Ibrim X. Kendi is the patron saint of the “Anti-Racist” movement, which promotes the argument that if you are not anti-racist, meaning that you do not dedicate yourself, your “privilege,” your time, money, assets and, perhaps, even your physical existence, to the cause of affirmatively fighting racism, then you are a racist. In the long parade of horribles, there is none worse than being racist.
To be fair, he comes by it honestly, in the sense that he’s an academic who has argued this, written about this (See How To Be An Antiracist, inter alia) and been unabashedly clear about this long before it was fashionable. As someone who has done anti-racist things for most of his career, I might take some comfort in trying to claim the mantle. I can point to a few things, like decades of defending black people and Hispanics from the cops to prove my bona fides.
But I don’t, and I refuse to try. Whatever I do, or don’t do, it won’t be to appease any racial scolds but because it’s something I believe should be done. If that makes me a racist to the critical theory folks, so what? I do not subscribe to social justice, critical theory, wokiosity, whatever else someone wants to call it. I’m not here to seek Kendi’s approval.
So why, for Pete’s sake, would I give a hoot about some crazy white woman who makes a living scolding the intellectually and emotionally empty about their racial worthlessness? Her book has a catchy title, White Fragility, and grounds itself in a basic Kafkatrap: you either admit you’re a racist or prove it by denying it. Whereupon, your only path forward is to subjugate yourself to the war against her flavor of racism, which tastes like everything, but can’t win.
If you’re white, you can never have been anything but a racist, but that doesn’t mean you should dedicate your every breath to fighting it because there is no other moral option. And when you die, having dedicated yourself to her cause, you will die a racist, because that’s what you are and all you can ever be. I just saved you the price of the book.
Why does anyone care what this person says? For one thing, she’s sold a lot of books, some of which may have been read (at least partially, as it’s essentially impossible to read through her incoherent gibberish in its entirety) rather than left to sit on coffee tables to prove one’s wokeness to visitors. For another, she’s the “it girl” of this moment of anti-racism, ironic though it may be since she’s a lighter shade of pale who has no bona fides to speak to racial issues other than the approval of the patron saint.
In early June, Robin DiAngelo addressed 184 Democratic members of Congress who had gathered, by conference call, for what the party leadership had named a “Democratic Caucus family discussion on race.”
The invitation to speak to the caucus was just one in a deluge for DiAngelo. Before Floyd’s killing, she was a leading figure in the field of antiracism training or, as she sometimes describes it, antiracism consciousness raising. It’s a field shared by nonwhite and white trainers, and DiAngelo, who is 63 and white, with graying corkscrew curls framing delicate features, had won the admiration of Black activist intellectuals like Ibram X. Kendi, author of “How to Be an Antiracist,” who praises the “unapologetic critique” of her presentations, her apparent indifference to “the feelings of the white people in the room.”
And it’s not just your Democratic Party representatives, but your schools, college, employers and reporters at major media outlets who are turning to DiAngelo to do the flagellation they can’t manage on their own.
“I wasn’t raised to see my race as saying anything relevant about me,” she declared to a largely white crowd in the Mission district’s 360-seat Brava Theater. Her audience had paid between $65 and $160 per ticket to hear her speak for three and a half hours. The place was sold out. “I will not coddle your comfort,” she went on. She gestured crisply with her hands. “I’m going to name and admit to things white people rarely name and admit.” Scattered Black listeners called out encouragement. Then she specified the predominant demographic in the packed house: white progressives. “I know you. Oh, white progressives are my specialty. Because I am a white progressive.” She paced tightly on the stage. “And I have a racist worldview.”
People pay to drink this snake oil, to be informed by this self-proclaimed racist white progressive what white people “rarely name and admit.” Says who? Says DiAngelo, as if someone elected her the spokesmodel for white folks.
Ironically, I’ve been of the view that we’re all generally racist, if not overtly racist. And that’s not just white people, but all of us. Caribbean blacks look down on African-American blacks. Hispanics and blacks don’t care too much for each other, and Puerto Ricans think Dominicans (and, oy, Salvadoreans) are trash. And educated white people think uneducated white people are trash too, and prefer educated black people, but still feel more comfortable with their own, provided they’re not Jewish.
Tom Lehrer sang about it, and you can listen for free, get the message and not have to tolerate three and a half hours of some crazy white woman whom you paid to teach you how to loathe yourself properly. And that’s really what this is about, with some inconsequential scold being elevated to stardom in order to fill the empty hole in people’s existence once filled by priests, rabbis and imams. This is EST for the woke era.
White fragility, in DiAngelo’s formulation, is far from weakness. It is “weaponized.” Its evasions are actually a liberal white arsenal, a means of protecting a frail moral ego, defending a righteous self-image and, ultimately, perpetuating racial hierarchies, because what goes unexamined will never be upended. White fragility is a way for well-meaning white people to guard what race has granted them, all they haven’t earned.
Meh. I fully admit my white privilege and have no intention of giving it up. But unlike the nutjobs of the moment, I want everybody to have the opportunity for privilege just as I have. What you do with it once you have it is up to you, but what I plan to do with mine is ignore the crazies like Robin DiAngelo and dispute the efforts by Kendi to proclaim everyone who doesn’t do as he demands a racist. This is yet another game of rhetorical Calvinball I refuse to play.
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How long does a promise last?
How long can a lie be told?
What would I take in exchange for my soul?
Would I notice when it was sold?
(Sunday morning two-fer)
“Meh. I fully admit my white privilege and have no intention of giving it up.”
They’re hunting us down here with Liberty’s light
A handshaking double talking procession of the mighty
Pursued by a T.V. crew and coming after them
A limousine of singing stars and their brotherhood anthem
The former dictator was impeccably behaved
They’re mopping up all the stubborn ones who just refuse to be saved.
In this case, your relevant privilege is not white privilege but bullshit privilege, defined as being far along and established enough in your career that you can say no to eating this variety of meaningless bullshit. Some of us do not yet have the job security necessary to tell the powers that be (who have bought but not read the book) that no, we will not complete a writing assignment explaining how we will incorporate DiAngelo’s teachings into our work or complete a “reflection” on how we have practiced “anti-racism” as part of our annual review.
And you definitely should not give up that particular privilege.
I did an essay once for someone seeking an academic post that required the social justice loyalty oath. I had the best time, kind of like putting together those fake social science studies about doggie rape. I wrote utter gibberish. He got the job.
Consider linking.
The SHG insult list can always use more material. Gibberish included.
“So I ask myself, is this guy trying to insult me , or is he really just that stupid?” has gotten three insurance claims settled.
I am going to post a long Comment, which I think is not perfectly on topic but closely related,, in my mind anyways.
The woke folks paying pretty good money to be chastised might be good for a laugh, bu there is a new phenomenon which relates very directly to criminal defense I hope you can examine. We have seen a few cases in the national news where white people are portrayed as victimizing black people. One was the Chipotle incident in Michigan where a white woman pulled a gun on a black family, another the alleged “attempted lynching” in Indiana of a black man by some white men.
In both cases, video was shown nationally, which, if representative of the incidents, could certainly lead the viewer to believe the black person was victimized. The accused white people and their lawyers have explanations which exculpate them.
In both cases, the police were called at the time of the incidents and did not arrest anyone. Chipotle gun lady reportedly claimed self defense, accused lyncher that black guy started it with punches to his face
All appearances are, these incidents would have died, with police unsure of who to charge, if anyone.
But very soon after, local politicians demanded the arrest and prosecution of the accused white person.
In the case of Chipotle lady, where the incident took place the early evening of July 1, the County Executive issued a media release, demanding her arrest and a prosecution in line with the severity of the offense the next morning at 10:30 am – the Country Executive has influence on the prosecutor’s budge – a State Senator chimed in with a statement supporting the prosecution and criticizing the woman for her “Self Righteous” and “Entitled” attitudes.
In that case, the prosecutor filed charges within a few hours. The local Sheriff emailed me, she viewed the police reports first. The woman’s husband was charged with the same crime, though he had no pointed a gun at anyone, and immediately fired from his job at a local college.
Omitting a lot of details, the Indiana “attempted lynching” case basically came down to a local black political activist with a tarnished reputation confronting the white men for allegedly racist speech at a campground, him claiming they then tried to lynch him, them claiming he threw the first punches and they were only restraining him so he would not hit them again.
In that case, the incident was July 4, and there were immediate protests demanding the white mean’s prosecution- on July 7, apparently responding to the protests, the Mayor of Bloomington, plus a State Senator, plus a Democrat Senate candidate who apparently, having won the nomination is a shoe in for election, all gave a press conference, aired on the NPR YouTube channel, demanding the prosecution of the white men.
Despite the pressure, the local prosecutor did not file charges until ten days later – during which time, the accused white men hired lawyers and took lie detector tests, and the lawyers challenged the black politician to take lie detector tests, which he, through his lawyer, refused. The only witnesses to what preceded the white men restraining him were him and the white men, and it appears nothing new came up, EXCEPT the accuser’s history of violence seems to have come out. Everything in the press indicates the case against the white guys was rapidly falling apart, but the “public” outrage against them was growing, as the accuser, who had already run for local office and was on the local Human Rights Commission, continued to publicize the case as an “attempted lynching” where he “would have been a hashtag” – except for the intercession of his “white allies” – Yes, though not charged and with no clear financial loss, he has a GOFUNDME and it was about $25,000 a few days back.
Tying this back to your post is wokeness = it appears wokeness is the factor determining if ambiguous facts result in a prosecution – is this a trend? My guess it, it depends on how well it seems to work out for the politicians demanding the prosecutions – if they get re-elected, (or in the case of Bloomington, if the town does not burn down, perhaps, the July 7 presser was the day after a protest on July 6 where two protesters were run down while demanding prosecution) then more politicians will be doing the same. This seems to be pretty direct mob rule – sure, you have to break or burn enough stuff to make the local Mayor demand a prosecution, but that is not too hard – it can even be fun.
SIde note – a huge loss that IHE is going to stop Comments and all their excuses ring hollow- one last Comment said the “Google Ad hammer” may have come down on them as it did on the Federalist – ???
A bit long and tangential, but it’s Sunday and your point is well taken. When I write about these things, and how the mob overflow is weaseling its way into crim law, into political influence, into judgments as to criminality, people tend to get caught up in the specifics of an incident and fail to address the much more important issue of these online mobs are impacting real world criminal prosecutions.
It’s a huge and pervasive issues, but since the mobs hate who they hate, and they’re as vicious,carceral and irrational as possible, they will wield undue influence until the winds shift. Until then, there will be dead bodies of its victims. It’s a worse problem than bad DAs and cops, as there is absolutely nothing to be done to stop a mob.
Since I am lily white and old, I guess I am a racist. Not that I give 2 shits what these people think
You likely are, as am I, and we should do our best not to be, and to be anti-racist when we can. But if that’s not enough, tough nuggies.
But rockin?
Do I need to show you my artistic license?
DiAngelo is full of shit. It takes me a week of sunshine to even turn noticeably white (a problem for us here in the more northern parts of Europe – we start off blue), yet I think I’ve derived more happiness and pleasure from the expression of a unique American culture created by black Americans than anything else constant in my 50-odd years on this planet.
This crap feels like more of a grift than a plea to embrace our common humanity.
It definitely emits the odor of grift.
It certainly does, but I guess there’s money to be made by skewing the argument.
Well screw them – I will continue to be delighted by things like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjzBbYr4Eik
… and not worry my arse about the colour of peoples’s skin.
“Her audience had paid between $65 and $160 per ticket to hear her speak.. ”
The racial version of other religious leaders like Greta Thunberg. People pay a lot to be cool for two weeks then its all over and the next one comes along.
If she thinks whites are racist then she should travel more!