a prior era.  Of the white people living in a past time or presently, they are, like people of any other race, individuals who could have very distinct ideologies, foundations for those ideologies, intentions, and outward behaviors.  That one white person was or is racist does not necessitate anything about another white person.  Today, not even living white supremacists would be the ones responsible for the transatlantic slave trade and the accompanying atrocities, so it is not their mistakes that caused it to come about despite how people like them were the reason for it.  For white people of the current age who are not racist against people of other skin colors, there is an even greater gulf between them and those responsible for perpetrating American-style slavery and all that it entailed or facilitated.

As for white slave masters/mistresses and any white person then or afterward who ideologically embraced white supremacy, the color of their own skin is not why they held to racism.  Whatever the varying degrees of social pressures to belittle black people they encountered in their geographical location and time in history, it was and is always within their power to avoid assumptions, discover necessary truths, and act in accordance with them.  The same is true of black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, and any other racial group of people.  No one believes in white supremacy because they are white and no one rejects it because they are not white (and only rejecting it for rationalistic reasons, as opposed to believing it false out of self-interest for people of color or emotionalism or cultural relativism regardless of skin color).

Guilt over something one has nothing to do with as an individual, to the extent that one can will it away, is entirely gratuitous.  Feelings alone do not and cannot make someone guilty of philosophical errors or moral failures.  Beliefs, the basis for those beliefs, actions, and motivations can.  One must believe something false or assumed or live in a way incongruous with the truth to be at fault.  If something is true and verifiable, it needs to be believed for these reasons alone.  The skin color of a person is irrelevant to whether it is true or whether they should believe it.  Anyone who is against racism against people of color because they feel insecure about being white is a fool.  Anyone who thinks less of themself because they are white is likewise a racist fool.  A person who holds to any form of racism, no matter their skin color or that of their target(s), is a delusional hypocrite who has betrayed reason.  This is why racism needs to be rejected.