General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Black Farmer Calls Out Liberal Racism In Powerful Facebook Message [View all]WhiskeyGrinder
(22,601 posts)Really, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best in his Letter From a Birmingham Jail: I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negros great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cant agree with your methods of direct action; who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another mans freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a more convenient season.
But there are thousands of think pieces out there, each one detailing someones experience with working in liberal, progressive, activist or party circles and having to educate or even struggle against allies who believe themselves woke or understanding of intersectional activism. It's easy for us to roll our eyes at the term "microaggression," because considered individually and without context, they sound ridiculous. But the more you read about the black experience, the more you find just how widespread these microaggressions are, and how degrading they must be, day after day; and how discouraging it must feel when you talk with your friends and find they're experiencing the exact same things. I find Twitter an excellent resource for finding new resources that give me different perspectives than I get in my white middle-class bubble. Reading with an open heart and a willingness to grow has taught me so much. Look up "Black Twitter" for some suggestions on who to follow, if you're interested.
(You see this sometimes when women talk about street harassment -- there have been threads on here with men saying, "Huh, I've never seen anyone get harassed!" or "My girlfriend never gets harassed when we're out and about" and women all saying they've experienced it in one form or another, and how it adds up and makes it hard, sometimes to get through the day.)
Here are some links that might be helpful. Theyre not all-inclusive, and theyre highly anecdotal; this isnt something the party is going to research. But when we think about things like hiring biases, it follows that people who consider themselves good liberals are going to make up some of the hiring managers who set aside Lakeishas resume in favor of Lindas with some vague thought about company culture. If you're looking for articles that say things like, "I wore yoga pants when I voted for HRC, and I'm racist," you're not going to find them. However, the data we do have about racial prejudice shows this is not a small problem, and that statistically, some white people who consider themselves liberal would have to be part of the racism problem.
Honestly, I sometimes think it would be helpful to have spaces where white people work with each other on their ingrained racism, making it OK to talk about reactions or thoughts they know are racist, but don't know how to shed them. We so often conflate "good person" with "not racist" that we fall into the No True Scotsman fallacy very easily, saying that there can't be racism in liberal circles because if a liberal is racist then they're not really a liberal. I wish there was more room to say, I'm a liberal and I know my thoughts and reactions are sometimes affected by the white supremacist framework I've grown up in. I think the way we do say it is to listen with an open heart when someone calls us out on our thoughts and actions, take the feedback seriously and look for ways to sincerely incorporate it in our future work.
http://billmoyers.com/story/odds-required-viewing-white-progressives/
http://www.understandingprejudice.org/apa/english/page10.htm
https://bullshit.ist/on-woke-white-people-advertising-their-shock-that-racism-just-won-a-presidency-68286682047d
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nikki-johnsonhuston-esq/the-culture-of-the-smug-w_b_11537306.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/abby-norman2/why-white-parents-wont-ch_b_8294908.html
http://www.gal-dem.com/time-ditch-problematic-white-friends/
Thanks for reading this far. This is not meant as a lecture and I hope it doesn't feel like one. Face-to-face would be better.