3 ms·
White fragility applies the term so broadly that it implies the author herself is a white supremecist.
by mesozoic 6y ago
White fragility applies the term so broadly that it implies the author herself is a white supremecist.
- JadeNB 6y agoBased on a quick search through it, White Fragility mostly but not completely avoids the term "white supremacist" (as applied to people), instead using "white supremacy" or "white supremacist culture". In that context, she says: > White supremacy in this context does not refer to individual white people and their individual intentions or actions but to an overarching political, economic, and social system of domination. Note the specific disclaimer about not so referring to individuals. In this context, it is true that much of the world is part of a white supremacist culture. As the author says: > … within a white supremacist society, I am rewarded for not interrupting racism and punished in a range of ways—big and small—when I do. Pointing this out does not, I think, dilute the term; it rather insists on confronting the fact that "but I'm not racist" is not a sufficient response to claims of systemic racism. (The author does use the phrases "explicit white supremacists" and "avowed white supremacists", thus referring to individuals; but, as far as I can tell, she does not define the term, and I think that it is clear that she means by this to separate out people with overt white supremacist ideas from those of us who are merely a part of the culture—a clarification, rather than a dilution.)