To Robin DiAngelo:
We address you specifically, not because you act alone, but because you stand now as a figurehead of a movement, a representative of a particular school of thought—one among a few others, to be sure. We want to say we recognize that you are racist, and we’re ready to forgive you for it.
You proudly proclaim your racism in your writings, as so often racists do. We have read your work and can see the racism dripping from every page. We think you might be right, though. Maybe it wasn’t your fault. Maybe you were “socialized” into it. That’s not true of all of us, though, and saying so isn’t fair, and it isn’t right.
We understand the impact your work is having. You would turn us against each other by teaching us to see how we’re all “complicit” in a “system” of racism. You would have our children become obsessed with racism and poisoned with it. You do this so that you will not feel so alone. And for this crime against us and our children, we would like to sit down and have a word with you.
Many of our children have been led astray, taught to obsess over race, to attempt to see it all around them in every interaction and every object around them. This has only happened in recent years under the “educational” direction of “anti-racism” advocates such as yourself. We’re terrified. Those who have fully embraced this poison may be lost, possibly forever. They’re our children, and they’re already turning on us. Imagine for a moment how that must feel for every parent, every sibling experiencing this right now.
We write this in the pale hope of saving them, not to save you, and to stand in true solidarity with one voice—brown, white, and even black—to deliver a very simple message to you.
You are wrong.
The United States of America was not built for white people, and it most certainly was not built by white people, as you, yourself, seem to know so very well. But it was also not built by people of African descent, or Latino, or Asian, or by men, or women. The United States of America, was built by all of us. All of us striving as best we could for a common dream that seemed impossible to achieve, as our founders, whose memories are being trashed for it now under tutelage like yours, fought valiantly to bring about. The United States of America was built so that all people could live free; so that every individual could strive for happiness, community, freedom, and a better world for their own children.
This American journey was built brick by brick, law by law, for hundreds of years in this country, and it was built even over thousands of years long before any such country existed. It is deeply rooted in the history of all peoples, as we made mistakes, survived hardships, and tried to answer the questions of how we could best live. And from this history, these mistakes, these hardships, and these answers, we learned. From this knowledge rose a nation—more importantly an idea. We built this, all of us, together, and we can enjoy it, together. We’ll take the good and the bad, along with that of our ancestors from every corner of this planet, and we’ll keep striving, like Americans, to do better.
So, the message we want to say to you, Robin, is simple. No.
No. We will not sit in our homes in terror as everything our parents and their parents before us worked so hard to build gets torn down. We will not let your racism infect us all and tear us apart. We will rise up and say in one unified voice: NO.
We reject any world that fosters nothing but hate and division and seeks to destroy the legacy which was handed down to us, which our people—all of our people—built and grew into together. We reject your attempts to steal our voices and redefine racism through your white, or now brown, fragility lens. We forgive you for your racism even as we reject your racist language used against us, when we attempt to object. We can see how you treat us, telling our white spouses to hate us and us to resent them, making them suffer, making them believe they are oppressors who oppress us, who they love. We can see the blatant racism in all of this, and your word games can not hide it. We’re not so stupid as you seem to think.
We want you to know, that we see the harm caused by these racist ideas and we say, NO.
We will not shut up; we will not be silenced; we will not be intimidated by white children bamboozled by the insane racist ramblings of a woman who can’t handle her own racism; and we will not accept your racism being projected onto all of us. You may have to live with your racism, but no one else does.
To each of you that hears us, it is up to you to decide what to do now. You are an individual, but we should remember that we are all in this together.
Signed,
A group of professional brown Americans (if you must know) who worked their way up in a free country. We cannot sign our right names because, thanks in some significant part to you, we know what will happen if we do. Those who feel they can, can add theirs in the comments.
142 comments
The United States of America is in the middle of a COMMUNIST REVOLUTION! We need to wake up, sharpen are blades, load and cock our bolts. COMMUNISM in the form of GLOBALISM/CORPORATISM is poised to ENACT GLOBAL TYRANNY that INTERNATIONAL COMMUNISM could not. We fight now, we fight here, or all is lost.
I would like Robin to comment about racism against white men in NBA since most NBA players are black. Does it mean it is based on your physical ability as a fact and not any mumbo jumbo emotional feeling that one can be a professional basketball player?
Do you know how disappointing it is to find out every person you admire for their insight and scholarship and expertise that is “white” is also a slavery denier? This woman is wrong. But in her wrongness she makes a few things abundantly clear. No one has an appetite to correct the crimes against humanity visited on native blk Americans the descendants of slaves. We are an ethnic group comprised of many ppl but in the begining long before America was America the American Indians were sold into slavery, captured , and existed as prisoners of war in this country the first mention is in1535. In 1619 AFRICANS CAME and there was acknowledgment that there were two different slave populations. We mixed together to make the blk Americans of today.
Reparation is for 15+ generations of free labor. What was done with that labor? You say no to racism but you just denied slavery. You said all built this country.
That’s the attitude and denial that plagues this country and will be it’s down fall. Karma . The crimes are so wretched my history is manipulated and erased. America is engaged in genocide right now. America can’t wash themselves of the filth or pass the buck America will fall bc America is genoiding and stealing the birthright of the American negro. Who was here before the red skinned native American. The bones found in the ground in the east are my families bones. We know who built this country and who tilled the land and who healed the sick and afflicted who breastfed the babies and tending to the homes built with our hands. The rail roads not maintained since the civil war. The white house built twice still stands today. All the plantations still regal built by us and only us.
I’m sad white ppl want to complain while still denying the truth. Untill you accept the truth and make things right this country will remain weak, insecure and eventually die and when America is no more we will still be here. I wonder if all the immigrants will leave then or choose to live in a shit hole and keep it that way bc they can’t treat blk americans respectfully as ppl. You said law by law was built , how many of those laws detail the harms done ONLY to blk Americans? How many of those laws are against international law? How many of those laws shoe the genocide of blk Americans? Don’t you think that needs to be corrected? Our bodies built wall street and then were sold on wallstreetvas very valuable property. Don’t you think that has to be dealt with? Denying all of this explains Beverly D’Angelos race fixation and accusations against her own ppl . Even as she is wrong she inadvertantly highlights the real problem. America doesn’t want to do what’s right and America has caused all of the problems facing it today.
Blk Americans watch from the sidelines. Free from guilt yet filled with sadness at the mess America has made of our lands. Invest in the humanitarians and things will change. The only humanitarians here are the blk Americans. Blk immigrants and every other immigrant do not have our spirit and are not connected to this land. Invest in them and America will continue to fall.
Your comment is aciduously racist.
I forgive you, and hope you choose to stop drinking poison, thinking you’re making others feel bad.
Here’s to better mental health! Cheers!
@Keri Hamilton, imagine my disappointment in seeing your hostile racism against, apparently, everyone not black. It’s a blindness to reality that endangers your well-being, emotional, mental, spiritual, most of all. Racists like you are easy to dismiss. It will isolate you, not the rest of the world. You will be increasingly alone with your bitterness and stagnating resentment. Learn something now, or be tortured by your failure forevermore: there is no correcting the past. We can only endeavor to not make the same mistake again. Something DiAngelo has not only failed to learn on a spectacular level, but has monetized. To the great detriment of many young people, such as you. God help us all.
I am the descendent of a WHITE IRISH SLAVE. Guess what, white people were slaves in America too. No one is denying slavery. Black people SOLD black people to each other and to white people as slaves. Native Americans SOLD other Native Americans to each other and to white people as slaves.
Also, how can you cry out in horror about slavery that NEVER occurred to you personally while actual men, women and children are slaves right now?? Right now many human beings are enslaved and tortured and forced to build other people’s empires all across the world. If you were truly against slavery, you would be doing something to stop what is going on RIGHT NOW instead of crying out about a past none of us can change.
Slavery has always been a human problem not a “race” problem.
Whenever a Woke screams about “slavery” and “racism” in modern America, tell them that their cell phone where they get all their Woke disinformation exists solely because of non-white slaves.
The Woke screamer’s smart phone represents more non-white (and mostly child) human slavery than all other Western inventions. Using their cell phones as proof of their own ignorant hypocrisy negates any words that come out of their mouths on these topics thus anything they say can be legitimately dismissed as poseur brat-tantrums.
This also works when Wokes scream about “climate” — tell them that slave-mined lithium and cobalt for phone (and E-car) batteries cause more environmental degradation than drilling for oil. Watch their heads explode when you tell them to be truly Woke they must throw away their cell-phone Soma brain-pacifiers. They’ll cry. (So satisfying to watch.) Also send them these facts about world slavery today when they scream “racist slavery!” at modern Americans:
“Although it may be hard to believe that this cruel reality exists in 2019, modern slavery — an umbrella term that includes practices such as slavery, child labour, debt bondage labour, forced labour, and human trafficked labour — is a disturbing reminder of the tragic situation that may be present within many Canadian businesses, potentially reaching all the way to the very beginning of their supply chains.
According to the International Labour Organization, as many as 25 million people are suffering in forced labour and as many as 152 million children are victims of child labour — 73 million of whom are engaged in hazardous work. World Vision Canada reported in 2017 that $34 billion of goods imported in to Canada each year may have been produced by child or forced labour.”
from: “Introduction to modern slavery issues in businesses and supply chains in Canada” 2019 gowlingwlg.com web site
“An estimated 50 million people were living in modern slavery on any given day in 2021, an increase of 10 million people since 2016… Globally, nearly one in every 150 people are in modern slavery. Modern slavery affects every region in the world. More than half the men, women, and children living in modern slavery globally are in the Asia and the Pacific region (29.3 million).
However, when the size of regional populations is considered, prevalence of modern slavery is highest in the Arab States (10.1 per thousand people)… This is followed by Europe and Central Asia (6.9 per thousand), Asia and the Pacific (6.8 per thousand), Africa (5.2 per thousand), and the Americas (5 per thousand).”
from: Global Slavery Index 2021
Ironically, she has a book called,”White Liberal and their Racism” Something a long this line. It is they who are the real racists. The commit what Psychologists call the Mirror Fallacy. They think that everyone is like them.
I don’t think Robin DiAngelo deserves forgiveness. To put it bluntly, she can go fuck herself.
That’s MY open letter to her. Fuck off, Robin.
I co-sign this letter as a software engineer who works at Instagram (Facebook/Meta) and who happens to be brown. I’m born and raised in Texas and couldn’t be prouder of it.
Excellent letter which I fully endorse. To preserve what is good about America this Critical Theory , social justice, et al must be thoroughly discredited . We must never again allow this cult to cause us this amount of trouble.
Thank you for this. It’s time for these woke totalitarian servants of Morgoth to go back to the shadow. They shall not pass!
Bravo !! Author, Author!!
For it is united we stand and divided we fall.
And now these people stand with us in respect, knowledge, and reason.
The way it used to be.
The past has neither been perfect nor pretty, but it represents decades and even centuries of striving for the betterment of all.
I’ll take *no blame* for the past and require no praise for working towards that goal in righteous defiance of this eventually genocidal ideology.
I enjoyed reading the article and comments. BTW, I reject critical theory and all its corollaries. One commenter noted that black Americans represent 13% US population. It’s correct. Here’s a link https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/US/PST04529 to support it.
Also, it would be useful is people remembered Occam’s razor-the simplest explanation is the best. Relavtively fewer black Americans necessarily means fewer black directors, actors, politicians, scientists, and so on.
Something else: the normal curve. Remember not everyone is equally smart, attractive, talented, etc-regardless of race. Less gifted people will not become as well paid as more gifted people. ‘Member-the normal curve!
Hey, I’m no fan of Cardi B. However, she’s a black millionaire and I’m not. WAP is not a song I’d chose to listen to. However, she’s “gifted” in ways I’m not.
I won’t participate in the senseless, self-flagellation some white people do. It certainly appears to be very mentally unhealthy. White guilt is a “state” from which no white person can ever escape. They’ll always be white and can therefore never escape the guilt and unworthiness. That’s masochistic.
More simply put, white guilt is another and special iteration of original sin for white people.
Only 13% of the country is black – so yes, yes black people will mean that overall there are less black people holding positions of power, such as being a member of Congress. However, to be fully reflective, then 13% of positions of power should be held by black people.
Let’s look at Congress: there are 535 members of Congress (435 for the House and 100 for the Senate) In order to be reflective of 13% of the USA, that means there should be 69-70 black members of Congress (56-57 black House Representatives and 13 black Senators). Let’s also keep in mind that the current Congress is the MOST racially diverse Congress that this country has EVER seen in its entire history.
There are currently 56 black House Representatives (right on target, for the first time in US history) and only 3 black Senators (still not even ¼ of what it should be).
White people make up 59.7% of the country, yet even in our most diverse Congress in US history, they still make up 77% of lawmakers. The representation is improving, but it is STILL disproportionate, and THAT is the issue.
Your argument partakes of one of the most serious flaws of critical theory: focusing on simplistic metrics (and “proportionality” ) instead of actual tangible progress. The logic of Social Promotion, to increase the metric of “high school graduation rate.” The logic of Teaching To The Test, so that “achievement” scores are higher. Neither tactic accomplishes anything real.
Consider the certification that grants a pilot’s license. The certification is not really what matters. The license doesn’t matter, either. What matters is whether or not the person can pilot an airplane.
Critical theory proclaims its emphasis on examining the workings of social Power, including the way that Power gets exercised within institutional structures. Strange how the theorists have apparently never examined the history of what happens when the goal of tangible positive results becomes confused with the goal of meeting the quotas mandated by a superior authority in the power hierarchy. The history of the Great Leap Forward would have a lot to teach them in that regard.
There are some other flawed premises in your post: for instance, the unexamined notion that once proportional representation is achieved on the basis of race, that all of the members of a given ethnic bloc would- or should- necessarily vote to support the same political agenda, or have the same ideas about how to achieve progress on behalf of “their people”, or that all (or any) of them would necessarily welcome the role of representing the special interests of some identity collective in which they hold membership status. I mean, it isn’t that way at present. And it’s a good thing for American ethnic minority populations that it isn’t- because if the members of Congress ever did make the conscious decision to unify in order to prioritize their own ethnic bloc’s interest over all others, Americans of European ancestry would be a clear majority, even under your proportional system. And if they were to exalt the morality of racial solidarity over all other values (which CRT theorists seek to valorize while speaking out of one fork of their tongue, while insisting on “justice” with the other fork), then nothing would stop them from re-imposing American apartheid, slavery, and worse.
The reason that isn’t the prevailing view in the Congressional representatives of the white majority is that most of them share agreement that white supremacy was a terrible, disgraceful moral error. They accept the basic premises of the Constitution, which as currently amended are in principle universalist, egalitarian, and upholding of a common morality of justice.
Meanwhile, CRT theorists point out the historic flaws in the practice to mock the very idea that those universalist and egalitarian principles exist within the American Constitutional framework- despite the historic evidence that the nation has built upon those principles, overwhelmingly in a direction that has improved their practice and worked to address the hypocrisies of earlier eras. Yet the exponents of CRT make their own hostility to universalist principles clear, with their words and agenda: they regard universalist ideals as a fiction and a fraud, not merely as espoused in the foundational documents of the US government, but also under any circumstance- other than, perhaps, as dictated on their terms. Terms which, curiously enough, emphasize the historic conditions of division and acrimony between separate group interests, not acknowledgement of basic common humanity in the here and now. CRT admits only the logic of Group Oppression vs. Group Privilege; no number of real-world examples is sufficient to refute that narrative.
The spokespeople for Woke CRT are clearly not Bolsheviks in ideology; it’s indisputable that some of them have become quite wealthy, and many of their endeavors are backed by even wealthier corporate business interests and centers of institutional power in academia. But the Stars of social CRT do share some important overlaps with the logic of Soviet and Maoist ideology, in their narratives and their proposals: emphasis on the consequentialist logic that disdains individuality (including the principle of respecting and safeguarding individual rights, civil liberties, due process, and freedom of expression) in favor of a blunt outcome-based utilitarianism that produces “objective material results” to benefit “humanity” defined collectively, and parsed in terms of bloc interests (and illusory metrics- as alluded to above); the fallacy of viewing correlative measures as probative of cause and effect; the post hoc propter hoc fallacy, which distorts the discipline of history by devising a chronology of events selected to suit preferred conclusions that have a way of sounding plausible to the naive, but canned, predictable, and facile to those with more erudition and skeptical discipline; and, ultimately, an embrace of the egotistical conceit that the idealistic cause is so noble and unassailable that the ends justify the means. A grave error, regardless of the ideals or ideology being propounded- right, left, anarchic, theocratic , “racial”, “rational”, whatever. That path leads to a moral and ethical abyss, and nowhere else. Beware.
Very well written comment, thank you!
If people vote racially as you seem to want, you would not see a Black US Senator for a very long time, until Blacks are a majority of a State electorate. That there are any Black senators at this time is because many people do not vote tribally.
No.
You make the fatal (and dangerous) flaw in assuming all sub-cultures within a greater super-culture are equally viable. That each sub-culture has the same exact metrics for success and than each sub-culture has all the same prerequisites to achieve their desired goals. You assume the group is the same as the individual. The number of disproportionate outcomes in a million different groupings could fill a dictionary. It is interesting you are interested in a small sliver of power.
Are you willing to limit the number of blacks in the NBA? I didn’t think so. NOTE: Pro sports is the ultimate skillocracy and I applaud it.
If you live with “equity” as a social goal, then millions will die because of “equity”. Equity, when pursued for a social agenda has proven to be the deadliest concept put into action over the last 100 years. 10’s upon 10’s of millions of humans have been sacrificed on its alter with rivers of blood from equities victims. From Pol Pot to Mao to Mugabe, equity has been a failure costing millions of lives.
What may I ask is the original sin for white people?
If true then you have certainly seen racism in action. As for me, I don’t know even one white person that would expect some kind of preferred treatment because they are white over some one else who had more melanin. I have called out racism when I have seen it, however. I suggest you do the same.
An inspiring article. I concur and endorse it fully.
Ms. DiAngelo will solve your “racism” problem for $40,000 (after you have read her book, of course). Her solution seems like it was lifted from “The Music Man” only this time its books and lectures not trombones and tubas.
Forgiveness is giving up the expectation of a better past. We need to forgive to move on and then those old statues will come down, almost by themselves, and we can put up new ones in their place. In the 1960’s Bill Russell, who suffered mightily from racism, even though he was a star center of the Boston Celtics basketball team, was asked: “Wouldn’t it be progress if a black man was named coach of the Celtics?” He answered: “It will be progress when that man gets the job and nobody mentions his race.” We are a long, long way from that day and Ms. DiAngelo would have us go backwards just to add to her bank account.
Well said!
The fact that some people attribute every negative interaction with another person as racism ignore the simple fact that there are far more people who are simply assholes than there are true racists. For that reason, taking offense at every perceived slight and blaming it on racism looks like an example of someone who is merely try to work the system.
Agreed, and I’ll raise you this: everyone experiences insecurity, socially awkward moments, small humiliations, and painful misunderstandings, even when interacting with people of good will who are NOT assholes. It’s always frustrating to me to be told that as a white person, I have “no idea” what these normal human experiences feel like … And to hear socially awkward moments attributed to racism, and not be allowed to argue back. God help the white people who are shy, clueless, or have Asberger’s or autism. They are KKK members for sure.
Love this comment. Humans have a knack for finding patterns. It has a evolutionary advantage for millions of years. We unfortunately take this too far and create patterns out of nothing to support our existing prejudices.
This is why the scientific method was such an evolutionary breakthrough: it winnowed out hypotheses that were cognitively bias by confirming the results. This adaptation has made some human communities far superior to others.
You might even say the concepts in our constitution are evolutionary adaptations which caused American society to become superior to others.
People like DeAngelo want to return us to the dark ages before science. In an attempt to avoid the bitter truth that some people are superior to others—either physically, cognitively or socially (not skin color)— they will destroy our most precious and valuable systems.
I appreciate your reticence to identify yourselves, but at this point, we actually need the bravery of good people. . . Not asking you to die for your country – as so many have in the past – I’m simply asking you to stand up.
Stand up and get nailed down. Nope, not now.
It would be good for everyone to watch the movie “Miracle.” It’s about the 1980 USA Winter Olympics hockey team. During early practices, while coach Herb Brooks is trying to put the team together, he continually asks players “Who do you play for?” The players, most of them college hockey players, naturally answer with the name of the college they play for. Finally, at one particularly grueling practice, one player “gets it” and answers “I play for the United States of America!”
So everyone else needs to stop identifying as an “African-American” or a “Latino” or whatever. You should identify simply as an “American”! Folks, we’re all in the same boat. We will all float or sink together. Some folks want to “tear down” the country and then replace it with — what? Please DON’T turn the USA into a 3rd-world Hellhole! If you want to live in a Hellhole, please move there but leave the USA alone.
When George P. Shultz was President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, he would call newly appointed U.S. ambassadors into his office, where he had a giant globe of the Earth. Shultz would ask the ambassadors to point to the country they represented, and when they did, Shultz would spin the globe back to the United States. “No,” Shultz would say, “this is the country you represent, and don’t forget that,” according to several accounts from former State Department officials.
Everyone Rational “They’re our children, and they’re already turning on us. Imagine for a moment how that must feel for every parent, every sibling experiencing this right now.”
Robin “Mission accomplished, you racist Nazi!”
Exactly. Your tears are a political power move.
A stirring expression of the idea of America, it showcases the best and worst of today’s situation. Defiance in the face of adversity. Humility in its triumphs and acknowledgement of its transgressions. All of it becomes meaningless when the author’s refuse to sign their names. The signatories of the Declaration of Independence already showed what was needed when facing tyrants. Ask John Hancock why his signature was so large.
kony2012 only failed because
WHITEPEOPLE claimed it “wasn’t a good idea”
(it was a PERFECT idea and they knew it. Racist cop-out argument)
racism is why they had to sabotage kony2012 – which by the way
WOULD HAVE FIXED Most
if not ALL
of the country of Africa’s suffering.
Ummm….where, exactly, is the Country of Africa?
Serious question: Has anyone asked Robin DiAngelo — an avowed racist, with the #1 bestselling book in the country, who has built her entire career profiting from racism — what she does with all her money?
If you apply the Iron Law of Woke Projection, you can likely predict the answer to this question.
Great letter. During my fourteen years as a US Marine, being a Caucasian curmudgeon, I saw one color: GREEN. We all bled the same color too.
To be clear, it wasn’t perfect. Despite it being (mostly) a meritocracy, there were concerns such as, “Why so few African American pilots and officers in general?” The answer was quick and almost proud, “We accept and eventually see through to a commission the same percentage of black applicants as white applicants.” Well that’s okay but where do you recruit? Do you recruit at Grambling, NC A&T, Howard, and the like? See, in some cases I do believe in extra action such as taking those specific efforts, which is largely why I support Affirmative Action.
Affirmative Action is an interesting topic though when people talk about ‘reparations’. I think AA goes a long way towards that end. I also think you can see hundreds of thousands of reparations … in places like Fredericksburg, Richmond, Antietam, and Gettysburg.
I was subjected to this horrible drivel in unviersity for 5 years. I’m convinced that Diangelo sold the soul of the nation for a few million bucks. This was all concocted so she should live a life of privilege for HER betterment so she could amass great wealth by creating false division. Her ideologies are poison that even a small child could refute quite easily. She is the root of this problem. The root must be uprooted. Diangelo must be exposed for what she really is: a mega narcisstic manipulator looking to cash in. She sacrifices nothing herself but she places in jeopardy the future of the nation. We don’t need thought police for such thoughts that arent even happening in the first place. We don’t need poisonous ideology that is not grounded in reality. We need to be able to have discussions. Diangelo’s ideologies demand absolute loyalty to her dogma. No deviation from her ideology is permitted. It is nearly as rigid as the dogma of nazi Germany. Diangelo is a morally bankrupt, astoundingly narcissistic racist person. She is hiding behind the scenes laughing all the way to the bank. She desperately needs therapy.
“Critical” social justice has grown to be so much more than just DiAngelo. I’m not even convinced now if she was exposed, that it would halt the advancement of cancel culture, which is a beast in it’s own right.
It seems to me, correct me if I’m wrong, regular academics seem to want to debate these merits at a scholarly level, overlooking assumptions of underlying logic on the basis they are too obvious, too basic to be debated. For example, most would agree that circular definitions do not hold in the real world. The definition of “woman” cannot be “anyone that identifies as a woman” as it would therefore be undefined. It is at this basic level, that of a 10 year old, that their illogical and/or self serving axioms are based. Likewise a redefining of racism to be something other than simply race-based prejudice, (add a power component, or widespread system) gives them license to accuse others while themselves being racist.
The silencing and bullying while preaching tolerance and acceptance is hypocrisy they do not see or accept, as some have alluded to, the goal is the “Greater Good” which is a path that CSJ has convinced them they are on. It’s a new religion hiding in plain sight as a field of academic excellence, the further we debate away from their underlying axioms the easier it is for them to hide their true intentions using pseudo-intellectual terms they themselves invented.
In other words, keep it simple, expose basic assumptions that are the foundation of their worldview.
If you read Race Marxism, you find out this is an old religion (Marxist Communism) wrapped up in fresh paper and sold as something new.
Marxism created gulags because it cannot move forward into the communist utopia if even one dissenter exists. Therefore dissenters are to work for the state until they are exterminated.
CRT adds a new, even more sinister element in that the new anti racist Utopia cannot come into being if even one white person exists. Or if even one BIPOC person exists who doesn’t agree.
The gulag is the future for all who dissent or have the wrong color skin. Equity will be so wonderful!
I worked for an international company which has fully embraced the DiAngelo ideology. They assembled a team wholly dedicated to Diversity and Inclusion reporting directly to the CEO. We had a 3 day ‘pit stop’ training camp where they paid a consultant to come in and teach us of the merits of D&I.
In the meetings when the importance of diversity of thought was emphasized, I’ve never felt so silenced. In a room with hundreds of individuals, not a single person raised a single concern or opposing view point. I, for one, had several but wasn’t about to put my job on the line. Top of mind was my concern that when they touted “Diversity of Thought” they actually meant “We won’t tolerate anyone who expresses a dissenting viewpoint”.
I was struck by how blatantly backward it all was. Setting hiring objectives based wholly on skin color, exiling anyone who may not be fully bought into the idea that we’re racist simply because we are of a certain race. These things weren’t creating an inclusive atmosphere, they simply shifted the direction of the racism.
I’m all for real change anywhere it’s warranted; these remedies being rampantly prescribed are poison to the host, not killers of the disease.
“I, for one, had several [opposing view points] but wasn’t about to put my job on the line.”
There is no shame in doing whatever it takes to avoid being sent to a gulag. You admit to doing it. I admit to doing it. We ALL must admit to doing it. I did it to keep a 30-year career going until I could reach age 60 and escape The Fear Game back to my real world of inner authenticity and outer anonymity. After a career decade trapped in the reeking midden of forced “diversity” ego-elitist bullying Behaviour Cops, I longed for just one whiff of the fresh air of freedom again!
The entire CRT shit palace is held in place by this silencing terror of loss of career and financial security, aka A LIFE. Homes, jobs, kids, families — you know, ordinary human existence. No one is to blame for doing what they must to survive. The lies and self-silencing are all understandable. All is forgiven when all of us are forced to be culpable in a totalitarian control matrix. I did it for decades to survive and five years later I’m still trying to scrape the stench of Sell Out cowardice from my soul. I will never sign my real name to anything public ever ever again.
Until THIS insidious Totalitarian 101 social intimidation/control mechanism can be smashed, the Robbin’ DiAboloses and Piggy MacIntoshes and Kendi X Trendies and the latest Faustian gang of swine will puff up and strut and crow about their corruptly gained status, cash and ego-glory. The 21st century nouveau-power-riche, boor-geousie Grima Wormtongue pooh-bah-wannabe class.
The new slouching beast feasts and revels on the cyanide nihilism of its power over so many people’s livelihoods and lives. These monsters are the human equivalent of the South African “necklace”. Homo homini lupus. Man is a wolf to men.
So how do you break the back of the ideology? How do you get people to see the inherent inconsistancy and utter hatefulness hidden within CRT?
I am so glad more people are catching onto the fact that Robin DiAngelo is actually a racist trying to revive racism, not end it.
Robin Diangelo is secretly a Nazi. Her work is designed to inject distrust, fear and division between the races, and she seeks to create a sense of white superiority rather than diminish it.
She takes objective problems like white sense of superiority, white repression, fear of, distrust of black people
And packages it with the most cruel and repulsive suggestions for white people to change it:
You are white. Do not talk, just listen to the other race. Do not defend yourself even if you are being judged unfairly. You are white. Do not cry. Your tears (your pain) is evil and repugnant You are white. Apologize for anything and everything demanded of you, and never question the credibility of the accuser even if they have a long track record of being a piece of shit— because the only important thing is their skin color.
And more. But basically, all suggestions intended to diminish the white person’s sense of self. Punishments, essentially, like you’d inflict on someone genuinely bad. She is taking objectively bad problems and proposing solutions that would ultimately dissuade white people from wanting to solve them.
She tells white people: Everything you deliberately or accidentally say to a black person is hurting them. Walk on egg shells. Worry all the time about how harmed they are by whatever you do, because your intent doesn’t matter. It teaches you at first to be more attentive— but then to stop paying attention to them when they’re in pain. (If someone who never complains screams in agony, you know something is very wrong with them. If a person wails about everything, you begin to naturally tune them out. You begin to think less of their pain.) Let’s say you’re a white person who never actually offends or hurts black people. Well, if you read DiAngelo, you will become neurotic and convinced that you are doing just like that— and it achieves the same desensitization effect.
Robin DiAngelo’s work is telling them to believe black people are constantly hurt and in pain (when in truth, Black people are much tougher than white people in general. That’s what happens when you are shat on by the society). Thus the white person gets the message to expect everything to hurt them, and so begin to tune that pain out. Whether it’s real pain, or pain just imagined by the white person due to DiAngelo. That means when legitimate pain is caused, the whites will be insensitive to it. Don’t you see what this sets up for the future, in the reactionary phase to this current ones?
And she insists that whites all believe they are superior due to their race, and if you don’t? You’re a white person in denial. This framed as a virtuous thing, to convince yourself you believe in your own racial superiority, and accept that belief as part of yourself. However, what if someone genuinely does not believe they are superior due to race? They will now have to create a fiction of themselves as a supremacist, and do you know what happens when you believe something of yourself? You begin to act in accordance with who you believe yourself to be. This is practically convinced to take non racist whites and convince them they are supposed to feel superior.
What is the counter-argument being introduced along with Robin DiAngelo’s work?
She ADMITS freely to her own racism. She admits to seeing black people as inferior beings. She admits all of this, and yet presents herself as an anti-racist educator. In doing this, her real argument is: Even anti-racists are all secretly evil. “Black people, these seemingly well-meaning white people are all lying to you.” Essentially, she is trying to stoke distrust from blacks toward the whites who most recognize how they’ve been wronged.
“Intentions don’t matter”. This is the most nihilistic of the messages, because she is telling people that their good intentions are meaningless, and then sets out to weave paranoia about all the ways they could bungle their expression of good will. Note: she SPECIFICALLY TARGETS WHITE PROGRESSIVES. She tells THEM that they’re the problem with the world. She tells them their good intentions are meaningless, and then does everything possible to create terror and paranoia in them that their execution of their good intentions will end up racist as well. Again, this is intentionally priming whites to be desensitized to the pain they might cause. When you are on edge, looking for it everywhere, its easier to withdraw or not to bother than do something that sounds likely to go wrong. She’s basically trying to demoralize leftwing progressives.
Also, she directly attacks interracial friendships. First, she tells people that if their black friends don’t talk to them about racism, it’s because they’re not comfortable doing so. What if the other scenario is true: what if there genuinely is no racial issue between the two friends? She’s telling the white person: “Your black friend doesn’t trust you.” She’s saying that there are no woke points for being friends, lovers, family with black people— even though such relationships ARE the fundamental humanizing ones that forge bonds between people regardless of differences
And should I mention again: SHE TELLS YOU SHE BELIEVES WHITES ARE SUPERIOR. SHE TELLS YOU THIS.
This woman is an actual Nazi. Or she’s being manipulated by one. The aim of her work is to create white identity and instill distrust between races
“She’s basically trying to demoralize leftwing progressives.”
YES. THIS.
And though she is doing everything she can to create a white identity, I believe her real intentions are more banal than you think. She wants to demoralize white progressives because that’s her customer base. She’s a missionary and a snake-oil salesman, sowing shame so she can sell the remedy for $10,000 a pop.
THIS. Most of these people are just out to get their 15 minutes (and their $15 million). They either don’t care about the outcome or are too shallow to think through the 2nd and 3rd order effects of what they preach.
I could kiss you. I wasted a whole weekend reading White Fragility and taking out my anger by being short tempered with my kids. This open letter, your comments and others have made me feel much better. There’s a very good critique of the book at “The Logical Liberal”.
My Eritrean-American sister in law would probably slap me if I “walked on eggshells” around her. What utterly ridiculous, condescending, and (of course) racist advice.
I like your comment, but what’s this about “objective problems like a white sense of superiority”? Honestly.
I have two recent college graduates. The other night we had a disagreement on a factual item (an actual quote of Trump and no I did not vote for him and I disagree with a lot that he has done. However, most of the media lies and that irks me). You would think that would a simple matter of checking the facts. Oh no, It devolved into a screaming match with them teaming up to bully me. One yells at me “I hate you and I don’t want to live here!!!” Me:”Okay, you are over 21 and if you want to go live somewhere else you are free to do so.” (I do not charge them anything to live in my very nice home, food high speed internet, I don’t even give them much in the way of chores. etc) They both stormed out of the house yelling at me. I went to bed and they came back later. Now they just shun myself and my wife. Sad, very sad. The horror that 4 years of college does. (one 1 getting a degree in musical theater and the other a degree in teaching young children) We basically go to bed each night crying.
Oh and they have labeled me a white supremacist. I have no hatred of other peoples. We hosted high school exchange students for 17 years. I rent a room in my house to a black gay man. (My wife knew him and recommended him when the room came available. I did not ask what color or orientation he was because I did not care. I was more concerned is this a good person. (yes he is))
You’re not alone in this. Even worse, perhaps, one of mine has a degree in cognitive neuroscience and refuses to believe that there are differences between the sexes. And this from a not that liberal school.
Jim: You need to impose a simple rule – no discussions of politics. You clearly disagree, and it is not leading to progress in your home. Discuss their futures. Discuss what good they got out of college. If they try to discuss Trump, simply say “We disagree. Let’s not argue”. I disagree about politics with most in my family. I won’t discuss it with them.
This letter perfectly articulates what we know in our hearts to be true, we love, support, and grow together as one nation, our compassion for. , and belief in one another will prevail. Our determination to realize the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. will not be shaken by the likes of you.
You rock.
I usually don’t. I was ambushed. They had an axe to grind and went full. But good advice thanks
I disagree—Do not let them get the upper hand— do not let your children rule over you—if they are grown ups then tell them to act like grown ups—talk not screaming to get their points across—Parents want to abdicate their responsibilities and be their child’s friend—another mistake—tell them the truth always—I remember when my eldest left home— yrs later she said I was right about everything—we are closer than ever—And pray for them if you are a Christian— prayer to Lord Jesus is a mighty thing!
Agreed. No discussion of politics at the dinner table or at family functions. It’s been ruining relationships, as I can attest. My wife’s family has numerous dyed-in-the-wool Trump supporters, and mine has many Trump haters. (I’m more of a libertarian in general.) She and I talk about how family functions often make us deeply uncomfortable, enough for me, at least, to consider moving away. It’s rough Jim, and I’m so sorry.
It’s heartbreaking to see how the liberal colleges are negatively affecting this young generation of today. As a therapist , I am saddened that you did not put your feet down and let those adult children of yours stick to the decision that they made -left the house .
This crazy author definitely needs counseling. It’s clear that her writings are a way of projecting her racist ideology onto others .
Jim, I am just a stranger on the internet, so my advice may mean nothing to you. But I ache to hear your story and I want to help.
I believe that, more than anything, you want to connect with your children. I also believe that if you and they could really connect, they would come to see the value of your principles. But even if they didn’t, at least you’d be connected with them, and not grieving.
Please look into Marshall Rosenberg’s work. He has (or rather, had; he’s dead now) a philosophy called Nonviolent Communication. I have found his book (of the same name) to be extremely helpful in connecting with people with whom I have various levels of conflict. It’s basically an all-purpose mindfulness and empathy tool to help people get their needs met in ways they don’t regret. I hope you have the opportunity to check it out.
Jim, During the video on this site called ‘The Way Forward’ (Peter Boghossian), he outlines effective techniques for conversing with people caught up in this Social Justice cult. But don’t try to initiate a discussion with them both together. Do it privately and individually.
He starts outlining the techniques at around the 9 min mark. (But I suggest listening to the whole thing.) He also says more techniques are outlined in his book, ‘How to Have Impossible Conversations’ (see under Books)
If this doesn’t work, or if you feel you can’t do it yourself, seek professional assistance from an expert who is highly experienced in dealing with folk caught up in cults, because that’s what this is.
Hope this helps.
You had me at “recent college graduates.” These days, sadly, higher education comes with a large dose of indoctrination. (My husband & I have both been professors.) The right has been remiss in letting leftists take over education, and now the indoctrination begins in elementary school. Trump’s banning of Critical Race Theory is a good start. CRT needs to be taken out of colleges of education, but it won’t be:-(
Let it go, it is too late.
Our oldest is like your kids. He has been indoctrinated. That is magnified by his half-brother (he is my step-son so this is his brother by his dad’s 2nd wife) being gay. Now everyone is every phobe you can think of. We have a rule that he doesnt talk politics in the house, especially to our younger kids.
With regards to the two younger kids (shared with my wife) I have purposely reverse indoctrinated our 2 shared children to keep an open mind. They routinely hear me talk about the issues on both sides, although it would be clear to anyone which way I lean on a given issue. I am not a fan of hypocrisy on either side of most of these debates. I dont honestly care which way they end up so long as they make the choice themselves and do so in an honest fashion.
What specifics from the book do you take issue with? (Page numbers would be helpful) I just finished the book, and I especially am interested in knowing and engaging with specific aspects from the book that motivated a person or people of color to write this open letter. Feel free to comment or engage with me privately through the email I provide.
Your email is not made public. I don’t have the stamina or skill to help you.
But if you honestly believe all white people secretly love watching non whites suffer
1. You are wrong.
2. You’re the real racist just like her. And you don’t speak for most white people.
Sincerely,
A brown person horrified you can’t recognize mein kompf 2.0 when you read it. That book will lead to genocide but not of white people. Making people hyper focus on race is exactly the wrong way to end racism. It’s what white supremacists want. There is no part of that book no page that is even slightly ok.
I think the specifics are a)all white people are inherently racist because they have an embedded and unconscious desire to preserve their white superiority and b)whites who get argumentative or upset when confronted with this fact, which the author claims merely reinforces it.
It’s a trap—a Catch 22. And there are PLENTY of others in the book: what if I marched in the 60’s? (you’re still a fragile racist) What if all my friends are black? (you guessed it….)
I read the book this weekend and I can’t even begin to express how depressing it was. However, I soldiered on, like a liberal socialist slogging through “Mein Kampf”. I’m haunted by that scene of her seeing those two picnics: the all black picnic and the white picnic, and being seized by fear that she might have to join all those icky black people. God, the thought of it.
Honestly, I feel sorry for her. She writes to deal with her hang-ups and obsessions about race. I’m glad our extended family is like the United Nations—Canadian, English, Irish, Chinese, Eritrean, South African. But I suppose I’m guilty of something objectionable in DiAngelo’s eyes merely by writing that.
It’s sad that this ideology insists. But alas, it does. There are many layers to unpack here. On the surface, it’s just wrong. No matter how much she wants her ideas to be true, they are not, simply because of people with different personalities, cultural, racial backgrounds, experiences, and paradigms. To assume that they all are like her and fundamentally racist is ignorance and narcissism at the highest order. At the very least, it’s arrogance to think that every white American shares her views.
Thank you, Quincy! I am highly offended that she is speaking FOR me (and others that I know and love) when she doesn’t even know me. My parents worked very hard to teach us right and wrong, to love others equally, and to not be racist. I feel like Robin’s work is taking us many steps backwards when we have worked so hard to move away from the actions of the generations before us.
Quincy, I think what you’re saying actually underscores one of her points. We all have different experiences and backgrounds. We all have different prejudices. Some are healthy, like being predisposed to believe a seagull will eat your food if you hold it too far away from your body. Others can be harmful to others, such as viewing everyone of the same color in the way you saw one person behave. Then there are many more shades in the middle. Her concept is that all people have different prejudices, not that all prejudice is willful, or harmful. Her point is not that we’re evil for having them, but that we need to be aware of how they shape our actions and attitudes.
..” Others can be harmful to others, such as viewing everyone of the same color in the way you saw one person behave….”
CORRECT! Now explain how ms. D doesn’t ascribe this to the entire white skinned population because she herself can’t seem to get over herself and has found it impossible not to alienate every single person she encounters …
Saying that is one of her points is like saying it’s important to breathe. She has a main point that is the central heartbeat of her entire “theory” and it’s that is if you are white, you are a racist. Period. It’s as intellectually pathetic, offensive and wrong as saying “all Italians are in organized crime”, or “all Irish are drunks”, etc., etc., She even takes on MLK for getting it wrong. One of the core evils of behavioral racism is the sweeping bigotry and blanket negative generalizations about groups of people, and she passes that exam with flying colors. I could go on about the ego of an elitist SJW who exposes that she herself is a racist, so if she is, well, then all white people must be as well. Fighting racism with racism. The Marxist Kafka interrogation Catch 22 has reached a new low in the toilet of Postmodernist ego masturbation. By 1939 “Mein Kampf” had sold over 5 million copies in multiple languages. By the end of the war, about 10 million copies of the book had been sold or distributed in Germany. These two people have a lot in common.
Right On!
I appreciate these words so much. When I hear white people around me be sympathetic to “white fragility” I think no, I don’t believe you’re the monster she is. I don’t. Don’t let her twist your mind into believing you are.
The damage these ideas are doing to white people, and by proxy all people is mortifying.
But most especially the smallest most opposed monitory. The children born to mixed race couple. And the decisiveness this causes in mix race relationships when one member reads that horrid book.
You really nailed it Quincy
Bravo Quincy!
Robin DiAngelo and people who push this narrative are unable to control their own emotions so they instead need and try to control everyone else’s behavior.
Re. “A group of professional brown Americans (if you must know) who worked their way up in a free country. We cannot sign our right names because, thanks in some significant part to you, we know what will happen if we do. Those who feel they can, can add theirs in the comments.”
There are plenty of PoC who express similar beliefs & feelings – without hiding their names. And, PoC in the country are already a risk of real damage. So pardon me if I question that THIS missive was written by PoC, so afraid of attack by social justice warriors, that they won’t sign their names.
Good sentiments, but I distrust the source.
Loury and McWhorter openly espouse similar views each and every day. Sowell has done so for decades. The anonymity reeks of cowardice to me.
Loury is tenured, Sowell is 90 and retired from an undeniably illustrious career, but still serving as a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute for *40* years. Can’t see that McWhorter is tenured but his place in society is equivalent. So one might note that it’s not exactly fair to equate these icons with some POC who see themselves in more vulnerable positions given the [insane] cancel culture of these troubled days.
I agree. Speaking truth whilst hiding behind anonymity negates the power of the message. People have to stop doing this if they sincerely want to help preserve what remains of our liberal society. Many intellectuals and influencers of colour (e.g. Chloe Valdary, Coleman Hughes, Saagar Enjeti, John Wood, Jr., Jason Riley, Zuby, John McWhorter, Ayishat Akanbi, Glenn Loury and, of course, Thomas Sowell and Shelby Steele) are putting themselves out there, some for years. But we need people of all colours and creeds to bravely come forward and present a united voice. Then, I wager, we’d see a flood of people come off the sidelines to stand with them on the side of truth.
Anonymity does not change the logical lay out of an argument NOR is information and ideas automatically invalid because of their origin ie: i don’t like them or that party or group ect
Anyone confused by how it got to this point needs to go take a look at the work of Rudi Dutschke. The Long March Through the Institutions is finally baring fruit. And he, of course, was neck deep in Critical Theory.
Proudly signing here.
Race-hustling post-modern marxist nihilist like D’Angelo have one interest, and only one – to destroy the current system of the country, and replace it with one of their own construction. The subject of post-modernism may be mistaken as “anti-racism”, “#metoo anti-sexism”, “anti-anti-marginalized persons” and so forth with the endless campaign of whining. But the real subject is political. They attempt to replace competent people by incompetent intersectionality morons.
So much division these days… If I didn’t know any better I’d say it’s all been cooked up by a bunch of Marxists. It is amazing how contentious an ideology Marxism is. I refuse to hate myself or others for a supposed crime I did not commit. I will continue to work on the hard internal battle of self-improvement instead of the easy victories of virtue signaling which would cripple self-improvement. I will not succumb to an ideology of division, hate, and bigotry. I firmly believe in the universality of the human family being children of a loving God, whom we call Father.
Read the Communist Manifesto. It is literally a bunch of declarative statements and conclusions based on anecdotal selection bias. It would be laughable except that people believe it. Likewise, White Fragility is a bunch of declarative statements and conclusions based on anecdotal selection bias. It would be laughable except that people believe it.
The Communist Manifesto is directly responsible for hundred of millions of tortuous, obscene deaths. Let’s pray that White Fragility does not result in the same.
Bravo. Very well said!
The anti-racism espoused by those who, like Ms. DiAngelo, believe racism to be an inescapable part of modern life, represents a pessimism that runs counter not only to the liberal ideas and practices intended to bring people together by focusing on what unites them, but to the original optimism in the writings of Karl Marx himself, who believed it inevitable that humans would eventually understand that what drives them apart is not an eternal and immutable force, but rather something that we can overcome. While I may forever disagree with his theory, I (like all other liberals) share his optimism and reject the pessimism that would pit us against each other for the rest of time.
Why is this crazy woman so powerful one might ask?
Because her ideas are pushed through an intentional propaganda and brainwashing mechanism. There needs to be a movement and awakening against the media’s access to children’s minds, and a review of the fearful, hateful, divisive, lies in the educational system.
World you need to wake up! Our planet, our countries, are better now, with more understanding and abilities to solve our current problems, than at any time in history.
As a start I’d be in favor of an awareness campaigns to educate the public on how to protect their children’s minds and ideas from falling prey to tactics, propaganda and mass brainwashing of the “intelligentsia,” “academicians,” politicians, oligarchs and their ilk.
I think a good start would be educating the general public on issues of race. Most white people are completely ignorant to privilege, and the conditions that cause it. Many people think all racial problems were solved in the 60s. Many others perceive their own slights or disadvantages, but cannot see others’. A statement that was made here “we will not be silent” illustrates privilege so well. As white people, we always have that ability to make our voices heard. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a person of color bite their tongue when confronted with ignorant words. Many are content to be the bigger person, and not say anything about it. As white people, we have nothing to fear by making our voices heard.
This seems ignorant. I’ve seen people of all races and creeds bite their tongue to avoid an inevitably pointless/foolish conversation.
In attributing white privilege to the authors did you miss the section that indicated that they were in fact not white?
White privilege as a concept is just a weaponized reframing of “try to put yourself in someone else’s shoes.” It’s also mostly incorrect to label as “white” since its symptoms are majority and class based, not race based.
If you think white people currently have nothing to fear by making their voices heard you haven’t been paying attention. Additionally, even if we were to presume that you were correct, that’s a good thing. Best would be if all people could make their voices heard without fear. Your phrasing makes it seem like it’s a BAD thing to have no fear of speaking.
Frankly, I find the attitudes showed and espoused here to be extremely indicative of white privilege. The claim that white people “have to be afraid” of speaking out against minority hiring practices, or anything of the ilk presupposes that BIPOC are not afraid. What is white privilege? Great example right there. You interpreted my description of privilege as me saying it was a bad thing to have an advantage. And to that point, “privilege” is not a weaponized word. It’s an apt description without any accusatory connotation. To feel personally attacked by it, again, is a textbook sign of privilege.
I don’t doubt that you’ve seen people of all races bite their tongues. What I do doubt is that they are all subject to the constant barrage of innocent-sounding racially loaded statements that Black people hear on a daily basis. Just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there. That has nothing to do with socioeconomic status. I work with other professionals who are salaried, live comfortably, and have no other qualities to differentiate them from me, except their skin color. We work in an urban school, where the residents of the city are less than 50% white. Even in those circumstances, I see Black people subject to microagressioms every day that as White people, we would never deal with. Avoiding pointless/fruitless conversation by biting your tongue might be something we all do. My question is: “how often?” Do you find yourself in constant discussions about race? Do other people go to you with questions about your race? Argue over your rights? Is your race considered part of your identity? Are you “the White guy” in the office, or the neighborhood? Do people have to mention your race when describing you to their other friends? Do people talk to you about Black Lives Matter, and offer their unsolicited opinions about the organization and its goals, tactics, or actions? Are some of your beauty products on a special shelf in the store, separate from the “normal” things? If you were in an interracial relationship, would you have to worry about how his/her family would react? If you turn on the TV, how likely are you to see predominantly people who look like you? Have you done a family tree? If a cop pulls you over, how likely is it that (s)he will be the same color as you? How likely is it that you’ll think about whether (s)he is or not? Did you go to a school named for someone who did terrible things to people of your color? Did you read books in school that had slurs against your race, and have to endure hearing someone of another race reading them? As a child, were dolls/action figures your color? If they were, did you have the same exact one as your other friends because that’s all there was? Did your parents have “the talk” with you? Did you have “the talk” with your children? Do people tell you your race isn’t an impediment to you, yet you and all those around you are in generational poverty? Have you ever had a chance to vote for someone of your color? In every election, every office? Do people often lump you together with other “minorities” when discussing political issues that affect you? How many people of your color did you grow up seeing in positions of authority? How many teachers did you have of your color? When you interview for a job, do you wonder what color person will interview you?
If you feel attacked, or as though these words are “weaponized,” consider that maybe it’s not an attack. Maybe it’s a perspective you hadn’t fully imagined. I’m not here to call anyone out. I’m here to try to lend perspective to good people who might not see things a different way.
Yes. And this is true for any country that has a majority and minority population. It’s not evidence of racism or an a inherent evilness of whites. One will not find many black candidates on the ballots in Japan or many white candidates on the ballots in Nigeria.
“Frankly, I find the attitudes showed and espoused here to be extremely indicative of white privilege”
Yes of course you do (even when they’re expressed by brown…sorry ‘white adjacent’ people.) That’s one of the first Kafka traps you learn from De-angelo. Even brown people can have white privilege now (as well as Black conservatives). The proof? That they disagree with her assertion that they have white fragility.
Unpacking that knapsack for us yet again are we? That’s old. Her article is full of holes. But my disagreeing with the article’s flaky basis is ‘argumentation’ and a sign of white fragility right?
My doctors were black, my school principals were black (phd), I was one of two white girls in cheer squad, my neighbors were black, white, brown, and yellow. I actually grew up with and socialized on every level with a mix of all races s as be yes I dated some too. Somehow I suspect this still doesn’t qualify me to say diangelo is a fraud And nothing she says makes any bit of sense or is any way close to the reality of a large majority of people who actually were raised and grew up in and surrounded by a multi cultural and racial community.
Seriously, don’t be fooled by this woman’s absolute nonsense! I give her one more year before she is outed as the fraud she is! Ask yourself why not one of her so-called black friends have joined her In any of her interviews (if you can even call them that) in which she refuses to answer any Real questions but in fact does backflips to completely ignore the questions and answers with some other memorized talking point she failed to get in earlier.
I see you got a good grade on your “Critical Theory In Application” exam. Well done.
You’re starting from the claim made popular by Robin DiAngelo’s book that “All Whites are racist.” After making this claim, she makes the corollary claim “Their objection to this fact is White Fragility and further reinforces the fact they are racist.”
The problem is her original claim is wrong which makes the corollary claim wrong.
She doesn’t bother proving either claim, she simply implores you to find the proof of it yourself, which you’ve now tasked us to do. Since you’ve accepted Miss DiAngelo’s challenge, you now start each day by fixing your Racism Is Everywhere glasses firmly over your eyes and, shocker! you’re now able to read racism into everything. If only everyone would wear these glasses; we could all turn every interaction into something racist, everyone would live in a constant state of racism, and everyone would finally be happy and get along.
In seriousness, DiAngelo glasses are as bad for a racially/culturally diverse society as turning a blind eye to actual acts of racism. It’s been said here already, but Critical Theory sees valid problems and prescribes the exact wrong medication. Unfortunately Chris, you’re getting your doses from the wrong doctor. But then again, I’m just suffering from White Fragility.
Ah, word salad, the most calorie-free of salads!
IIRC black Americans are ~13% of the population. It seems that would affect the number of black people on TV, running for public office, becoming policepersons, teachers, “authorities,” HR, etc. My daughters (“white”) had a black Fischer Price baby girl more than 40 years ago. They were available, several kinds. (And do you really want to go to store shelf stocking realities?) Your grocery list gives a perspective you might be surprised at,
Just saying.
“You interpreted my description of privilege as me saying it was a bad thing to have an advantage. And to that point, “privilege” is not a weaponized word. It’s an apt description without any accusatory connotation. To feel personally attacked by it, again, is a textbook sign of privilege.”
This is gaslighting combined with a kafkatrap.
The term “privilege” absolutely, manifestly *is* a weaponized word. It’s routinely used to silence people who manifest rational skepticism about either the experiential claims of others, or the broader implications of those claims, in these contexts. Anybody who has spent more than five minutes on social media has witnessed (if not experienced) this, and it does you no credit to lie and pretend otherwise.
Further, to claim that *objecting* to accusations of “privilege” merely *proves” those accusations renders the accusations unfalsifiable. It divides the world into two categories of people: those who admit they are guilty of thoughtcrime, and those who are guilty of thoughtcrime because they will not admit they are guilty of thoughtcrime. No one can ever be innocent — including the person making the accusations, unless we add special pleading to the list of offenses against logic.
You’re not trying to “lend perspective.” You’re engaged in vile, racist effort to inculcate collective guilt in people by preying on their basic decency.
This is the trap de jure of the WP proponents. You have two choices: 1) self flaggelation because of your confessed racism and privilege, or 2) ask questions and ask for evidence and then be told your questions just prove your racism. Don’t take the bait, because honest dialogue is not possible when one side cannot by the true nature of their point of view act in good faith. So, Chris, I will now ask of you: what evidence do you have to support your conclusions?
I’ll make this observation, Chris. I think you’re sincere & well-intentioned. However, it’s blatantly obvious, reading your comments, that you have, you do, & you will see race in everything, as the universal explanation for everything you don’t like or that bothers you. If it isn’t obvious racism, or even if there’s no evidence of racism, you’ll find it. That’s guaranteed. It’s a shame that you have to view every white person like that. Of course, none of us, you included, is perfect. But with you, I know I don’t have a chance. I’m convicted before “hello.” Yiu kniw what that’s called? “Racism.”
Chris, No just No –
Please stop
Where to start!?
One of the main criticisms of Di’Angelo and her ilk is that their mania for everything relating to ‘race’ is making race relations WORSE! You speak of the problem of Black people having to deal with constant referencing to race in their daily lives – well CRT demands that race be included in every interaction you have in the world! Do you think this helps or hinders the battle to defeat racism? and I mean ‘racism’ in the sense that is understood by the majority not the Woke.
Your rant is nearly incoherent in its naiveté and false assumptions – no doubt brought about by the study of DiAngelo and the like.
“If a cop pulls you over, how likely is it that (s)he will be the same color as you?”
Well depends where you live – lets say Los Angeles shall we!
As of 2013
64% of police officers are from minority backgrounds with an 11% share of black officers for an 8% share of black population.
As for the rest of your rant including claims of racism in beauty product placement and everyone having the same doll etc. !!!!!
DiAngelos book is some of the craziest twaddle I have ever read. The whole thing is one big Kafka Trap employed as a clever marketing trick which should be binned by any self respecting human being.
I think you have elevated your sensitivities to an extreme level to go with the particular chip on their shoulder. Time to remove the chip, learn to be positive and understand what is right with the world.
Can you give me an example of these ignorant words of which you speak?
I see the game you’re playing here. I’m not going to spend hours putting together articles and my opinions so you can post another one-sentence comment. I’m pretty sure you can read for yourself.
You lose, Chris.
And I see the “game” you’re playing here – accusations, followed by a refusal to back up those accusations.
The whole purpose of the “game” is to discredit any contrary voices rather than burden yourself with an obligation of refutation.
In short – “Shut up, he explained.”
Evidence, please. You’re certain of your position, so you’re more than strong enough to prove your case with evidence. This is a great opportunity for you. Don’t blow it. Set us straight with evidence. Damning evidence from data. There are tens of millions of whites people from which to sample. How can there not be data?
” As white people, we always have that ability to make our voices heard. ”
No we have not. ‘White People’ as a category didn’t even particularly exist until maybe 40 or 50 years ago. Before that white people were in smaller groups that generally did not get along, did not spend time together and lived very segregated — Little Italy, Chinatown, Polish rowhouses, German rowhouses, Irish tenements. Many cities still have these or the remnants of them.
With wars pretty much constant in Europe do you think that Germans were getting along well with their Polish and Slavic neighbors? How about Italians with non-Italians? Now all are stuffed into this amorphous blob of “whiteness” or “white people” which completely erases their ethnicity (convenient when you want to complain as it sounds a lot better to whine about some nebulous ‘white people’ than to target the Irish or Italians or French…) but many still have trouble getting their voices heard. And many have for a long time.
Lets not pretend that Italians or Irish “always had an easy time getting their voices heard” cuz white. They didn’t. And no one particularly wanted to listen to Germans or Austrians pretty much between 1914 through the 1950s. Many Americans with that ancestry were terrified to be found out and could be chased off their jobs and right out of their neighborhoods. Then a lot of people didn’t like the Italians for decades more even after World War II because of the mafia. Now all these groups are considered white and people like you sit around saying that whites have always had this easy time working together and getting our voices heard. If that was the case then Italians and Irish wouldn’t have lived in shitty tenements and Germans and Austrians would have just used their over-privileged white voices to tell the angry mobs that they weren’t Nazi spies. Same for the Japanese, they would’ve just used their over-privileged, over-achieving voices to explain why they shouldn’t be put in internment camps. How’d that go for all of them?
White people aren’t ignorant to privilege. You are ignorant to history along with everyone else that whines about white privilege. White privilege can’t exist because “white people” don’t exist, effectively. White people are Serbs and Bosnians fleeing the Bosnian War. Greeks and Cypriots fleeing the Greek junta and Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. They’re Chechans fleeing the Russian bombing of their cities. They’re Holocaust survivors fleeing Nazi Germany. They’re Romanians who fled the tyranny of Ceaușescu, Cambodians who fled the Khmer Rouge, Albanians who fled the 1997 Civil War….all of whom *chose* America to make their home because they saw it as a beacon of freedom and most are incredibly grateful to be here. Only to now be confronted by people like you who essentially tell these families who have escaped war and bloodshed, genocide, fled their homes….that they need re-education on how racist and horrible they are and how they simply will NEVER understand the true suffering of your average black American. Sorry but that’s obscene to me. White families are incredibly diverse and many come from incredibly tragic, horrific, difficult circumstances…from wars and slaughters and genocides…and now get told that it’s *purely* white privilege and slavery that they owe everything to. That’s a lovely message for Holocaust survivors and those who fled communism in the 80s and 90s.
“Most white people are completely ignorant to privilege”
Which white people? The millionaire in Greenwich or the unemployed junkie in a doublewide by the Ohio River? The new Polish immigrant or the blue blood at Harvard Law? All so different…
And the letter writers aren’t white anyway.
“As white people, we have nothing to fear by making our voices heard.”
Unequivocally False! All across America, many millions of white people bite their tongues daily to avoid being fired, targeted, and/or canceled—and there are numerous examples of white people who have suffered the consequences of speaking out. As faculty at a university, I have had to remain absolutely silent for 6 years in order to not be targeted. I am contingent faculty, so one misstep could be the end of my employment (though of course even tenure is not enough to protect a white person from being fired if they are perceived to question critical theory). If I were black or indigenous, I would not be worried at all about my position.
That being said, I try to use my feelings as an object lesson, as I recognize that BIPOC have most likely felt like I do for decades, or even centuries.
Chris –
“Most white people are completely ignorant to privilege”. If I underestimate the privilege endowed by my skin color, is it possible that someone might also overestimate the disadvantage endowed by their skin color? Side note: Is ignorance a result of someone’s skin color?
“Many people think all racial problems were solved in the 60s”. Really? Have you met a single person who believes ‘all’ racial problems were ‘solved’ in the 60’s? There are apparently ‘many’ but have you met even one? I can’t say I have.
“As white people, we have nothing to fear by making our voices heard”. So is the objective to correct this problem? Because it sure seems like the SJ movement intends to make sure whites have something to fear by making their voices heard. But if I believe silencing a group of people based on skin color or ethnicity or religious creed or sexuality or any other ‘group’ is wrong, i’m just being White Fragile and really just trying to protect the voice of whites.
By way of adding some intellectual diversity to this discussion, the proponents of DiAngelo’s screed may be served well by reading Matt Taibbi’s exploration of her fragilities.
As Usual,
EA
This arguement makes no sense to me. My heritage is Polish/Czech. In a cursory reading of Central European history, The Polish people suffered from slavery for about 400 years and the Czechs were Hapsburg controlled off and on for about 800
years. My ancestors came to Texas immediately after the Civil War. From my experiences assimilation is about a four generation process. The ethnic communities kept their old country traditions through their churches and benevolent societies. Over the next 3 generation they were assimilated into the general American culture. Even though the African American ethnic group is one of the oldest ethnic group in America it did not get full citizen ship until the 1960’s. They are about 1.5 generations into their assimilation process. It seems to be almost as predictable as a chemical reaction. As the churches and older leaders tried to keep the ethnic groups pure slowly they crossbred. An Irish Catholic marrying an Italian Catholic, can’t you find a nice Irish girl to marry. A German Lutheran marry a Polish Catholic. A scandal that happen in my family.
My cynical side. Dr DiAngelo seems to have found a way to expand about ten pages of thoughts and to expand them to 200 pages. Her royalties must be based on page count. She has found a way to make a beau coup money with a few simple thoughts. That my story and I am sticking to it.
,
Amen!
I am a recently retired high school teacher, and the brainwashing exponentially became worse by the time I left the public school system–to the point where students sought me out as a sounding board when especially inappropriate teachers pushed their propaganda.
Part of the problem was the fear of kids speaking up due to the disproportionate distribution of power between teachers and students. These teachers held the students’ grades in their hands, which is true on a very basic level with any instructor regardless of their ideology. It is simply the nature of the beast.
I worked diligently at not revealing any kind of ideology–really trying to teach the subjects and skills as objectively as possible. Perhaps because of this mode of operation, students came to me with their frustrations.
I would love to be a part of an awareness campaign like the one you described. I’d like it to be created in such a way; however, that it does not become a nutty right-wing conspiracy machine. I have seen the damage a group like this can wreak on the sensibilities of even conservative people in any given community including my own. The silent majority who would like to say and do something are turned off and even repelled by these types of groups and unfortunately, this dilemma weakens the voice of reason that our parents and children so desperately need.
I work for a company that had prided itself on its culture and helping communities in need. Thanks to DiAngelo’s work, that culture is beginning to unravel, and ”we have a problem with racism.”
I’ve already risked my employment to bring up my concerns and to stand against this tide of fraudulent claims. This is a hill worth dying on!
Simply, to a Hammer everything is a nail.
To a Racist; everything is Racist.
Anyone who eats, drinks, and breathes Racism every minute of their day is a Racist….
To people who deal with racism on a small and large scale every day, there is a level of inevitability about racism. In my experience, most BIPOC ignore many, many instances of racism just to avoid discussing it all day. If racism speaks itself into existence, why are people so quick to jump on an article that denies it, or labels anti-racist as racist?
Of course its inevitable you think you see racism every day when all you see is a person’s skin color. When every disadvantage a person of color has can be freely blamed on whites. You’re becoming the racist you imagine in everyone else.
“If racism speaks itself into existence, why are people so quick to jump on an article that denies it, or labels anti-racist as racist?”
I’ve read & re-read this & still can’t be sure of the point being made.
What do you mean by “racism speaking itself into existence”?
What is being denied by the article?
Do you not see how anti-racist teachings can & will only lead to & result in actual racism? Actual racial discrimination?
Kendi essentially says as much in How to be an Anti-racist.
Anti-racism teaching is all about seeing racism as the only possible cause of ANY black vs white disparity. {without taking into account or even considering an alternative cause}
Anti-racism teaching says, in order to eliminate those gaps, policy & laws (allowing for discrimination against the “dominant” group) are necessary.
It says that discrimination that results in inequity (unequal outcome) is racist but discrimination that results in equity (equal outcome) is anti racist. So in order to be anti racist one must be racist against another group of people.
Perfect explanation of truth.
Because it is wrong, divides us, adds nothing to our lives and has no end.
Is that enough or would you like more?
Hi Jaxon,
Just to say, you’re not alone – I work at a deliberately apolitical company with a happy, inclusive diverse atmosphere – the management has recently decided to make an exception to this rule due to pressure from a minority of employees, and as a result, hideously divisive identity politics has been ushered in. I also spoke out, I was also afraid to do so, but as you say, the stakes are too high to stay silent.
I’m curious what the exception is. In my experiences, it’s shocking to white people when they don’t get preferential treatment, and they mistake it as discrimination. If you were to look at the size of these two problems, which would you say is bigger? White people being denied opportunities because of affirmative action, and other similar measures, or people of color being denied opportunities because of their appearance?
Do you not want to get ahead in life on your own merit ? In days past many people around the globe and still some got in the door due to nepotism which IS the same thing as ” affirmitive action” ie identity Not ability
“I’m curious what the exception is.”
Me too.
“In my experiences, it’s shocking to white people when they don’t get preferential treatment, and they mistake it as discrimination. ”
I translate this sentence from Critical Theory terminology into everyday language. It then goes like this:
“In my experience, it’s shocking to white people when they are not judged by rules that are equaly applied to everyone but systematically rigged in their favor and mistake different standards meant to compensate for the discrimination of marginalized groups as discriminating against them.”
Because that is what is meant by Critical Theory if it talks about “preferential treatment” of white people and the teaching matarial of Critical Race Theorists explains it to CRT students. But to outsiders it isn’t made explicit but instead language is used that can and will be interpreted differently if you don’t know the specific redifinitions by CRT. It is coded speech.
Not you can defend that position but please do so honestly and not in an obfuscating manner.
“Not you can defend that position but please do so honestly and not in an obfuscating manner.”
meant
“Now you can defend that position but please do so honestly and not in an obfuscating manner.”
“If you were to look at the size of these two problems, which would you say is bigger? White people being denied opportunities because of affirmative action, and other similar measures, or people of color being denied opportunities because of their appearance?”
The question is misleading: DIfferent standards based on group membership – expecially if justified via resentimant driven opressions naratives – will lead to resentimant, more group confilct, more prejudice and more mistrust. It eats an organisation from within.
You show a bias in assuming affirmative action discriminates only against white people, or that it seeks to correct a “preferential treatment” they had previously received. Ask the immigrant parent of a Korean teen applying to Harvard if they think affirmative action is unjust. And, yes, this is a big problem. Children should be taught they will be judged on merit, not on perceived discrimination in which they had no role. They should not be judged by their happenstance birth into ethnic or racial category, which is what DiAngelo purports in claiming “everyone is complicit”and which is the very definition of racist.
Chris, people that begin the argument by assuming that there is automatically racism in some place are making racism worse. It makes it so the real racism is not taken seriously.
You also assume that white people are automatically at an advantage, its clear where you stand on this. The purpose of posts like this one are to point out that your very viewpoint is undeniable racism, yet its accepted because its against whites.
Chris, please go look for a hobby.
“It’s shocking to white people when they don’t get preferential treatment, and they mistake it as discrimination.”
I’m curious about specific examples of white people being shocked when they don’t get preferential treatment. This comment reeks of hyperbole. Please give specific examples of all these shocked white people. Moreover, I would like to see examples of these white people mistaking a lack of preferential treatment as discrimination.
I have been around a good number of white people throughout my life, and
I have never witnessed this “shock”. Too much “they” here.
This is a typical response from someone who is in a cult.
Please look at yourself. Do you also use, white privileged and other words that are strictly allocated to wokism?
We don’t need to look at the size of each problem. In the 80’s it was called reverse racism, and playing the race card.
Why don’t you try looking at people as people, ignoring their color and judging them on their character? You will have a much better outcome
JP – “Why don’t you try looking at people as people, ignoring their color and judging them on their character? You will have a much better outcome”, I firmly agree and that sounds a lot like living…”in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
Good for you standing for what you believe in and trying to help your company and it’s legacy. These college educated intersectionalists (critical theory studies is how James describes them I think) have infiltrated the work place by one employee complaining about X, so they bring in an outside expert as a consultant, who then pushes the addition of a secondary HR group that manages diversity and inclusion..and now they start ‘asking employees for feedback’ with questionnaires that have leading questions that present the need for MORE changes to company policy.
It’s a cancer, plain and simple.
Fight for it Jaxon, especially if the ownership are good people with legitimate good intentions, that’s rare.
Is it really a cancer for workplaces to try to be more responsive to racism? Do you think people of color are being emboldened to make false claims? Or do you think they’re finally voicing concerns they’ve silently had for a long time?
Can you give me examples of racism in the workplace and substantiate it with evidence?
Given the multiplying number of Jussie Smollett/Bubba Wallace-style “hate crime” hoaxes, it is obvious (a) that the Left’s demand for “hate crimes” is far greater than the actual supply of them, and (b) that people of color are emboldened to make false claims and rewarded socially/professionally for making them.
That’s a pretty blatant straw man argument Chris. Being “more responsive to racism” is not what critical race theory espouses.
Its a cancer to assume there is racism because a white person is doing better than a person of color. Its insanely racist when you do that on an individual level. You are assuming there is racism in the mentioned workplace and you weren’t even there. That assumption is inherently racist because you’re assuming people you haven’t even met are racist based solely on their skin color.
I think POC are being given an alibi and exscuse to go with the particular chip on their shoulder. Time to remove the chip, learn to be positive and understand what is right with the world.
I say no to the condescension of virtually everyone on the planet. Robin, I respectfully encourage you to remove the proverbial plank from your eye.