Part 3 - On being white in today's America

Author

Kat C.
January 11, 2025

On breaking the impasse, by Kat. (This is my story, more or less. It's one of the reasons why I decided to put this list together.)

White fragility/white privilege

This section of the list has been moved to a separate location, in hopes of making it more accessible. See "White fragility/white privilege — a list of resources.”

Person-positivity bias (or "I have a Black friend, so I can't be racist!")

  • Pollyanna Principle: The Psychology of Positivity Bias, by Courtney E. Ackerman, MSc., PositivePsychology, Apr. 7, 2019. (Especially, read the subsection, “What is the Person-Positivity Bias?,” which is an explanation of why people can dislike Black people as a group, while simultaneously having Black friends.)

Not me! I'm not racist!

Implicit bias

Understanding Black Lives Matter vs. ALM (and all the other LMs....)

Why Black people can use the N-word and you can't

  • Is The N Word Making A Comeback?, uploaded Feb. 12, 2025, to the Dark Brandon channel on YouTube. ("In this segment we look at spike in racist slurs being used in everywhere from children's schools, to mechanic shops, to nursing homes and even on the internet....")

  • N-word: The troubled history of the racial slur, by Cherry Wilson, BBC News, Oct. 5, 2020. (In addition to outlining the UK's history with the word, this article also reflects on its contemporary use, making it a must-read for Americans as well.)

  • N*****: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, Randall Kennedy, Pantheon Books, NY, 2002. (NOTE: The actual title of this book is the N-word, spelled out in all its glory. The author does so with good reason. While I've chosen not to follow suit, I do recommend this book highly, in no small part because of the author's expertise. Kennedy, a Harvard Law School Professor, discusses the complexities of the N-word, including its multiple uses and definitions — whether in public and private conversations, literature or film — as well as its viability as a potentially legitimate provocation to violence (including murder), the prejudicial effect of its use by prosecutors and judges, its featured role in hostile-workplace litigation and other lawsuits, and more.)

    "An argument for reform might begin with the proposition that [the N-word] and similar slurs are not mere words. Professor Charles Lawrence has described them as 'assaultive' and classified them as 'a form of violence by speech' that causes a target to feel as though he or she had been slapped in the face." (p. 79)

    In his last chapter, "How are we doing with [the N-word]?" Kennedy voices his optimism that American society is reaching a more balanced view of racial slurs. Given the publication date of 2002, I can't help wondering whether he remains as optimistic today.

  • Straight Talk About the N-Word, by Sean Price, Teaching Tolerance Magazine, Fall 2011. (An educator discusses the complex, troubled history of the N-word, as well as offering guidance for how to teach white children why they shouldn't use it.)

  • Ta-Nehisi Coates explains why white people can't say the N-word in rap songs, a YouTube video from The Melanin Project, Nov. 9, 2017.

Reverse racism is not a thing

Anti-racism training

  • 21-Day Racial Equity Challenge, a project of the Michigan League for Public Policy, 2020. This exercise was modeled on a challenge by Food Solutions New England, which the MLPP used "as a model and adapted to highlight racial inequity and our related policy priorities here in Michigan."

  • Organizing white Men for Collective Liberation: "A national network mobilizing white men to learn, grow and take action against white supremacy and patriarchy."

Why "colorblindness" isn't the answer

Talking to white children about racism

Understanding how children learn about race

  • Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race, by Erin N. Winkler, Ph.D., PACE Vol. 3- No. 3, 2009. "...research clearly shows that children not only recognize race from a very young age, but also develop racial biases by ages three to five that do not necessarily resemble the racial attitudes of adults in their lives ."

  • LET’S TALK ABOUT RACE - Racial Identity Development, National American Museum of African American History & Culture. This chart compares and contrasts racial identity development between the members of minority and majority ethnic groups. It's based on the following sources: Sue DW. Multidimensional facets of cultural competence, The Counseling Psychologist, 2001; and Sue DW, Sue D. Counseling the Culturally Different: Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons; 1999.

The brown eyes/blue eyes experiment

How to be an ally

This part of the list has become too long to be manageable. As such, I've moved it to a separate location, here. It includes a related topic: "Tips for talking about racism." But before you click the link, please check out the following entry. It concerns the paradox of intolerance and our social contract:

  • Because standing our ground is so vital to being an ally, I want to give this picture (the paradox of tolerance) some prominence. The intolerant constantly argue that we're in the wrong for not tolerating them. But tolerance is a social contract — a contract which they continue to break. Therefore, we are no longer bound by the contract. We do NOT owe them tolerance for their views.

    As sometimes happens, a conversation ensued below.... In turn, this led to a separate post — a sidebar, if you will — which forms a background for the above-mentioned picture.

The history of white supremacist thought

  • The lie that invented racism | John Biewen, a TED talk, uploaded to YouTube on Nov. 1, 2022. (In discussing the lie created by 15th Century Portuguese writer Gomes de Zurara, Biewen says, "[R]ace is not a thing biologically, it's a story some people decided to tell; and ... people told that story to justify the brutal exploitation of other human beings for profit.")

  • The History of White People, by Nell Irvin Painter, W. W. Norton & Company, NY, 2010. (An enlightening, thoroughly researched history of racism as a social concept. Painter traces the notion of race beginning with Greco-Roman times, up to the last three centuries of intensified efforts to "prove" that white people are superior to anyone whose skin is brown. You'll learn how eugenics fits into the scheme, and before Painter is finished, you'll be frustrated with — and disappointed in — many of America's greatest literary figures.)

  • How did white people end up dominating everyone else?, Kat's review of "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies," Jared Diamond, W.W. Norton, NY, 1997.

    Diamond's book does not directly refer to white supremacy. However, he does address the historical factors — going back to 10,000 BCE — that contributed to today's sense of white superiority and entitlement. I personally recommend it as a must-read.

The language and symbols of American hate groups

  • The ‘No Quarter’ Flag and its Threat to America, by Melba Pearson, Biscayne Times, Nov. 29, 2021. ("No Quarter" flags are all-black American flags, and they signify a dark threat: "It means people will be killed instead of taken prisoner in a second civil war/race war. To quote the Law Insider legal dictionary, 'No quarter will be given means refusing to spare the life of anybody, even of persons manifestly unable to defend themselves or who clearly express their intention to surrender.'")

  • The Punisher's Logo Controversy Explained, by C.M. Crockford, Looper, Dec. 21, 2021.