Disrupting Salient Racial Beliefs
Utilizing the primary source:
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism �Robin Diangelo (2018)
White Fragility
This will cause “hurt feelings, shattered egos, fraught spirits, vexed bodies, and taxed emotions amongst white folks” (Dr. Michael Eric Dyson 2018)
“In truth, their suffering comes from recognizing that they are white - that their whiteness has given them a big leg up in life while crushing others’ dreams, that their whiteness is the clearest example of the identity politics they claim is hurtful to the nation, and that their whiteness has shielded them from growing up as quickly as they might have done had they not so heavily leaned on it to make it through life.” (Dr. Michael Eric Dyson 2018)
White fragility is a powerful means of white racial control and the protection of white advantage.
The Challenges of Talking about White People About Racism
There are some common misunderstandings that make it hard to discuss racism.
White fragility is white sensibility that continues to hold racism in place.
White Progressives
White progressives are white people who think they are not racist, or in the “choir” or already “gets it.”
White progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color.
Racism and White Supremacy
Prejudice is a pre-judgment about another person based on the social groups to which that person belongs (19)
Discrimination
is an action based on prejudice.
These actions include ignoring, exclusion, threats, ridicule, slander, and violence.
Racism
occurs when a racial group’s prejudice is backed by
legal authority and institutional control.
Racism is deeply embedded in the fabric of our society
The direction of power between white people and people of color is
Historic
Traditional
Normalized in ideology (22).
Racism differs from individual racial prejudice and racial discrimination in the historical accumulation and ongoing use of insitutional power and authority to support the prejudice and to systematically enforce discriminatory behaviors with far-reaching effects (22)
People of color may also hold prejudices and discriminate against white people, but they lack the social and institutional power that transforms their prejudice and discrimination into racism; the impact of their prejudice on whites is temporary and contextual (20).
Faces of Power
These are just a few samples of the lack of diversity within the levels of power - These are the very people who write the narratives and shape the stories we find in our daily lives.
Consider the people who are excluded and the voices are muted and the experiences that are minimalized. How does that shape us all?
“Whiteness is property”
Identity and perceptions of identity can grant or deny resources.
These resources are: self-worth, visibility, positive expectations, psychological freedom from the tether of race, freedom of movement, the sense of belonging, and a sense of entitlement to all of the above (25)
Coined phrase by Cheryl Harris.
Whiteness
Whiteness is not acknowledged by white people, and the white reference point is assumed to be universal and is imposed on everyone (25)
White people find it very different to think about whiteness as a specific state of being that could have an impact on one’s life and perceptions (25).
Whiteness is a location of structural advantage is to recognize that to be white is to be in a privileged position within society and its institutions - to be seen as an insider and to be granted the benefits of belonging. (25)
White history is implied in the absence of its acknowledgement; white history is the norm for history.
Take a moment to reflect:
Consider your discipline. How were you trained in your discipline? Did you see diversity in the curriculum? Do you know multiple histories? Do you know more than just quotes from notables, such as Martin Luther King, Jr.?
What have you done to learn more about diverse scholars in your discipline?
How are you continually learning in your discipline and in your life?
White supremacy is a system of structural power privileges, centralizes, and elevates white people as a group (30).
Consider how racial policies helped shape and damage the lives of people. This documentary focuses on AIDS in Black America.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/endgame-aids-in-black-america/
The preview is below:
The California Community Colleges have full-time faculty that systematically lack diversity. It is intentional and detrimental to our students and our commitment to being inclusive and anti-racist institutions.
“Grouping all community colleges in California, 44 percent of students are Latino, 27 percent white, 14 percent Asian-Pacific Islander and 6 percent black, while 61 percent of tenured faculty are white, 15 percent Latino, 10 percent Asian and 6 percent black. About 59 percent of administrators are white” (Gordon 2018)
The Crafting of the Curriculum
Words matter, and the curriculum is shaped by words and intent. As you watch these videos, it is important to consider how have you shaped your curriculum in your classroom based on your worldview?
Invisible Curriculum
This song was taught in schools across the United States. There are some schools that still has this part of their curriculum.
How should African Americans respond to this curriculum?
As the Confederate Flag still hangs in many areas of this country, imagine still being reminded that the Confederacy still exists.
How is your curriculum still providing trauma to your students? Are you teaching the curriculum with the framework of the time period? Are you teaching with a Critical Race Theory perspective? Does your curriculum consider all of your students? Do you see your students?
Imagine being a child instructed to sing a song that praises The Confederate South that wishes they would have won the war.
Imagine still seeing the symbol of The Confederate flag that represents a country that fought to maintain slavery.
Creating an Inclusive Curriculum
A curriculum that things about all students requires creativity and an inclusive mindset.
It requires representation within the faculty, staff, administrators.
It requires representation within the scholarship and assignments, which requires faculty to collaborate and learn from all scholars.
Naming White Supremacy allows the system to be visible and it shifts the locus of change onto white people (33)
White Racial Frame
A framework that allows whites to circulate and reinforce racial messages that positions whites as superior in culture and achievement (34)
People of color as seen as inferior to whites in the making and keeping of the nation.
People of color are viewed as lesser than socially, economically, and politically.
The Consequences of a White Framework
Segregation was not just a Southern tradition; rather it was around the United States of America.
Integration in the West and the North was through the busing system.
The busing system went from Black and Latino areas to White areas, but true integration would have busing going from White areas to Black and Latino areas, yet that never happened.
Racism After the Civil Rights Movement
Common Phrases that are made to demonstrate there is no longer racism:
“No one claims to be racist anymore, racism still exists”
Color-Blind Racism
Color blindness was now promoted as the remedy for racism, with white people insisting that they didn’t see race or, if they did, that it had no meaning to them (41)
If we cannot see race, then how do we see each other? Our lived experience is shaped through race, class, gender, and environment; therefore, to not see the things that are most visible - race or gender is to not see your students.
Color blind ideology makes it difficult for us to address these unconscious beliefs (42)
Defensiveness is classic white fragility because it protects our racial bias while simultaneously affirming our identities as open-minded (42)
Whites enact racism while maintaining a positive self-image in the following ways:
Cultural Racism
White students display a range conscious behaviors that include: (49)
Backstage settings, where people of color is not present, white students often used humor to reinforce racial stereotypes about people of color, particular blacks (49)
Within white millennials, 41 percent believes that government pays too much attention to minorities and 48 percent believes that discimination of whites is as big of a problem as discimination against people of color (47).
“White People: I don’t want you to understand me better; I want you to understand yourselves. Your survival has never depended on your knowledge of white culture. In fact, it’s required your ignorance.”
This quote was attributed to Ijeoma Oluo.
Whites are
“just people”
Race is rarely named unless it is a non-White person.
Whiteness has psychological advantages that translate into material returns (54)
“When I apply for a job, virtually anyone in a position to hire me will share my race. And although I may encounter a token person of color during the hiring process, if I am not specifically applying to an organization founded by people of color, the majority of of those I interact with will share my race” (54)
Role models create dreams; it allows people to visualize the future. Having the lack of representation within all areas of society prevents people from visualizing the possibilities.
White solidarity requires both silence about anything that exposes the advantages of the white position and tacit agreement to remain racially united in the protection of white supremacy (57-58).
People of color experience white solidarity as a form of racism, wherein we fail to hold each other accountable, to challenge racism when we see it, or to support people of color in the struggle for racial justice (58-59)
Reflect
We have all been complicit in maintaining the social structure.
It is hard to challenge the system out of fear of retaliation.
Was there a moment that you could have been an ally? Could you have spoken up for people of color?
Consider what type of ally do you plan on being to people of color?
Evidence of White Racial Innocence → People of Color teaching White People about Racism (54)
The absence of people of color from White people’s lives is no real loss (67)
These patterns are the foundation of white fragility (68-69):
Color Celebration - a person who sees and embraces racial difference (77)
“Race has nothing to do with it”
This statement is denying people’s previous experience and it silences your peers’ and students’ voices because race is part of their lived experience.
Consider listening to why they feel race does have something to do with it.
We bring our racial histories with us, and contrary to the ideology of individualism, we represent our groups and those who have come before us (85).
Our identities are not unique or inherent but constructed or produced through social processes (85).
“Focusing on race is what divides us”
People of Color notice that race is NOT discussed and is avoided.
Not talking about it is ignoring people’s lived experience - part of their identity.
Even though participants of color repeatedly state that whites’ refusal to acknowledge racial difference and power dynamics actually maintains racial inequity, white participants continue to insist that not talking about difference is necessary for unity (86).
Acknowledging our biases and differences promotes unity and understanding!
Anti-Blackness
Blackness is essential to the creation of white identity.
Affirmative Action
This has been a point of hostility within various areas of America, including the workforce. Yet, the benefactors have largely not been qualified African Americans.
White women have been the greatest beneficiaries of affirmative action, although the program did not initially include them (92)
Corporations are more likely to favor white women and immigrants of color of elite backgrounds from outside the United States when making hiring decisions (92)
Consider
We hire who we are familiar and comfortable with, but how has that practice helped exclude minorities from opportunities and perpetuate white supremacy?
White Rage
Reflect on our own behavior: How do you encourage your students or peers to express themselves? Do you encourage them to be included.
Carol Anderson writes, “the trigger for white rage, inevitably, is black advancement. It is not the mere presence of black people that is the problem; rather, it is blackness with ambition, with drive, with purpose, with aspirations, and with demands for full and equal citizenship. It is blackness that refuses to accept subjugation, to give up” (96).
Habitus (Social Status), Pierre Bourdieu
We all have a habitus, as we are all are born into our social status that will allow us to operate within our society.
When I teach this concept to my students, I ask them about why they are going to college. My goal is to deconstruct their mindset to realize that their hobbies can be their careers!
Finally, we map out a plan for their lives - How can you reach your career goals? One step that they mostly forget is their habitus. We need to map out their current habitus, and then map out the type of people they need to have in their lives to enhance their habitus.
Self Defense
Having this attitude allows a “white equilibrium” to exist, which “is a cocoon of racial comfort, centrality, superiority, entitlement, racial apathy, and obliviousness, all rooted in an identity off our racial balance” (112).
In response to White people being challenged, many execute self defense.
Whites characterizes themselves as victims, slammed, blammed, and attacked (109).
Do you feel uncomfortable talking about race or your positionality in regards to race? If you do feel uncomfortable, consider why do you feel this way?
Look, it is okay to have your feelings and express your feelings - this is the first step in recognizing and understanding yourself.
White Fragility in Action
When White people’s assumptions and behaviors are challenged, then these feelings are demonstrated:
When these feelings are demonstrated, then the following behaviors are demonstrated:
These feelings and behaviors are justified for these following claims:
“The Problem is Your Tone”
Discussing one’s tone reinforces the stereotypes of Black people being angry and aggressive without acknowledging their differences.
You may also ask why are these stereotypes existing.
According to Layla F. Saad (2020) Common phrases:
Let me add, there are times that we are told to “smile” and are directed on how to talk and respond in conversation.
Let’s Investigate Tone
Consider how people are striving to try to fit within the culture.
If Black people are striving to be accepted through altering their voice and mannerisms, yet they are still rejected by their peers, then how should Black people respond in order to feel or be “accepted”?
White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement
The need to build trust is important to explore racism in workshops, support groups, and other educational forums.
Building trust looks like (126-127):
I am going to add, listening on both sides, because everyone will be uncomfortable and offended, but we still need to listen.
“I have found that the only way to give feedback without triggering white fragility is not to give it at all” (123).
“Stopping our racist patterns must be more important than working to convince others that we don’t have them” (129)
White Women’s Tears
“Tears that are driven by white guilt are self-indulgent” (135)
It is encouraged to have grief, but it must lead to sustained and transformative action (135).
Where Do We Go From Here?
Strive
to be
“less white minded”
This means you need to be:
“To continue reproducing racial inequality, the system only needs white people to be really nice and carry on, smile at people of color, be friendly across race, and go to lunch together on occasion” (153).
Interrupting racism takes courage and intentionality; the interruption is by definition not passive or complacent (153).