White Fragility

[Estrid]

I'm working my way through DiAngelo's "White Fragility" for the second time and trying to understand what she is saying. I'm also interested in critically analyzing her book from a Christian worldview and teaching a class on it. So far I've managed to gather this:

1. All people are prejudice and discriminatory. We pick this up from the societies we live in. This is nothing to be ashamed of.
   
   
2. Prejudice is an internal, mental thing whereby we prejudge a person based on a group they belong to.
   
   
3. Discrimination is when we act based on that prejudice.
   
   
4. Racism is not a discrete act. Racism is prejudice + discrimination + power. Racism is an oppressive system(s) put in place by prejudiced people. All of American life is infected with racism and racist systems.
   
   
5. The antidote to racism is recognizing the racist systems and amending them or destroying them.
   
   
6. Since the concept of biological race is incoherent, all racial disparities can be explained by systemic racism.
   
   
7. When a white person disagree with any of the above, they suffer from the condition of White Fragility.

Am I missing or misrepresenting anything?

I think as Christians we can accept an amended version of (1). The amendment I would make is that we should be ashamed of our biases and prejudices. Not only are we prejudiced, but we are guilty of the sin of prejudice. DiAngelo wants to avoid the idea that individuals are bad because she is influenced by Marx. Marx rejected the concept of human nature and only thought that systems were bad. There are no bad people, only bad systems. So we may accept an amended version of (1) once we remove the Marxism.

Christians can accept (2)-(4) in theory.

Christians might accept some version of (5).

Christians must reject (6). Systemic racism might explain or contribute to some disparities. But DiAngelo is too simplistic. She says that disparities are either explained by biology or systemic racism. And since the idea of biological race is laughable, it must be systemic racism. But she ignores cultural momentum and generational curses and blessings. She may ignore other things too.

Christians must reject (7). All of us are fragile. But just because we might disagree with DiAngelo does not make us guilty of trying to protect racism.

Caucasians have been in top for quite a while.
Now there is confusion and doubt, even self loathing.
A smell of blood in the water, the weasels are closing
in.

 

[Clare73]

I'm working my way through DiAngelo's "White Fragility" for the second time and trying to understand what she is saying. I'm also interested in critically analyzing her book from a Christian worldview and teaching a class on it. So far I've managed to gather this:

1. All people are prejudice and discriminatory. We pick this up from the societies we live in. This is nothing to be ashamed of.
   
   
2. Prejudice is an internal, mental thing whereby we prejudge a person based on a group they belong to.
   
   
3. Discrimination is when we act based on that prejudice.
   
   
4. Racism is not a discrete act. Racism is prejudice + discrimination + power. Racism is an oppressive system(s) put in place by prejudiced people. All of American life is infected with racism and racist systems.
   
   
5. The antidote to racism is recognizing the racist systems and amending them or destroying them.
   
   
6. Since the concept of biological race is incoherent, all racial disparities can be explained by systemic racism.
   
   
7. When a white person disagree with any of the above, they suffer from the condition of White Fragility.

Am I missing or misrepresenting anything?

I think as Christians we can accept an amended version of (1). The amendment I would make is that we should be ashamed of our biases and prejudices. Not only are we prejudiced, but we are guilty of the sin of prejudice. DiAngelo wants to avoid the idea that individuals are bad because she is influenced by Marx. Marx rejected the concept of human nature and only thought that systems were bad. There are no bad people, only bad systems. So we may accept an amended version of (1) once we remove the Marxism.

Christians can accept (2)-(4) in theory.

Christians might accept some version of (5).

Christians must reject (6). Systemic racism might explain or contribute to some disparities. But DiAngelo is too simplistic. She says that disparities are either explained by biology or systemic racism. And since the idea of biological race is laughable, it must be systemic racism. But she ignores cultural momentum and generational curses and blessings. She may ignore other things too.

Christians must reject (7). All of us are fragile. But just because we might disagree with DiAngelo does not make us guilty of trying to protect racism.

You might consult Heather McDonald.