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One thing that jumped out for me is the pervasiveness of white fragility. For example: Stop being politically correct. I'm white but I'm not privileged. Stop ca
by jdblair 10y ago
One thing that jumped out for me is the pervasiveness of white fragility. For example: Stop being politically correct. I'm white but I'm not privileged. Stop calling us racists.
If you're not familiar with this term, White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress be- comes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation.
http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116 http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ijcp/article/viewFile/249/116
[edit: Can someone explain why this comment is being downvoted?]
- nsxwolf 10y agoWhite fragility is a wonderful neologism. Too many people debating the concept of white privilege, so we had to go and pathologize that side of the debate.
- jdblair 10y agoIts not pathologizing a side of the debate to recognize actual emotional over-reaction. And I can recognize that response without shutting down debate.
- benchaney 10y agoI'm not sure I buy this argument. In my experience, many people in the left try to shut down any disagreement by using privilege as a red herring. It's silly to expect people to accept that. It's even sillier to diagnose resistance to that as some kind of endemic societal issue
- eberfreitas 10y agoNot sure why you are being downvoted... That was very clear for me as I was reading through the answers and the definition for "white fragility" seens to fit well with the case.
- camdenlock 10y agoYou're being downvoted because it's despicable to create and bandy about a scientific-sounding term like "white fragility" in a conversation that people are sincerely trying to have. You're effectively removing yourself from any such discussion on these topics and creating an image of a psychologist analyzing the others in the discussion. Be part of the conversation, don't just step back and slap passive-aggressive labels on the participants.
- jdblair 10y agoOk, you object to be using what appears to be a categorical label rather than engaging directly with the comment. That's fair, though "despicable" seems rather judgemental
- douche 10y agoAh, it's not white privilege anymore, now the term du jour is white fragility. I can't keep up with this stuff...