This is quite a captivating title because it makes you wonder whether white people can handle diversity. At first, the excerpt seems like a well of knowledge. That’s not a leap in judgement considering the author’s credentials: Robin DiAngelo is a former professor and a current facilitator and consultant for various firms. However, after reading the next few sentences I felt adamant.
P.S.: I’ve never known about her until after reading her excerpt on Medium
“Confronted with their own shortcomings, white employees often shut down the dialogue — or frame themselves as victims”
First, anyone whose character is questioned publicly will defend it. But what did she mean by “their own shortcomings”?
“I am in a position to give white people feedback on how their unintentional racism is manifesting itself.”
Bingo. Robin is hired to reveal to companies and employees “why they are having so much trouble recruiting people of color, and/or why the people of color they hire don’t stay. They want to know what they are doing that is unsupportive to people of color.”
A Glaring Problem
I don’t agree with the premise of the excerpt. To claim that a group of people is unintentionally racist makes them, by default, necessarily racist. They are unable to be viewed as anything but racist because they do not and cannot control their racism.
This worldview does not allow white people to be individuals. They are now part of a group that can and should be marginalized because their “deeply” held bias is beyond their control.
Furthermore, the author claims that white people are raised under “a white supremacist culture.” White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to other races and therefore should have control over other races.
As a black man, it is very difficult to find a logical counterargument that is consistent with my beliefs. I found myself unexpectedly struggling with feelings of inadequacy when facing this reality.
A Slice of Reality
White people are the majority in the US. They are the majority in all aspects of society that are important to changing society therefore they are in control. This is white dominance, BUT IT IS NOT a white supremacy. The US was a white supremacy when slavery and Jim Crow laws were accepted. But when all minorities were given the right to vote, we were given the power to change society.
Whether we use that power for good or do not use it at all is our prerogative. But from that point on, only we could bear the responsibility for our actions. We are at a point in history where changing society is no longer elusive. We can now get up and take responsibility for our nation and our communities.
The leftist media feeds the masses the lie that minorities, including women, are still oppressed. Because of that oppression, minorities are entitled to retribution. Entitlement is a dangerous feeling. This feeling is weaponized in the violent protests taking place in the US today, but I digress. What’s next Robin?
White Fragility
Robin said something quite telling:
“I am also white, which makes other white people much more receptive to the message. I am often amazed at what I can say to groups of primarily white people. I can describe our culture as white supremacist and say things like, ‘All white people are invested in and collude with the system of racism,’ without my fellow white people running from the room or reeling from trauma”
Why is she surprised that people approach what she’s saying with an open mind? If you’re ridding the world of racism, I’d like to think you’d be brazen in your approach. In her defense, she did say that she eases her way up to the revelation that all white people are racist. But then she goes on to say that once she points out something a white participant said that might be racist, they become offended and she frames their outrage as white fragility. But don’t take my word for it:
“The moment I name some racially problematic dynamic or action happening in the room in the moment — for example, “Sharon, may I give you some feedback? While I understand it wasn’t intentional, your response to Jason’s story invalidates his experience as a black man’ — white fragility erupts.”
Really? White fragility. I can give you another word for it: outrage, which is the correct term for their reaction. They are being misrepresented as racists but let’s continue as if they don’t have the right to be angry.
Robin defines white fragility as a form of bullying that white people use to silence minorities. And without reading further, it makes sense. White people have once held power over blacks therefore if whites don’t agree with a black person, they are being racist.
Personally, this is insulting and preposterous if you consider that black people are now free individuals perfectly capable of intelligent discourse. We are NOT perpetual victims unlike what the media and you want to portray us.
The [self-defense] claims blame others with less social power for their discomfort and falsely describe that discomfort as dangerous. The self-defense approach also reinscribes racist imagery. By positioning themselves as the victim of anti-racist efforts, they cannot be the beneficiaries of whiteness.
Robin then describes a disagreement with Eva, a German girl who took part of Robin’s activities. Eva was offended because Robin insisted that her limited experience with Black people does not absolve her of racial bias:
I also held to my challenge that growing up in Germany would not preclude her from absorbing problematic racial messages about black people
“White fragility functions as a form of bullying: “I am going to make it so miserable for you to confront me that you will simply back off.”
I’ll give Robin some credit. No one can escapes the flaw of the mind. We categorize everything, which makes stereotyping a natural consequence. But it’s what we do with those biases that make us racist or non-racist.
But under Robin’s tyrannical rule, you must accept that saying something objectively neutral as a white person is racist. All of Robin’s arguments are inflexible and punitive to any white person as I show further down.
List of her claims and objections
Robin is trying to educate white people of their unconscious biases (and sell a book and her platform but that’s beside the point). For anyone who looks at the world through the lens of identity politics, this is a powerful piece of writing. But for anyone else, this is a travesty.
She coins the term white fragility and claims that it prevents white people from seeing reality. This convinces her audience that white people are perpetual racists. Since white fragility is inherently white (a trait tied to race since she claims it in one race) they cannot see their racism and must be guided to enlightenment. And she is that light. If that doesn’t sound like a cult initiation, I don’t know what does.
Here are more of her claims:
- White people cannot face their racism because of white fragility
- White fragility bullies people of color into falling in line (this presupposes that white people are superior. Is she sure she’s not the white supremacist here? Because you must believe that you are superior to claim without flinching that other races have a right to retribution at your expense. Messiah complex much?)
- White people are raised under a culture of white supremacy
- Minorities (or people with less social power) cannot victimize, blame, or attack people with higher social power (whites)
- Whites cannot be abused because they merely revive stereotypes that African Americans are dangerous and violent (that’s an incredibly dangerous ideology)
- White people should just shut up, listen, and do what minorities say (again, dangerous).
Final Thoughts
Anyone with some critical thinking skills should be capable of seeing how absurd these claims are in a free, capitalist society. I’m willing to go out of a limb that she is a socialist who believes in censuring dissenting opinions. It’s absurd to think that race determines someone’s worth, much less what they can and cannot say. This is the disease of identity politics at work and it has no place in American society. (I’m assuming she’s American.)
What sold me on her radical view of racism is when she insisted that Eva could still be at the very least prejudiced on nothing but conjecture. I was convinced that she believes beyond a shadow of a doubt that all white people who’ve ever laid eyes on a black person are racist.
Can I blame her though? If she doesn’t believe her own lies who will cash in on such a lucrative platform?
If you can’t beat them, join them. Anyone who screams racist, fascist gets media time so why not?
Call to Action
That’s it for me guys. Leave a comment and let me know what you think of this except. Click the link below to read Robin’s excerpt on Medium.
How White People Handle Diversity
Black Is Not Monolithic 