Week Three Readings, Questions and Videos

I don’t want you to understand me better, I want you to understand yourselves. Your survival has never depended on your knowledge of white culture. In fact, it’s required your ignorance.

– Ijeoma Oluo

I see a pattern running through the matrix of white privilege, a pattern of assumptions that were passed on to me as a white person. There was one main piece of cultural turf; it was my own turn, and I was among those who could control the turf. My skin color was an asset for any move I was educated to want to make. I could think of myself as belonging in major ways and of making social systems work for me. I could freely disparage, fear, neglect, or be oblivious to anything outside of the dominant cultural forms.

– Peggy McIntosh

My silence is not benign because it protects and maintains the racial hierarchy and my place within it.

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Reading Overview

This Week’s Reading

Chapter 3 (pages 39 – 50)

Chapter 4 (pages 51 – 69)

Reading Summary

Chapter 3

A simplistic understanding of racism leads people to believe that the civil rights movement and the desegregation of public facilities generally ended racist practices. However, racism is highly adaptable and modern norms, policies, and practices have resulted in racial outcomes similar to those in the past. Color-blind ideology, although initially well-intentioned, makes it difficult to address unconscious racist beliefs and has served to deny the reality of racism—thus holding it in place. Finally, cultural norms insist that white people hide racism from people of color and deny it around other white people, which also makes it impossible to confront and address racism.

Chapter 4

As a reminder, racial identity shapes a person’s perspectives, experiences, and responses. In this chapter, the author delves into eight foundational aspects of white fragility. The author explains that because of their racial identification, white people in the United States will generally feel a sense of belonging, be free from the burden of race, have freedom of movement, and will be considered just people. People of color typically do not have the same experience. In addition, white people are most likely to choose racial segregation and position themselves as racially innocent. Those two choices, along with an obliviousness to the country’s racial history, can lead white people to romanticize ideas about the good old days. Finally, white solidarity, which is an unspoken agreement among white people to protect white advantage and not cause another white person to feel racial discomfort, is key in maintaining white supremacy.

Optional pre-reading question:

Reflect on this quote from the book: “But my silence is not benign because it protects and maintains the racial hierarchy and my place within it.” (p. 58)

Supplemental Resources

Why Color Blindness Will NOT End Racism (beginning at 2:25)

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack