White Fragility, Case № 12,345

As the great American freakout over “Critical Race Theory” continues — or rather the conservative freakout over any discussion of racial injustice does — it can be hard to keep up with all the ways that white folks demonstrate one of the things we steadfastly deny.

Namely: white fragility.

Early on, a lawmaker in Idaho demonstrated it by opposing the curricular inclusion of To Kill a Mockingbird. The reason? Because, in dealing with racism in 1930s Alabama, it suggested that Blacks were the “innocent victims” of white bigotry.

Which, of course, they were — in both the novel and in real-life Alabama.

Then it was Moms for Liberty seeking to remove children’s books about MLK and Ruby Bridges (who integrated New Orleans public schools) from school curricula. And why? Because they don’t include “redemption” for the white segregationists.

Oh, and because the book about King and the Birmingham campaign painted too “negative” a picture of police.

You know, the ones who were beating, clubbing, and turning water cannons on Black people.

Most recently:

• In January, the Osceola County school district in Florida canceled a seminar for teachers on the history of the Civil Rights Movement in the state for fear that some might view it as “promoting critical race theory.”
• Not to be outdone, in Alabama, the State Superintendent of Education is having to explain that recognizing Black History Month is not critical race theory because apparently, some white folks believe it is.
• In Texas, one parent in a suburb of Houston asked the school district to remove a children’s biography of Michelle Obama from the school library because it promotes “reverse racism” against whites.
• Another parent outside of Dallas asked their district to ban a picture book for kids about Olympic track star Wilma Rudolph. Why? Because the book discussed the blatant bigotry Rudolph had faced as a child and young woman in the 1940s and ‘50s.

These and other examples from around the country prove that what has the right upset is not some intricate legal theory or widespread teaching about the evils of white people or America. Instead, it’s the mere mention of racism as a serious issue over the course of our history that has them so vexed.

In other words, white conservatives have a problem with telling the truth. They’d prefer that we lie to children.

As the country’s demographic and cultural makeup changes and white conservatives feel the nostalgia for their precious 1950s America slipping away — an America only they could remember so fondly — they are circling the wagons, so to speak.

If they can’t stop the browning of America itself — though they’ll keep trying that too — at least they can guard the borders of the national narrative, or so they hope.

. . .

What’s especially distressing about this latest iteration of what scholar Carol Anderson calls “white rage” is that it’s so undiscerning in scope. It attacks any discussion of systemic racism or white privilege, even when offered without judgment, and when it promotes a positive vision of how people can use privilege constructively.

For instance, this week, a principal of a Wichita high school was forced to apologize for showing a video to his staff that touched on white privilege.

The video had previously been viewed by the girl’s basketball team after a prior racial incident aimed at some of the team’s players. The principal wanted the staff to see what the players had seen, so he showed them the clip.

Therein, Black author Joy DeGruy discussed an incident where she was discriminated against and how a lighter-skinned, biracial relative (who could easily pass for white) came to her defense.

As DeGruy explained: “She used her ‘white privilege’ to educate and make right a situation that was wrong.”

In the clip, DeGruy then encourages viewers who are white to use their privilege in the same way — for good.

After watching the clip, one teacher told a local school board member that the video had created a hostile work environment. That board member then instructed the principal to apologize for having shown it.

Below is the clip the teachers saw. Take a few minutes to watch it. Then think about whether this could be seen as creating a “hostile work environment” by anyone who wasn’t the most fragile snowflake ever to fall from the sky.

Seriously?

In this clip, DeGruy is not bashing white people.

She doesn’t claim that white people are inherently racist or evil.

She is recounting a story involving the racially-biased behavior of one particular white person. She’s talking about something that happened to her and how another person used their white (or, in this case, lighter-skinned) privilege to challenge the mistreatment.

In fact, she even mentions how two older white women who witnessed the incident also seemed appalled and began to signal their displeasure too.

In other words, of the three identified white people in the story, she criticized one while praising two others.

As a matter of full disclosure, I should note that Joy DeGruy is a friend and colleague, as is the filmmaker, Shakti Butler. What’s more, I am also featured in this film. So yes, I have personal reasons to be concerned about the distortion of their words and work, as with my own.

That said, it is impossible for anyone to watch this clip (or any part of the film) and argue in good faith that it promotes prejudice towards white people.

In fact, to the extent the film features several white people who actively work against racism and try to use our privileges to create a more equitable society, it argues against the notion that whites are all bigots, by definition.

. . .

Ironically, conservative white folks are proving almost weekly the very thing they deny.

It seems that if they really want to debunk the notion of white fragility, they’re going to have to keep their mouths shut.

And honestly, I’d be glad to have the theory debunked if only they’d be willing to do that.

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This post was previously published on Age of Awareness.

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