Another on my books I haven’t read list is White Fragility by Robin Diangelo. This white woman makes a strong case that white people are overly defensive about matters of racial history. It’s a good point. You don’t have to look very far to find rabid examples of white defensiveness.
Presumably white fragility goes along with the latest buzz phrase: white privilege. It’s easy to point a finger at a white person and accuse him or her of taking advantage of historical white privilege and of being insensitive to minority disadvantages. Anecdotally speaking, that criticism, at times, could rightfully be applied to me or any other white person, although for the most part we don’t feel particularly privileged. Most people are not born with a silver spoon in their mouths.
Protesters march in defiant demonstrations. Counter-protesters jump at the chance to confront them.
A lot of time and energy is currently being spent in a vain attempt to redefine America’s political and racial history. It is what it is. There’s no point in arguing about it. If you tear down a statue because it represents racial hatred and bigotry to you, the legacy of racial hatred and bigotry will not go away.
It was what it was. We are not going to undo it.
I read that protesters tore down a statue of U. S. Grant. Grant’s rich in-laws gave him one male slave, and Grant voluntarily emancipated that man before the proclamation. Then he went to war, in large part, to help bring about the proclamation. What kind of Black lives matter statement is made when that man’s statue is torn down?
What will change slowly and over a long period of time are the hearts and minds of ordinary people.
Proposed: Let’s keep the conversation going and leave the angry protesting behind.
I hope you are correct about the attempt to redefine history to be “vain.”
“White Privilege”. I was offended when I first heard the term. I am NOT privileged. I have known those who are and did not like the concept.
The concept if white privilege, however, is very real, and somewhat self-fulfilling. It is about the respect that society gives an unknown person. Being white (mostly, I think), I am treated by strangers, including authority figures with a certain level of respect not widely shown to those of color. I view this respect to be normal, not a privilege. To view this respect as a privilege would be to define the disrespect shown people of color as normal. Anytime you normalize disrespect to that extent, you are asking for trouble.
Masked Avenger: Agreed completely that the phrase “white privilege” is a red herring designed to elevate a political football to the level of a real thing. Also completely agreed that it does a disservice to those of us who have, at times, suffered from a lack of privilege.