As an African American educator, scholar, and lecturer who has spent nearly an entire lifetime experiencing, studying, and discussing race relations, racism, and the social structures that produce and maintain racist systems, I must tell you the truth … I am tired! Tired of talking about the subject of racism. Tired of trying to assure well-intentioned white folks that Critical Race Theory is not a threat to America or to white children. I am particularly fatigued of discussions centered on dismantling or defunding racist systems, primarily because our society generally needs those systems to remain functional, safe, and secure. I cannot imagine any city without a police or law enforcement department.
I am exhausted, disheartened, daunted, and even frightened by the historic perseverance and seeming permanence of racism. Race-based discussions in America remain difficult, destructive, and divisive. Simple phrases, such as Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Black Lives Matter (BLM), now part American nomenclature and listed in the lexicon of racial and cultural colloquialisms were intended to facilitate ongoing racial conversations. That these simple messages were perceived as pernicious, hostile, or intimidating by some white Americans is wildly confounding and draining.
Attempts to censor certain words reinforces the indication of white supremacy and white fragility. Purgative efforts to rid our nation, state by state, of “uncomfortable language” won’t change the need for our nation to confront whiteness, it will just delay the confrontation. Legislation to prohibit the use of words and punish those who would dare defy this linguistic prohibition is akin to removing CRT and BLM from the alphabet and thereby reduce the number of letters in the alphabet from 26 to 20. Imagine singing the alphabet song without those letters … tragic. An unintended consequence of removing the letter “B” from the alphabet is that the 14,359 words that begin with B will all have to change. Systems theory states that changes in one part of the system will have a positive or negative effect in the entire system. Name changes in soap operas (“Bold and the Beautiful” and “Beverly Hills 90210”), reality television shows (“The Bachelor” and “The Bachelorette”), and NFL football teams (Browns, Bengals, and the Buccaneers) all become necessary without the letter B. Silly, isn’t it?
I have discovered that some white Americans feel ill-equipped and genuinely unprepared for conversations regarding America’s appalling race related histories. A smaller group of white people ardently resist or recuse themselves completely from race-related discussions. In either case, white people are not talking to other white people about whiteness in America.
According to Nancy Isenberg, the T. Harry Williams Professor of American History at Louisiana State University, “whiteness is not a privilege equally enjoyed by all white Americans.” Cloaked under the category of whiteness are the oblivious issues of sexism, classism, religious ideology, political affiliation, and privilege. Understanding the concept of intersectionality helps one to not perceive race, racism, and discrimination as discrete events separate from other factors. The inextricable relationship between whiteness and religion, whiteness and education, whiteness and law and politics, whiteness and citizenship are but a few examples that necessitate white people asking each other, “What does it means to be white?” Additional, more specific follow-up questions might be, “What does it mean to be white and woman, white and poor, white and gay/lesbian/transgender, or white and Catholic/Christian?” And if you think these are meaningless questions, ask yourself, “How would my life change if I became black today (or white if you identify as black) and everything else in my life remained constant?”
Dismantling racist systems – real change in race relations in the United States will not happen because we have more Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion symposiums or seminars or attend another book club monthly meeting to read and discuss Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be an Antiracist.” You may engage in stimulating conversations and feel better temporarily, but next month’s book is Angie Thomas’ “The Hate You Give.” A bit more challenging!
I believe change will occur only through the dedicated and disciplined struggle to acknowledge whiteness and better understand how whiteness affects every social structure in America. These conversations must occur between and among various white populations (all white people are not the same). When it comes to race relations, if we are ever going to transform the ideological malaise (general feeling of physical discomfort) and ubiquitous nihilism (the sense of hopelessness, insignificance, and despair) experienced in America, then conversations must intentionally focus on whiteness.
The pathway of race relations in America have historically progressed in a predictable fashion: Racial difference → creates distance between groups and communities → produces psychological and spiritual detachment → humans who are detached from other humans discriminate and dehumanize → dehumanized differences are demonized → it now becomes easier to not care → deliberate moral indifference → destruction of property/death.
James Baldwin was quoted in The New York Times (2/2/1969) as saying, “I will flatly say that the bulk of this country’s white population impresses me and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond and conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long …” I seldom disagree with Baldwin, but regarding this quote, I disagree. I am truly tired, bewildered, and at times disheartened, but not without hope.
I have hope in our America; in these United States, where in my daughter Samantha’s lifetime, unbelievably I have witnessed events I never thought possible in my lifetime – the election of our first African American president, our first African American/Asian American vice president, and most recently, our first African American female Supreme Court Justice. I firmly believe my white brothers and sisters, both friends and colleagues and rivals and confederates will dismantle racist systems by submitting to an examination of the heart to assess the potential insidious effects of being raised in a nation developed and governed by the principles of whiteness. Dismantling racist systems begins when white Americans conduct a critical and personal examination of whiteness.
There will be no racial reconciliation without personal repentance; no repentance without confession; no confession without truth; no truth without courage, no courage without God.
