Many of us speculate why white persons, almost exclusively, so not all of them, react in ways disproportionate to a situation when it is about race and racism. The answer is explained by a concept called White Fragility. Here is a story, actions in which POCs are too familiar with: I am a White woman 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 35 years! A White person can’t get a job anymore!” I look around the room and see 40 employed people, all White. Many of them nod along with this man’s rant. I look out the training room window into the larger work area, and see 50 more people, virtually all White. 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 and irrational? Why is he being so careless about the impact of his anger? Why are all the other White people either conveying silent agreement with him or tuning out? We have, after all, only articulated a definition of racism. White people in North America live in a social environment that insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial privilege builds White expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress. This lowered ability has been conceptualized 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 by pressuring those who caused the disequilibrium (usually People of Color) to retreat (e.g., via silence, apology, care-taking, agreement, modification of the claim, and above all, conveying “compassion” for the White upset). White racial disequilibrium results from an interruption to what is racially familiar. These interruptions include: • Suggesting that a White person’s viewpoint comes from a racialized frame of reference (interruption to objectivity); • People of Color talking directly about their racial perspectives (interruption to White racial codes); • People of Color choosing not to protect the racial feelings of White people in regards to race (interruption to White racial expectations and need/entitlement to racial comfort); • People of Color not being willing to tell their stories or answer questions about their racial experiences (interruption to colonialist relations); • A fellow White not providing agreement with one’s interpretations (interruption to White solidarity); • Receiving feedback that one’s behavior had a racist impact (interruption to White liberalism); • Suggesting that group membership is significant (interruption to individualism); • Acknowledgment that access is unequal between racial groups (interruption to meritocracy); • Being presented with a Person of Color in a position of leadership (interruption to White authority); • Being presented with information about other racial groups through, for example, movies in which People of Color drive the action but are not in stereotypical roles, or critical multicultural education (interruption to White centrality). Within the context of White supremacy, each of these interruptions becomes exceptional. In turn, Whites have not developed the emotional skills or mental stamina to cope with them and thus are often at a loss for how to respond in constructive ways (constructive, as we use it here, refers to ways that could bridge racial divides. Beyond the Face of Race: Emo-Cognitive Explorations of White Neurosis and Racial Cray-Cray by Cheryl E. Matias & Robin DiAngelo (2013)
Posted on: Sun, 30 Nov 2014 04:53:11 +0000
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