Admitting that white privilege helps you is really just congratulating yourself

[brer cat]

Excellent read!

There’s a strange, profoundly contemporary form of behavior that says a lot about our continuing problems with race and the deeply anxious, neurotic ways in which we’re confronting those problems: the ritualistic practice of white self-indictment.

snip

This makes perfect sense when you consider that by showily demonstrating their willingness to condemn themselves, these white people really seek to condemn the white people who don’t. The unspoken but unmistakable logic is that by declaring themselves a part of the problem, they are defining themselves as part of the solution. It’s a remarkably effective maneuver: it performs a particular emotional act and in the performance accomplishes its opposite. We’re living in a time of broad awakening to the reality of deep, entrenched racial inequality. That’s a great thing, but even the thought of being implicated in this system has caused anxiety in many white people, that some address by outdoing each other to be the loudest, most visible opponents of racial inequality. The best defense, then, is a good offense. But Yancy’s entire point, of course, is to lower your defenses. This self-negating quality might not matter so much if the performance of self-indictment actually managed to create material change: Sure, maybe this is just another part of white liberal vanity, but at least it gets the message out there! But it’s unclear what asking people to identify their racism or white privilege actually accomplishes. Presumably, acknowledging white privilege comes before some substantively anti-racist action, but specific definitions of such action remain elusive. Just as in the fight against heart disease or drunk driving, awareness only has value if it actually leads to a change in behavior, and there’s no sign that these quasi-religious renunciations of privilege have accomplished such change.

This, in turn, presents a larger problem. The discourse of this school of politics is resolutely immaterial in its language, with endless discussion of acknowledging and feeling and admitting and occupying, almost none of which amounts to what anyone might consider doing. Disclaiming white privilege doesn’t lower African Americans’ inordinately high unemployment rate or increase educational opportunities for children of first-generation immigrants. The alternative is simpler, but harder: to define racism in terms of actions, and to resolve to act in a way that is contrary to racism. Someone who never confesses their white privilege can take small-scale steps to reduce racial inequality, such as voting for candidates who support affirmative action or being an advocate for diversity in the hiring process at their job; someone who tweets all day about the dangers of white supremacy might still reinforce it by clutching their handbag closer when a black person gets on the subway. When we underestimate the immense work actually involved in dismantling racial inequality, we fail to confront the reality that the self-indictment involved in claiming white privilege, by failing to do anything materially to eliminate white privilege, is a farce.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/01/28/when-white-people-admit-white-privilege-theyre-really-just-congratulating-themselves/?hpid=hp_hp-cards_hp-card-posteverything%3Ahomepage%2Fcard

[The Polack MSgt]

1. Thank You for this

I'm sick to death of the attitude that "I admit I have privilege so I am not an asshole".

That is barely better than the hyper defensive "are you calling me RACIST?" assholes we all have to deal with.

This quote right here - awareness only has value if it actually leads to a change in behavior -Says it all.

[brer cat]

5. absolutely!

[randys1]

2. This has been bothering me for a very long time.

I can translate this very simply:

"OK, I admit I have white privilege, I know all white people do, so what am I now going to do about it?"

For me i have tried small things, like the twitter account

https://twitter.com/DidTheyLetUVote

dedicated to helping minorities and students to vote, given they are the target of the GOP in voter obstruction.

I have been vocal in my personal life and on the internet about it, but what has actually changed because of it?

Probably next to nothing, though I do hope I can get people's attention as to the voting issue, but overall, next to nothing.

It is very easy to be white and admit you have privilege or for that matter admit that BY DEFINITION (white American) am racist, doesnt cost me much other than a hide here and there on DU, so what good is it?

How to develop action out of thought, I am open to suggestions.

[brer cat]

4. I think probably most of us (white allies)

Last edited Fri Jan 29, 2016, 08:33 AM - Edit history (1)

struggle with that, but if we see our doing, however small in the grand scheme, as being too insignificant to matter, then we are setting ourselves up for endless frustration and guilt, and likely to discontinue even our small efforts. After all, offering a hot cup of soup to a homeless person shivering on the street or a genuine smile to a woman in a burka who looks out of place in our neighborhood are both acts that matter.

I don't think the author's purpose here relates to how much or how significant our contribution is. It is the very public self-indictment with no action to follow that he is critiquing. I know that I have been guilty of that: placing my awareness of racism into the face of someone who has not sufficiently convinced me of his/her awareness, without offering a single point of solution to the problem.

Not mentioned in the article is the reaction of Black audiences to such public displays of white liberal self-congratulation. I often wonder about the eye-rolling that must go on behind the scenes in this group when I and others so earnestly post about how we "get" it. I think our friends here are very patient with us sometimes.

[Number23]

3. An interesting piece. So glad that you posted this.

And I agree with the author that "verbal floggings" even from other white folks won't do the trick.