America’s white fragility complex: Why white people get so defensive about their privilege

[KamaAina]

http://www.salon.com/2015/03/17/the_white_fragility_complex_why_white_people_gets_so_defensive_about_their_privilege_partner/

Last year, a white male Princeton undergraduate was asked by a classmate to “check his privilege.” Offended by this suggestion, he shot off a 1,300-word essay to the Tory, a right-wing campus newspaper. In it, he wrote about his grandfather who fled the Nazis to Siberia, his grandmother who survived a concentration camp in Germany, about the humble wicker basket business they started in America. He railed against his classmates for “diminishing everything (he’d) accomplished, all the hard work (he’d) done.”...

What he did not do, at any point, was consider whether being white and male might have given him—if not his ancestors—some advantage in achieving incredible success in America. He did not, in other words, check his privilege.

To Robin DiAngelo, professor of multicutural education at Westfield State University and author of What Does it Mean to Be White? Developing White Racial Literacy, Tal Fortgang’s essay—indignant, defensive, beside-the-point, somehow both self-pitying and self-aggrandizing—followed a familiar script. As an anti-racist educator for more than two decades, DiAngelo has heard versions of it recited hundreds of times by white men and women in her workshops.

She’s heard it so many times, in fact, that she came up with a term for it: “white fragility,” which she defined in a 2011 journal article as “a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing situation.”

[el_bryanto]

1. That article is well worth reading

I think she does a very good job of explaining what is happening, and why many white people are so resistant to the idea that they are getting special breaks.

Bryant

[napkinz]

39. here's another good article ...

Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person

by Gina Crosley-Corcoran

Years ago some feminist on the Internet told me I was "privileged."

"THE F&CK!?!?" I said.

I came from the kind of poor that people don't want to believe still exists in this country. Have you ever spent a frigid northern-Illinois winter without heat or running water? I have. At 12 years old were you making ramen noodles in a coffee maker with water you fetched from a public bathroom? I was. Have you ever lived in a camper year-round and used a random relative's apartment as your mailing address? We did. Did you attend so many different elementary schools that you can only remember a quarter of their names? Welcome to my childhood.

So when that feminist told me I had "white privilege," I told her that my white skin didn't do shit to prevent me from experiencing poverty. Then, like any good, educated feminist would, she directed me to Peggy McIntosh's now-famous 1988 piece "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack."

After one reads McIntosh's powerful essay, it's impossible to deny that being born with white skin in America affords people certain unearned privileges in life that people of other skin colors simply are not afforded. For example:

"I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented."

"When I am told about our national heritage or about 'civilization,' I am shown that people of my color made it what it is."

"If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race."

"I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time."

If you read through the rest of the list, you can see how white people and people of color experience the world in very different ways. But listen: This is not said to make white people feel guilty about their privilege. It's not your fault that you were born with white skin and experience these privileges. But whether you realize it or not, you do benefit from it, and it is your fault if you don't maintain awareness of that fact.

read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gina-crosleycorcoran/explaining-white-privilege-to-a-broke-white-person_b_5269255.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000010

[bravenak]

2. I see it all the time.

Not only fragile, but angry, accusatory, competitive in oppression olympics, lecturing about 'real racism', hurt feelings at the idea that the privilege exists, and they like to wrap it up by calling whoever brings it up as race baiters.

[guillaumeb]

3. is this a self-defense strategy to protect the ego?

The US was founded on white privilege. The country was built largely on slave labor. Mix in the genocide of the First Peoples and we have a recipe for white supremacy.

But many white people will insist that all race based discrimination ended in 1865. Any differences in educational accomplishment, wealth accumulation, housing, and a host of other things can be explained as some people work harder than others. I am certain that many rich people would insist that they are rich simply because they work hard, not because their wealth and color give them more access to successful situations.

Many Americans also have a very cartoon-like view of American history, where all the wars are explained as defensive reactions to outside evil rather than the natural result of the expansion of the American Empire.

So when we combine American exceptionalism with a distorted view of history and add in race based prejudice it should be no surprise that many people feel they have earned what they have based solely on their personal accomplishments.

It then becomes necessary to deny that racism exists. To admit to racism one would have to admit that the foundation of your American success story is based on a lie.

[jeff47]

4. I think it's to protect the advantages.

Having white privilege is pretty nice. Losing it would mean losing those advantages in education, wealth, housing, and so on.

I think a good chunk of the "I'm not privileged!" crowd is motivated by basic selfishness.

I think ego only enters with the "need someone to look down upon" camp referenced by LBJ. But that doesn't overlap with the purely selfish camp.

(And just to be clear, I don't think being white privilege nor male privilege should continue.)

[napkinz]

7. ...

[2naSalit]

30. +10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

[tularetom]

8. A privilege enjoyed by 90% of the population isn't an automatic ticket to success

Yes, "white privilege" exists, it has always existed. But if you assume that all whites are born with an equal chance to attain wealth and comfort, that argument would have some merit. But that assumption would be incorrect.

The America I grew up in was probably close to 90% white. I will concede that I and other white kids of my generation, had a leg up on the "ladder of success" over the 10% who weren't white. But speaking personally, I sure as hell was not on an equal footing with all of the other 90%. You'd have to describe my childhood as "lower middle class", I attended public schools, served in the army, attended a public university partly with veterans benefits. My father did get me summer jobs - driving his propane trucks, admittedly something most nonwhite kids could not have done but hardly a stepping stone to an executive career.

Yes I benefitted from "white privilege". But my point is, when 90% of the population received that same benefit, it wasn't that big of a deal.

That America doesn't exist anymore. It's probably closer to 60% white now. So white privilege has a negative impact on 40% of Americans rather than 10%. But the economic gradations still exist even within the white population.

[guillaumeb]

18. true

I grew up as one of six children to a paper mill worker father. Our area was definitely not rich. But my father moved to the Chicago area and immediately got a job in a steel mill in 1965. Very few of his fellow workers were black, and the few that were at the mill were janitorial.
That is an example of white privilege.

That steel mill job enabled my father to purchase a home and to accumulate equity/wealth. That is an example of white privilege. He purchased a home in a white area and could receive a mortgage. No redlining for the white family.

I was able to get summer jobs also, but I did not see any black schoolchildren working at those jobs. Coincidence, or white privilege?

When I walk on the street in my area, I am never stopped by the police and asked what I am doing. Could be my age, could be white privilege. When I was a younger person,I was never stopped by the police when walking in any area. Perhaps I just have an honest face, perhaps all white people have honest faces.

And yes, the bottom 99% of white people will never be rich, but we also will never be suspect simply because of skin color.

[napkinz]

21. "But many white people will insist that all race based discrimination ended in 1865"

and some are on the Supreme Court!

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/supreme-court-guts-landmark-civil-rights-law

[guillaumeb]

22. very true on both counts

And I have heard some of those arguments, especially centered around the supposed protections of the 14th Amendment and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But the SCOTUS decision in Shelby County v. Holder should put those arguments to rest.

Racists have generally hung up the white robes and hoods, but now they wear Tea Party hats and carry the snake flag. New packaging for a new millennium.

[napkinz]

26. "Racists hung up the white robes and hoods ... now wear Tea Party hats" -- they're free at last!

[Comrade Grumpy]

5. How does the white privilege thing translate into political action?

Okay, white privilege. What about it?

[Nye Bevan]

6. I know, right?

When I tell my white friends that they are going through life on the easiest difficulty setting there is and remind them to check their privilege, 90% of the time they act angry and defensive. Especially the ones who are broke and unemployed. What on earth is wrong with these people?

[cyberswede]

11. Did you really need to be the poster child in this thread?

[salin]

14. our own local performance art

[Donald Ian Rankin]

9. This smells of Bulverism. N.T.

[KamaAina]

10. What, might I inquire to ask, is "Bulverism"?

[Donald Ian Rankin]

13. It's a very useful term coined by C.S. Lewis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulverism

[NaturalHigh]

12. Cool story KA.

Misguided, wrong, a gimmick to sell Robin DiAngelo's book, but cool nonetheless.

[Nye Bevan]

16. When the Professor of Multicultural Education at Westfield State University speaks

we would do well to listen.

[NaturalHigh]

17. Where is Westfield State University anyway?

[KamaAina]

43. Western Massachusetts.

A little west of Springfield.

[hughee99]

44. Yes, in one of the whitest towns you might ever see. n/t

[whatchamacallit]

15. Any caucasian who can't see their institutional privilege, is blind

Why do people fight it? Is it because denying your advantage allows you to deny another's disadvantage? Weird.

[guillaumeb]

19. partly

it is also the belief that you accomplished everything because you applied yourself. Charles and David Koch are rich because they are hard working Christian people who deserve to be rich. Not because Daddy Koch left them money. And certainly not because the tax system is rigged in favor of the rich.

[treestar]

24. There are black people who worked hard and got rich now, too

That is why this is all academic. There has been progress, as President Obama has said. Refusing to acknowledge that is weird, too.

[guillaumeb]

28. there has been progress

but the American Civil War ended in 1865. So why the same battles about ballot access, educational access, mortgage access, disparate sentencing problems, segregated housing, etc.?

Yes some individuals, a tiny percentage of the total population, do overcome structural inequality and become rich, and some of these people are non-white. But these are the rare exception.

[treestar]

40. What is to be done then?

I don't think the reparations are likely, given that the Republicans have the house.

And how do you pick which white people owe? A tiny number of people become rich, but that about a few people becoming rich applies to white people too.

Housing is far less segregated. I read Sunset Towns, and it was horrible. But now I don't think most white people would do such evil things if they had a black neighbor now. That's a lot of progress. Life goes on and things get better. I sense some people wanting to hang onto the victim status. It might be more comfortable than going out in that world where you aren't discriminated against.

[guillaumeb]

41. you ask the difficult question.

But as to "hang on to the victim status" part, I think Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Trayvon Martin and thousands more could and would speak to that. If they were not dead, of course.

How to pay for reparations?
Start by returning top marginal tax rates to about 75% on incomes above $3 million or so. Increase corporate tax rates also. Cut war spending by 25% and between those two things we could rebuild the infrastructure, fund Social Security at higher levels, decrease the retirement age to 55, increase the minimum wage to the $15 range. The economy would absolutely explode.

[napkinz]

20. sad to see many who are in denial ... look at some of the DEFENSIVE replies to

Let's Talk Privilege: What It Is, What It Isn't, and Why You Have It

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026383665

[treestar]

23. But what is to be done about it all?

By the time I got done reading that, it felt hopeless. Can racial justice and full equality ever be achieved? And how? This privilege business does not get us anywhere. President Obama has a better approach. I think he is the best leader in this matter, rather than some white academic.

[Rex]

25. Yeah racists usually do not like to be reminded that they are bigots.

No doubt, see it all the time here in south Texas. Even indirect talk of racism, say on a TVEE not aimed at anyone in particular, will be greeted with anger and hostility.

White privilege is alive and well and has many defenders...but they are not racists. No no, they are just playing devil's advocate. YEP.

[napkinz]

27. This Is How Black Parents Talk To Their Sons About The Police

Because black males are targeted so much by police, black parents are now forced to speak to their children about police brutality and how they’re perceived by the people that are supposed to protect them. This is a conversation that white parents have never even had to think about.

Jazmine Hughes wrote an article for Gawker about black parenting in which she reached out to a group of black parents and youths to see what they tell their sons about the police. She writes:

“Every black male I’ve ever met has had this talk, and it’s likely that I’ll have to give it one day too. There are so many things I need to tell my future son, already, before I’ve birthed him; so many innocuous, trite thoughts that may not make a single difference. Don’t wear a hoodie. Don’t try to break up a fight. Don’t talk back to cops. Don’t ask for help. But they’re all variations of a single theme: Don’t give them an excuse to kill you.”

read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/21/this-is-how-black-parents-talk-to-their-sons-about-the-police/

[guillaumeb]

29. great picture of Deblasio and his son.

They have essentially the same face.

But when the white face walks in a store the assumption is that he is at the store to purchase something.

When the black face walks in the store the assumption is that he is in the store to steal something.

[napkinz]

34. another great pic

[Rex]

33. Love the last picture.

No father should have to tell their black son or daughter to watch out for the cops, because they have a propensity to shoot and kill black children for no apparent reason.

It is appalling that that kind of 'talk' has to be given in 2015. I thought we would be in a better place by now. I was wrong.

[napkinz]

35. posted by Cha back in December ...

Andray @AndrayDomise

I really want people to remember that Bill de Blasio was blamed for police deaths by virtue of being a responsible parent to a black son.

https://twitter.com/andraydomise/status/546503765302722560

[Rex]

36. I remember that very well, it was disgusting. The NYPD should be ashamed of themselves.

JUST because he had the guts to tell it like it is! I wish he would run for POTUS.

[napkinz]

37. the NYPD's hypocrisy

[napkinz]

38. speaking of defensive, fragile, and oh so ignorant ...

[Matterate]

42. Maybe don't get in people's faces and scream about how privileged they are...

When most of them are barely making ends meet.

It's like waltzing into the hospital room of someone with a terminal illness and complaining about your migraine.