AFST302 Week 6 F24 PDF

Introduction Robin DiAngelo is credited with coining ‘White Fragility’. In her 2011 White Fragility article, she argues that: “White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protectio...

Introduction Robin DiAngelo is credited with coining ‘White Fragility’. In her 2011 White Fragility article, she argues that: “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, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility.” 1 What is ‘White Fragility’ She also argues that: “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.” 2  She provides an example of context for White Fragility through one of her observation entries: I am a white woman. I am standing beside a black woman. We are facing a group of white people who are seated in front of us. We are in their workplace, and have been hired by their employer to lead them in a dialogue about race. The room is filled with tension and charged with hostility. I have just presented a definition of racism that includes the acknowledgment that whites hold social and institutional power over people of color. A white man is pounding his fist on the table. His face is red and he is furious. As he pounds he yells, “White people have been discriminated against for 25 years! A white person can’t get a job anymore!” I look around the room and see 40 employed people, all white. There are no people of color in this workplace. Something is happening here, and it isn’t based in the racial reality of the workplace. I am feeling unnerved by this man’s disconnection with that reality, and his lack of sensitivity to the impact this is having on my co- facilitator, the only person of color in the room. Why is this white man so angry? Why is he being so careless about the impact of his anger? Why are all the other white people either sitting in silent agreement with him or tuning out? We have, after all, only articulated a definition of racism. 3  The U.S was built on the principle that “all people are created equal” Yet, “the nation began with the attempted genocide of Indigenous people and the theft of their land” “American wealth was built on the labor of kidnapped and enslaved Africans and their descendants” Women were denied the right to vote until 1920 and Black women until 1965 (Diangelo, 2018:xiii) 4  Whiteness and “protective pillows”, only ever absent temporarily and by choice Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism - Dr Robin Diangelo - YouTube 5  Where opportunities for engaging with issues of racism exist, such as training courses, DiAngelo argues that: “a single required multicultural education course taken in college, or required “cultural competency training” in their workplace, is the only time they may encounter a direct and sustained challenge to their racial understandings. But even in this arena, not all multicultural courses or training programs talk directly about racism, much less address white privilege.” 6  “It is far more the norm for these courses and programs to use racially coded language such as “urban,” “inner city,” and “disadvantaged” but to rarely use “white” or “over- advantaged” or “privileged.” This racially coded language reproduces racist images and perspectives while it simultaneously reproduces the comfortable illusion that race and its problems are what “they” have, not us.” 7  “However, if and when an educational program does directly address racism and the privileging of whites, common white responses include anger, withdrawal, emotional incapacitation, guilt, argumentation, and cognitive dissonance (all of which reinforce the pressure on facilitators to avoid directly addressing racism). So-called progressive whites may not respond with anger, but may still insulate themselves via claims that they are beyond the need for engaging with the content because they “already had a class on this” or “already know this.”" 8  DiAngelo (2011) further argues that “these reactions are often seen in anti-racist education endeavors as forms of resistance to the challenge of internalized dominance (Whitehead & Wittig, 2005; Horton & Scott, 2004; McGowan, 2000, O’Donnell, 1998)." DiAngelo (2011) also argues that “These reactions do indeed function as resistance, but it may be useful to also conceptualize them as the result of the reduced psychosocial stamina that racial insulation inculcates. I call this lack of racial stamina “White Fragility.”” 9  Is there “reverse-racism”? DiAngelo argues that “Racism is not fluid in the U.S.; it does not flow back and forth, one day benefiting whites and another day (or even era) benefiting people of color. The direction of power between whites and people of color is historic, traditional, normalized, and deeply embedded in the fabric of U.S. society (Mills, 1999; Feagin, 2006).” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnybJZRWipg 11  DiAngelo (2011) further notes that “Whites are theorized as actively shaped, affected, defined, and elevated through their racialization and the individual and collective consciousness formed within it (Frankenberg, 1997; Morrison, 1992; Tatum, 1997). “ Frankenberg (1993) defines Whiteness as multi-dimensional: Whiteness is a location of structural advantage, of race privilege. Second, it is a ‘standpoint,’ a place from which White people look at ourselves, at others, and at society. Third, ‘Whiteness’ refers to a set of cultural practices that are usually unmarked and unnamed. (p.1) 12  Factors that inculcate White Fragility, according to DiAngelo are: “Segregation” She argues that : “Even if whites live in physical proximity to people of color (and this would be exceptional outside of an urban or temporarily mixed class neighborhood), segregation occurs on multiple levels, including representational and informational. Because whites live primarily segregated lives in a white-dominated society, they receive little or no authentic information about racism and are thus unprepared to think about it critically or with complexity." 13  She further argues that : “White people are taught not to feel any loss over the absence of people of color in their lives and in fact, this absence is what defines their schools and neighborhoods as “good;” whites come to understand that a “good school” or “good neighborhood” is coded language for “white” (Johnson & Shapiro, 2003).” Robin DiAngelo notes that “White families fled from cities to suburbs to escape the influx of people of colour, a process called White Flight” Remember the ‘exodus’ of some people in a certain Ontario city because of the increase in “ethnic malls”? 14  Another factor which inculcates White Fragility, according to DiAngelo is Universalism & Individualism She argues that “Whites are taught to see their perspectives as objective and representative of reality (McIntosh, 1988).” “This is evidenced through an unracialized identity or location, which functions as a kind of blindness; an inability to think about Whiteness as an identity or as a “state” of being that would or could have an impact on one’s life. In this position, Whiteness is not recognized or named by white people, and a universal reference point is assumed.” 15  “White people are just people. Within this construction, whites can represent humanity, while people of color, who are never just people but always most particularly Black people, Asian people, etc., can only represent their own racialized experiences (Dyer, 1992).” DiAngelo further notes that “the discourse of universalism functions similarly to the discourse of individualism but instead of declaring that we all need to see each other as individuals (everyone is different), the person declares that we all need to see each other as human beings (everyone is the same)." 16  She notes that “when applied to racism, universalism functions to deny the significance of race and the advantages of being White. Further, universalism assumes that Whites and people of color have the same realities, the same experiences in the same contexts (i.e. I feel comfortable in this majority white classroom, so you must too), the same responses from others, and assumes that the same doors are open to all.” She argues that racism as a a system of privilege conferred on Whites challenges claims to universalism. 17  Another factor which inculcates White Fragility, according to DiAngelo is : Racial Belonging She argues that White people enjoy a deeply internalized, largely unconscious sense of racial belonging in [Western societies] (DiAngelo, 2006b; McIntosh, 1988). “This racial belonging is instilled via the whiteness embedded in the culture at large. Everywhere we look, we see our own racial image reflected back to us – in our heroes and heroines, in standards of beauty, in our role-models and teachers, in our textbooks and historical memory, in the media, in religious iconography , etc” 18  DiAngelo argues that “in virtually any situation or image deemed valuable in dominant society, whites belong. Indeed, it is rare for most whites to experience a sense of not belonging, and such experiences are usually very temporary, easily avoidable situations”. “For example, in many anti-racist endeavors, a common exercise is to separate into caucus groups by race in order to discuss issues specific to your racial group, and without the pressure or stress of other groups’ presence. Generally, people of color appreciate this opportunity for racial fellowship, but white people typically become very uncomfortable, agitated and upset - even though this temporary separation is in the service of addressing racism.” 19  So why do we need to discuss this? DiAngelo (2011)’s conclusion can help us think about this better: “The dynamics discussed here suggest that it is critical that all white people build the stamina to sustain conscious and explicit engagement with race”. 20  “While anti-racist efforts ultimately seek to transform institutionalized racism, anti-racist education may be most effective by starting at the micro level. The goal is to generate the development of perspectives and skills that enable all people, regardless of racial location, to be active initiators of change. Talking directly about white power and privilege, in addition to providing much needed information and shared definitions, is also in itself a powerful interruption of common (and oppressive) discursive patterns around race”. 21 Conclusion What can we learn from discussing ‘White Fragility’? ”Start small, start local…” Ijeoma Oluo https://youtu.be/aG7hwakIfl8?si=iHYG0cZXF1ENzc53 22