#robin diangelo

[beardedmrbean]

Given the number of various Deans and other academics™ that have been getting busted for this in the last year the only real question is who's next.

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[gatheringbones]

[“I think shame provides social capital to white people in a few key ways. First, it garners sympathy. In the era of self-care, shame is something we believe we shouldn’t feel. If shame says “I am bad” rather than “what I did was bad,” then, in a self-care/self-help framework, no one should feel shame because we are all inherently good. The “I am inherently good” mantra is amplified for white people because our goodness is systematically reinforced across society: “good” neighborhoods and schools being stand-ins for white, and white as a stand-in for ideal human. When that taken-for-granted yet unacknowledged sense of racial goodness is challenged, we feel attacked at our very core. Whiteness studies scholar Michelle Fine speaks to this moral insulation when she says: “Whiteness accrues privilege and status, gets itself surrounded by protective pillows of resources and/or benefits of the doubt; how Whiteness repels gossip and voyeurism and instead demands dignity.” White people seldom find ourselves without these “protective pillows,” and when we do, it is typically because we have chosen to temporarily step outside our comfort zones. Within our insulated racial environment we come to not only expect racial comfort but to also be less tolerant of racial stress. Expressing shame elicits comfort and relief as we turn to others seeking reassurance, in essence asking to be reminded of our goodness.

For white progressives, shame is seen as socially legitimate (or we wouldn’t express it), a sign that we care and that we feel empathy. This may be why we express shame so much more readily than guilt. Guilt means we are responsible for something; shame relieves us of responsibility. If I focus on what I did, I must take responsibility for repair. If I focus on what I am, it is impossible to change and I am relieved of responsibility.

In distinguishing shame from guilt, psychologist Joseph Burgo explains,

Although many people use the two words ‘guilt’ and ‘shame’ interchangeably, from a psychological perspective, they actually refer to different experiences. Guilt and shame sometimes go hand in hand; the same action may give rise to feelings of both shame and guilt, where the former reflects how we feel about ourselves and the latter involves an awareness that our actions have injured someone else. In other words, shame relates to self; guilt to others.

If guilt relates to external actions and shame to an internal or private state, we can begin to see why shame is the preferred narrative: it protects our positions within the status quo by making it difficult for anyone outside ourselves to address. (The “personal experience” narrative functions the same way; as soon as I invoke that what I am claiming is “just my personal experience,” it becomes private—something internal to myself that only I can know or understand and that therefore cannot be challenged by others.)

Second, it is hard to move forward when we feel shame, as shame tends to be paralyzing; shame actually excuses us from moving forward. What can we do when we feel so bad? We can’t act until we work through this feeling, and that will take time and resources. Of course, given the requirement of time and resources, most of us won’t work through our feelings at all.

Indulging in racial shame whenever we feel exposed (but only when we feel exposed) puts our focus on ourselves and away from those we may have harmed. In this way, shame functions to deny our power and excuse our paralysis, allowing us to indulge in a sense of our own victimization. Both bell hooks and Audre Lorde have noted that feeling bad about racism or white privilege can function as a form of self-centeredness in which white progressives turn the focus back onto themselves. Hooks considered shame to be the performance of whiteness and not an indicator that whiteness was being interrupted.

Feminist writer and independent scholar Sara Ahmed explains, “The shameful white subject expresses shame about its racism, and in expressing its shame, it ‘shows’ that it is not racist: if we are shamed, we mean well. The white subject that is shamed by whiteness is also a white subject that is proud about its shame. The very claim to feel bad (about this or that) also involves a self-perception of ‘being good.’” In other words, if I feel bad enough, I both demonstrate and retain my morality. Ahmed raises the question of whether anti-racism is really about “making people feel better: safer, happier, more hopeful, less depressed, and so on.” There is certainly much concern within anti-racist education about white people not feeling “too” bad lest they withdraw from engagement, and much time and attention is given to keeping white people in the conversation. This concern is heightened when the shame narrative emerges; we now must tread very carefully so as not to cause the person to disengage.”]

robin diangelo, from nice racism: how progressive white people perpetuate racial harm

[phantomnostalgist]

Can we cancel Karl Marx already?

It's not really surprising that the left hates Jews, considering Marx himself was a massive antisemite, as well as an anti-black racist. His remarks about black people chiefly consist of variations on the n-word in close proximity to the word Jew.

As for the various postmodernist deconstructionists who followed in his wake - world's most cited scholar Michel Foucault was amongst many "intellectuals" who argued to lower the age of consent to 12 in the 1970s, and has a long history of allegations of raping children. No wonder he was obsessed with power - it's called projection.

And in the modern era, we're apparently supposed to listen to world's most racist white woman Robin DiAngelo, who by her own admission internalised a lot of racism from her grandmother and has made millions projecting it onto others, in deranged Maoist-style struggle sessions with brainwashed rich women.

Enough with this shit. It's all utter garbage, and the modern "social justice" movement does the absolute opposite of what it says on the tin.

[padawan-historian]

So I've seen a resurgence of people recommending Robin DiAngelo's "White Fragility" as essential antiracist reading.

While there are lessons to take away from the "White Fragility" (every book holds a lesson, even if it is a different lesson than the one the author intended) DiAngelo is actually perpetuating a lot of the white progressive practices that she warns her readers about.

@nowhitesaviors and @janicejnice have both done bone-deep breakdowns of how white antiracist educators, particularly white women, have profited and THRIVED off of teaching people about black trauma.

We aren't in the business of performative activism or canceling people.

I genuinely hope that in her continued journey, DiAngelo takes time to immerse herself in decolonized learning and take into account that, as a white woman, she is not the "gatekeeper" or "sheriff" of the antiracist movement.

She is a co-conspirator who must center her lessons and language around the Black femmes, non-men, women, and men whose existence, traumas, teachings, and experiences are not commodities or spectacles for white consumption.

Help keep these resources accessible by supporting my work on Patreon.

It is time to liberate your mind, liberate your learning, and liberate your life padawans.

[strugglinguist]

January's Books

I've been thinking it might be fun to do a month-by-month look at the books I've read and thoughts about them. I read a whopping 12 books in January! This is a mix of winter break energy plus getting lots of Audible credits for Christmas.

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor

Martyr's Promise by Elizabeth Hunter

A Catalogue of Catastrophe by Jodi Taylor

Paladin's Kiss by Elizabeth Hunter

Once & Future by Cory McCarthy & A.R. Capetta

Sword in the Stars by Cory McCarthy & A.R. Capetta

Doing Time by Jodi Taylor

Hard Time by Jodi Taylor

White Fragility by Dr. Robin DiAngelo

A Psalm of the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

Saving Time by Jodi Taylor

About Time by Jodi Taylor

I've provided in-depth thoughts below :)

I finished a re-read of Jodi Taylor's Chronicles of St. Mary's series. This is one of my all-time favorites, and it was a joy to read again. Also on Audible, the voice actor who reads them is one of my favorites. Hands down. She does great voices for each of the characters. By the end of the first or second book in the series, she has them down so well that you know who is speaking immediately.

I then read the the 2nd and 3rd novels in the Elemental Covenant series by Elizabeth Hunter. I'm really digging this new series and cannot wait for the next one to release! Elizabeth's world building is amazing, and I have read every single book in her Elemental world. That's 17 books, 8 novellas, and a short story, by the way. Can't recommend her work enough. She also has a few other series that I love like The Irin Chronicles and The Cambio Springs Series.

On the recommendation of my girlfriend, I picked up Once & Future and Sword in the Stars by Cory McCarthy and A.R. Capetta. They were a really fun sci-fi/fantasy YA experience about a reincarnation of the Arthurian legend. Arthur as a lesbian in space plus time travel? It was queer and nerdy and all around wonderful. I loved it!

I then dug back into Jodi Taylor's writing with her spin-off series about the Time Police from the St. Mary's world. The four books were seriously wonderful. I loved learning about each of the main characters. Jodi is also very good at getting me invested to the point that I find myself openly weeping over her stories. I really hope more books come out in that series.

Two more books! I read White Fragility by Dr. Robin DiAngelo. Well... most of it. I still have about an hour of listening. I definitely did a lot of chewing on ideas and reactions to this one. She does well as encapsulating the stumbling blocks to genuine conversations about race because of how White people are socialized. I think it's worth reading as a White person, which is the intended audience, but I think a Black American or other People of Color would find it elementary and waste of time for them.

Finally, a college friend recommended A Psalm of the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers and sent me a Kindle version. It is such a beautiful story about what it means to be alive and worthy. It's a sci-fi book about a future where robots have become sentient and chose to leave humanity behind to learn about the world, and humans have made due without that technology since. A human and a robot meet and go on a journey together learning about one another and life. It hit me right in the feels several times!

[books-in-media]

Amber Heard, (Instagram, October 14, 2018)

—Hey Ladies!: The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year, and Way, Way Too Many Emails, Michelle Markowitz, Caroline Moss (2018)

—Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit (2014)

—White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo (2018)

[woundgallery]

“White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo (full text here)

[thesociologicalcinema]

5 Ways white women center themselves in conversations about race

1. CRYING I don't care whether you're crying because you feel attacked or crying because you feel guity--either way, you need to stop. When you cry the natural focus shifts to you because many folks don't feel comfortable continuing a conversation with someone who is so visibly distraught. You've created two scenarios: either I have to console you, or I have to put away the converation. Neither is fair and both are to appease you--the white person who is not harmed and is actually *benefitted* by racism.

2. REDIRECTING TO YOUR TRAUMA Trauma and mental illness are both very real and should be taken seriously. That said, conversations about racism are not the time and place to focus on the struggles you've been through in your life, nor are they sufficient excuses for not engaging in the intentional work of anti-racism. I always find these redirects ironic because *racism* is traumatic. Constantly dealing with *white fragility* is traumatic. By re-centering the conversation to be about you and your trauma you are contributing to the racial trauma of the person you're speaking to.

3. BRINGING UP TIMES WHEN YOU WERE A "GOOD ALLY" Please stop. You think we can't tell, but I promise you--we can. I don't want to hear about that one time when you stood up for a Black person, I don't want to hear about how inspiring the book you read last month was, and I certainly don't want to hear about that one friend you have who you noticed did something racist once. I'm sorry you're just not going to be getting a biscuit for *any* of that. Save yourself some energy, girl! Quit the show. We'll know if you're a good ally if you show us with your actions. When you recenter yourself in this way it forces us to reassure yu that you are in fact a "good person" and "not a racist." Exhausting.

4. CREDENTIALING This is something that Robin Diangelo discusses in her book White Fragility shaped by her learnings from Black folks. Stop talking about all the qualifications you have in this area. Having Black friends, living in a Black neighborhood, getting a degree in ethnic studies, working in social justice, writing a book. I don't care how "official" the credential sounds. If you are white there are not enough credentials in the world to immunize you from racism. This really builds off the last point because you are again centering yourself in a way that expects the person you're speaking to to validate your "credential" as sufficient credit to excuse you of your racism. Yet again, the conversation has become about you.

5. APOLOGIZING FOR WHITE PEOPLE AND EXPRESSING YOUR GUILT Unless you are being called out for a specific harm *you caused* I'm not sure why you're apologizing. I certainly don't understand why you're apologizing for people other than yourself!! You can't do that. Often when I'm talking to white people about race I'm looking for active listening, for empathy, compassion and solidarity. Not apologies and not guilt. I can't do anything with your guilt. When you recenter the converssation this way the person you're speaking with is forced to "accept your apology" or attempt to ease your guilt."

A FINAL NOTE While this list was created from my, and other Black folks, experiences with white women, I think soe of these items are also relevant to any of us in dialogue about oppressive systems that we benefit from: whether it be transphobia, colorism, xenophobia, or any other form of oppression, those of us who benefit from an oppressive system need to be aware of the way we show up in conversation with those of us who are harmed. Source: @celistastanton