White Fragility
White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. Although white racial insulation is somewhat mediated by social class (with poor and working class urban whites being generally less racially insulated than suburban or rural whites), the larger social environment insulates and protects whites as a group through institutions, cultural representations, media, school textbooks, movies, advertising, and dominant discourses. Racial stress results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. In turn, whites are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways., as we have not had to build the cognitive or affective skills or develop the stamina that that would allow for constructive engagement across racial divides. leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.
Stats for nerds
11recommend
80mentions
67people
2017–2026years
19% recommend48% neutral34% critical
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- There's no hatred against white people, not widespread enough to be notable at least - the book White Fragility talks about this imagined persecution though, I recommend it. I know you need to have the last word, and as I don't wish to engage further with people that have your ultimately hateful views, please go ahead so we can be done. At some point, I hope you get cured of your fear of imagined threats ultimately, at least in part, driving your hate. Take care.
- The entire article is based on online group dynamics over people trying to figure out how to come to grips with historically ignored problems.
I fail to feel outraged by this process. Is "White Fragility" without criticism? Probably not, I think it is a fantastic book, but it scares the bejeebers out of some people and we get instagram drama and articles like this which I interpret as another attempt at purity (trying to outsmart "wokeness").
It is going to take a while for society* to come to grips with this new shift, because we're clearly not going back, but it definitely is rough around the edges, IMHO, because we haven't found the right vocabulary and framing. Unfortunately it is going to require people to sit with feeling uneasy, and that is something most people cannot tolerate.
- > The entire article is based on online group dynamics over people trying to figure out how to come to grips with historically ignored problems.
You have to ignore quite a lot of history to come to the conclusion that these problems were historically ignored.
> I fail to feel outraged by this process.
Maybe if you end up on the receiving end you'll feel differently?
> Is "White Fragility" without criticism? Probably not, I think it is a fantastic book, but it scares the bejeebers out of some people and we get instagram drama and articles like this which I interpret as another attempt at purity (trying to outsmart "wokeness").
Robin D'Angelo has made some deranged, outlandish assertions, and instead of defending them she simply follows up with more outlandish assertions. I had the pleasure of having a non-white person explain things about "white people" that she'd learned from that book that were patently false.
- >The problem with “white” is that “white pride”, “white power” were coopted by racist and terrorist groups decades ago.
As were "black pride" and "black power", but people are still allowed to say those things because those terrorist groups, despite killing many people, are seen by the elite white media as allies. They present one group as fundamentally evil. They present the other group either not at all, or as over-excited unimportant fringes of a righteous cause. See the BLM killers of Aaron Danielson and Jessica Doty, and note how you never heard of them. Or the Scalise shooting, or a million other things you've never heard of in your NYT bubble.
>no one has ever been told to be ashamed of being white
An utterly absurd statement in a world where elite spheres are saturated with "all whites are racist" style rhetoric. I'm literally told to be ashamed of being white on a daily basis. White guilt is the core of modern social justice - it's single consistent organizing principle. Read White Fragility or anything about anti-colonialism. Go find the videos of white activists washing the feet of black people and kissing their boots and bowing down on their knees in mass shame for their race.
>As for only getting fired if you say you support trump? Really? If that were the case he wouldn’t have a real chance of reelection
Yes he would, because the ballot is secret. People support him secretly. If the ballot was open he'd have no chance.
>you clearly believe that equal rights for minorities is inherently discriminating against you. Which is a classic response.
No, I believe that lower rights for me is discriminating against me. Which it is. Nobody ever argued against equal human rights except the social justice movement, which instead argues for equal group outcomes.
Right now the social justice movement is working to repeal the California law that prohibits discrimination. They, and you, are trying to expand discrimination. I am trying to reduce it.
https://ballotpedia.org/California_Proposition_16,_Repeal_Pr...
- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43708708-white-fragility
Great read, there is several chapters explaining the parents comment
- If you think one single word is all that lies in the way, feel free to pick a different one and start using it. But once you actually do the anti-racist work, you'll find that isn't really the problem. It's that white people generally become irrational and defensive whenever race comes up. See DiAngelo's "White Fragility" for more on this. Her 2011 academic paper on this is here: https://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116
A pretty clear example is what happened with the phrase "Black Lives Matter". It doesn't involve the R word. And yet, it sends a lot of white people into a rage. Literally, as here, where the menacing white man is shouting: “Black Lives Matter? Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck you!” https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10223827665665524&se...
And it's not just that guy. For many, there is no acceptable way to point our racial injustice. The only acceptable level of protest is one so quiet that it is entirely unseen, unheard. MLK addressed this in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail" if you want to read more.
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