White Fragility, Chapter 5

 

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Blog Response #5: White Fragility Ch. 5

 

 

Garrett McLeod

University of Houston

ENGL 1301: First Year Writing 1

Professor Heather Stewart-Steele

March 7, 2021

 

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Blog Response #5: White Fragility Ch. 5

DiAngelo’s purpose in this chapter is to communicate the various ways in which the use of the good/bad binary in reference to racial issues can do far more harm than good. The first way it came about was as a result of the widespread images of violence, particularly in the South, against African Americans during the Civil Rights Movement. Prior to this, the majority of the White population in both the North and South would be fairly open about their racism. But, after seeing those images, people especially in the North developed a new form of racial viewpoint that has become the standard, in which racism is only the most extreme and isolated acts of racism. Isolated racist acts meaning that the independent acts of racism such as White southern cops brutalizing peaceful protesters are only that, independent acts of over-the-top brutality, not just manifestations of a larger system that most everyone plays a role in.

Another downside of the good/bad binary is how racism becoming considered bad by the average person can make it so that when someone comes across the opportunity to have an enlightening discussion on the issue, their ego makes it nearly impossible. The ego comes into play because people fell the need to defend themselves against perceived accusations of being inherently immoral people rather than simply playing a role, to one degree or another, in an immoral system and way of thinking.

The binary is also used to make the argument that it is those who focus on race who are causing the only racial problems. Because racism is made out to be purely evil, it has become a taboo, but discussing racism has also become a taboo in the process, and the more White Fragility that the people around you have, the more taboo discussing racism there is around

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Fragility that the people around you have, the more taboo there is around discussing racism. But on the other side of the binary, among those who think themselves to be more racially conscious, are negatively affected by the binary because it allows them to think themselves to be free of responsibility from racism, because they have not acted racist and have argued against it in their personal lives.

 I think DiAngelo put it well in the conclusion of the chapter when she mentions while we must call out explicit racism when we see it without a doubt, we cannot keep ourselves on the good side, or non-racist side, of a false binary that only serves the bad side of it at the end of the day. Having this binary more explicitly explained has made me try to look inward and think of times in the past when I have imagined myself on either side of it. When I was a clueless middle-schooler, I simply would not have cared what side I was on in the slightest. As I have gotten older though I have tried to be more conscious of race, and I have definitely made the mistake of placing myself firmly on the good side in order to distinguish myself from those I perceived to be on the bad.