After my first day at the conference and my experience with the Black Men's Think Tank, the formal program began on Friday April 28th, 2017. The first of four keynote addresses (in the unfortunately, for a White Privilege Conference, named "Imperial/Colonial Ballroom) was a speaker named Glenn Singleton. His topic was "A Courageous Conversation about White Privilege" and I was half paying attention when he makes his big statement, "WHITE WOMEN HAVE TO DO THE WORK AND LEAD!" I went, WHAT? He made a couple other statements here in my notes that I jotted down, "Sarah Palin is the Uncle Tom of White Women" and "Others suffering is the payment for their, white women's complicity." I think that Singleton may have just assumed that we in the audience knew why it should be White Women who need to do the work to break the pains of white privilege (and he said supremacy, which in time I came to understand as the more correct word, but not in the overt racist sense), but I didn't really know why. So I had a couple conversations later on and I threw together a couple of my reasons:
• White Women raise white children and do much of the education at the elementary level and so have the ability to shape kids when they are young.
•White Women have deep understanding of their disadvantage as women (and should know the privilege of being White) and therefore can speak with authority on both sides of this issue.
•White Women have leverage over White Men.
These are simply my ideas and probably simplistic in nature, but Singleton's speech was hard hitting on this point and I think some, like me, were taken aback at its direct nature. After this first morning keynote, it was onto the first breakout session. I had been told that there was a speaker who had written a very famous essay about "White Fragility," but I had no idea what it was about. So I went to this talk by Robin DiAngelo. She has lots to say and hurried through much of the talk (that seemed to be much of the theme this first morning), but here's a summary of what she had to say (credit to Professor DiAngelo and I'm kind of paraphrasing what she has written and published on the internet)
In essence, she says that White People in North America live in an environment in which they are always in the dominant culture and protects them from "race-based stress," which I take to mean both the stress of having to be uncomfortable because they aren't the dominant race and in which their racial attitudes and beliefs are challenged. The White race is deemed and reinforces as "normal", "universal" and "good." White is the norm and people of color represent themselves but as seen as "other."
Once DiAngelo establishes this precedent, she goes on to say "challenges to this identity become highly stressful and intolerable" and trigger racial stress for Whites. Here are some examples
•Suggesting that a white person's viewpoint comes from a racialized frame of reference (challenges their sense of objectivity)
•POC talking about their racial perspective (white taboo of talking about race)
•POC choosing not to protect racial feelings of whites (challenges need/entitlement to racial comfort)
•A fellow white not providing agreement with one's racial perspective (challenge to white solidarity)
•Receiving feedback that one's behavior had racist impact (challenge to white racial innocence)
•An acknowlegdement that access is unequal between racial groups (challenge to meritocracy)
•Being presented with a POC in a position of leadership (challenge to white authority)
•Being presented with information about other racial groups through, for example, movies in which POC are the subject and not in stereotypical roles (challenge to white centrality)
I read this (post DiAngelo talk) and it was congruent with her statement, which she made many times, of white "internalized superiority." Wow, even as a POC I could see myself always thinking that being White was better than being Asian. I'll talk more about this in a future post. She also said that there is "psychic burden from not belonging" or the equivalent, "lack of psychic burden of belonging." And then she made the statement that I found so true, not necessarily profound, but I just had never heard it said, but that it's HARD FOR WHITES TO HEAR THIS ALL FROM A POC< SO WHITE'S NEED TO HEAR IT FROM OTHER WHITES"
BOOM!
And so what is White Fragility? It is when whites are confronted with racial issues that make them uncomfortable, and they resort to defending, crying, arguing, minimizing or ignoring the issues in order to control the situation and maintain power. DiAngelo then stated that "when a white person makes it miserable to talk about race, or resorts to crying, it's BULLYING." This behavior is controlling and is a power play to ignore being uncomfortable about challenges to the way the world is set up for their comfort and convenience.
So then DiAngelo went through the ways in which whites have to give that feedback to other whites. It's the "Rules of Engagement," of in other words, the White Norms for giving racial feedback. Oh when I saw this list, I was blown away at ingrained I am to them and how I have internalized them myself.
1) DON'T GIVE ANY FEEDBACK ON MY (white) RACISM, but if you break this cardinal rule
2) Proper tone is crucial -- feedback must be given calmly. Emotion invalidates feedback.
3) There must be trust between us -- you must believe that I'm NOT racist before I can hear feedback.
4) Our relationship must be issue free
5) Feedback must be immediate
6) Feedback must be given privately even if the incident occurred in public.
7) You must be indirect as possible
8) As a a white person I must feel completely safe during any discussion (safe = comfortable)
9) Giving feedback on my racial privilege invalidates the form of oppression I have experienced
10) You must focus on intentions (cancels out the actual behavior)
11) To suggest behavior had a racist impact is to have misunderstood me (give me every opportunity to explain until you as the giver of feedback and find that it was your misunderstanding)
GUILTY AS CHARGED. ERNIE CHEN ALL ACCOUNTS.
So DiAngelo then goes on to write (I found online) that the antidote to White Fragility is:
•Being willing to tolerate the discomfort associated with an honest appraisal and discussion of white privilege and internalized superiority
•Challenge the whites own racial reality by acknowledging themselves as racial beings (white is a race!) and their limited racial understanding
•Attempt to understand the racial realities of POC through authentic interactions rather than just relying on the media or unequal relationships.
•Take action against their own racism and racism of their whites, i.e. get educated and act
So it was weird writing this post because many times I used the third person (because I'm not white) and many times I lapsed into first person (because I embodied what was being said). But I now see this "white fragility" everywhere. But wow, is it my place? This is the crux of my being at the WPC. I live the white privilege in about 95% of my life, but I think this conference is telling me that I have to act even though I don't look the part. So, what are the action steps? That's the key question.
In conclusion, this first breakout session was an important way for me to see the big picture. It gave me a framework for understanding why people behave the way they do, even though they may not recognize it.
• White Women raise white children and do much of the education at the elementary level and so have the ability to shape kids when they are young.
•White Women have deep understanding of their disadvantage as women (and should know the privilege of being White) and therefore can speak with authority on both sides of this issue.
•White Women have leverage over White Men.
These are simply my ideas and probably simplistic in nature, but Singleton's speech was hard hitting on this point and I think some, like me, were taken aback at its direct nature. After this first morning keynote, it was onto the first breakout session. I had been told that there was a speaker who had written a very famous essay about "White Fragility," but I had no idea what it was about. So I went to this talk by Robin DiAngelo. She has lots to say and hurried through much of the talk (that seemed to be much of the theme this first morning), but here's a summary of what she had to say (credit to Professor DiAngelo and I'm kind of paraphrasing what she has written and published on the internet)
In essence, she says that White People in North America live in an environment in which they are always in the dominant culture and protects them from "race-based stress," which I take to mean both the stress of having to be uncomfortable because they aren't the dominant race and in which their racial attitudes and beliefs are challenged. The White race is deemed and reinforces as "normal", "universal" and "good." White is the norm and people of color represent themselves but as seen as "other."
Once DiAngelo establishes this precedent, she goes on to say "challenges to this identity become highly stressful and intolerable" and trigger racial stress for Whites. Here are some examples
•Suggesting that a white person's viewpoint comes from a racialized frame of reference (challenges their sense of objectivity)
•POC talking about their racial perspective (white taboo of talking about race)
•POC choosing not to protect racial feelings of whites (challenges need/entitlement to racial comfort)
•A fellow white not providing agreement with one's racial perspective (challenge to white solidarity)
•Receiving feedback that one's behavior had racist impact (challenge to white racial innocence)
•An acknowlegdement that access is unequal between racial groups (challenge to meritocracy)
•Being presented with a POC in a position of leadership (challenge to white authority)
•Being presented with information about other racial groups through, for example, movies in which POC are the subject and not in stereotypical roles (challenge to white centrality)
I read this (post DiAngelo talk) and it was congruent with her statement, which she made many times, of white "internalized superiority." Wow, even as a POC I could see myself always thinking that being White was better than being Asian. I'll talk more about this in a future post. She also said that there is "psychic burden from not belonging" or the equivalent, "lack of psychic burden of belonging." And then she made the statement that I found so true, not necessarily profound, but I just had never heard it said, but that it's HARD FOR WHITES TO HEAR THIS ALL FROM A POC< SO WHITE'S NEED TO HEAR IT FROM OTHER WHITES"
BOOM!
And so what is White Fragility? It is when whites are confronted with racial issues that make them uncomfortable, and they resort to defending, crying, arguing, minimizing or ignoring the issues in order to control the situation and maintain power. DiAngelo then stated that "when a white person makes it miserable to talk about race, or resorts to crying, it's BULLYING." This behavior is controlling and is a power play to ignore being uncomfortable about challenges to the way the world is set up for their comfort and convenience.
 |
| DiAngelo sped through her slides so fast everyone was snapping photos. Here's one I took where I got her in the corner. It was funny because she made Seattle references to "Fife and Smokey Point" as places of whiteness! |
So then DiAngelo went through the ways in which whites have to give that feedback to other whites. It's the "Rules of Engagement," of in other words, the White Norms for giving racial feedback. Oh when I saw this list, I was blown away at ingrained I am to them and how I have internalized them myself.
1) DON'T GIVE ANY FEEDBACK ON MY (white) RACISM, but if you break this cardinal rule
2) Proper tone is crucial -- feedback must be given calmly. Emotion invalidates feedback.
3) There must be trust between us -- you must believe that I'm NOT racist before I can hear feedback.
4) Our relationship must be issue free
5) Feedback must be immediate
6) Feedback must be given privately even if the incident occurred in public.
7) You must be indirect as possible
8) As a a white person I must feel completely safe during any discussion (safe = comfortable)
9) Giving feedback on my racial privilege invalidates the form of oppression I have experienced
10) You must focus on intentions (cancels out the actual behavior)
11) To suggest behavior had a racist impact is to have misunderstood me (give me every opportunity to explain until you as the giver of feedback and find that it was your misunderstanding)
GUILTY AS CHARGED. ERNIE CHEN ALL ACCOUNTS.
So DiAngelo then goes on to write (I found online) that the antidote to White Fragility is:
•Being willing to tolerate the discomfort associated with an honest appraisal and discussion of white privilege and internalized superiority
•Challenge the whites own racial reality by acknowledging themselves as racial beings (white is a race!) and their limited racial understanding
•Attempt to understand the racial realities of POC through authentic interactions rather than just relying on the media or unequal relationships.
•Take action against their own racism and racism of their whites, i.e. get educated and act
So it was weird writing this post because many times I used the third person (because I'm not white) and many times I lapsed into first person (because I embodied what was being said). But I now see this "white fragility" everywhere. But wow, is it my place? This is the crux of my being at the WPC. I live the white privilege in about 95% of my life, but I think this conference is telling me that I have to act even though I don't look the part. So, what are the action steps? That's the key question.
In conclusion, this first breakout session was an important way for me to see the big picture. It gave me a framework for understanding why people behave the way they do, even though they may not recognize it.
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