Learning to Listen #17 - White Fragility

 This week I read "White Fragility" by Robin Diangelo, a white woman who works as a facilitator for anti-racist training. I believe this is the first book I've read on the subject by a white author, which gave me pause, as part of my unlearning journey has been to focus on amplifying Black voices. However the book had lots of press (good and bad) and I wanted to dive in and see for myself. There is an important place for race conversations among white people; I have learned that it is important not to expect a Black person to educate me. As a facilitator of these conversations for a while, Diangelo brings a certain amount of experience in race relation conversations.

The strongest point I took away from the book was not so much about white fragility, but about the insidious and evolutionary nature of racism. It is so common to hear the mantra "racism is something of the past" or "racism doesn't exist anymore". We look upon our society as enlightened, our eyes opened to the horrors of slavery, and our laws struck down that kept Black people in metaphorical chains when real ones were no longer acceptable.

But Jim Crow was years ago, before my time. Racism is struck down then, and exists only as a prejudicial feeling, right? No - the racism will not die so easy a death. It began in the western world as slavery, then evolved into Jim Crow laws. And when those laws were abolished it evolved into incarceration, red-lining, white flight, income-disparity - behaviours that are not law but nonetheless hold back any possibility of equity. Charles Baudelaire quoted "the loveliest trick of the Devil is to persuade you that he doesn't exist."

Racism, when viewed simply as prejudice, makes us squirm, fight, and get defensive. But I fully embrace the new definition: prejudism + power, because it is that definition that reminds us the racism is still here. In the 1940s people looked back at slavery and said "thank goodness we aren't racist like that." And in the 2020s we look back at Jim Crow and say "thank goodness we aren't racist like that."  Well in 50 years I have no doubt people will look back and say "thank goodness we aren't racist like 2020." Because they will look back and the systems that hold Black people and people of colour back, that give privilege to people born with white skin, that send messages through media to the world of the supremacy of white concepts of beauty and cultural norms, and they will see with clear eyes the traumatic reality of the system in which we live. My only hope is that in knowing and acknowledging the devil we can finally terminate it before it evolves to yet another disguise.

(In order to stay true to my desire to amplify Black voices, I have chosen not to include any excerpts from this book. There are many quotes that stayed with me, and if you have the chance to read the book I'm sure you will find many that resonate with you, too).