It would be hard to imagine two books, sharing similar titles, that differ more in their thesis than two I’ve recently read—White Fragility: Why It’s so Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin Diangelo; White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era by Shelby Steele.
There is one belief that the books share in common which is a rightly cautionary one. This is the risk of how a feeling of moral superiority, drawn from one’s opposition to racism, can become a badge of honor.
In the case of Whites, it can dilute the need for one to take concrete actions to attack systemic racism.
For Blacks, per Shelby Steele, being conscious of racism, leads to “White Guilt,” which he asserts reduces their sense of individual responsibility.
I am personally very conscious of the risk that my concern about racism, sharper today than it has ever been, can elevate itself to a feeling of moral righteousness. My being conscious of racism can lead me to feel I’m doing something good and meaningful simply by recognizing racism. Just as invidiously, I can come to view Blacks as a class rather than penetrating to understand each individual’s circumstances through genuine conversations and by understanding each other stories.
Shelby Steele’s book suffers from several errors in fact, as I see the situation. Specifically:
- His belief that African-Americans are motivated much more by White Guilt than by key principles founded on personal responsibility;
- His view that racism and White Supremacy are now recognized as real and seen by almost all people as morally wrong. If only that were true;
- His failure to recognize that there are indeed systemic racial barriers that still exist in educational preparedness, job interviews, criminal justice and healthcare;
- His belief that the pursuit of diversity is simply an expression of a way to suppress the feeling of White Guilt rather than a recognition of the benefits which diversity offers;
- His belief that the pursuit of diversity requires a diminution of quality and excellence. I say this, knowing that this is indeed possible but in no way inevitable or necessary;
- His assertion that White Guilt, following what Steele feels was closing the curtain on racism in the mid-60s, has created a moral vacuum which has played a major responsibility in the reduction of moral standards in general. He asserts that White Guilt has been the principal, if not only, factor reducing moral authority in our world today. He goes so far as to express the belief that it was responsible for the broad acceptance of Clinton’s taking advantage of Monica Lewinsky. There has indeed been a general deterioration of moral standards in many areas. The causes of this have been multiple. While White Guilt is a reality, Steele badly overstates its influence.
Robin Diangelo in White Fragility includes many thoughts which strike home for me:
- Viewing privilege as something that White people are just handed obscures the systematic dimensions of racism that are actively and passively, consciously and unconsciously, maintained by all White people;
- There is a network of systematically related racial barriers. Taken individually, none of these barriers might be that difficult for an individual to get around but, because they interlock with each other, they have a very telling effect. These barriers relate to housing, neighborhood, education, employment, health and wealth and income;
- “We Whites who position ourselves as liberal often opt to protect what we perceive as our moral reputations, rather than recognize, challenge and seek to change our participation in systems of inequity and domination. What is particularly problematic is that White people’s moral objection to racism increases their resistance to acknowledging their complicity with it.”
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