White Fragility Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

Summary: Chapter 6: Anti-Blackness

Race is a construct. In the Americas, the Black and white races were constructed in opposition to each other so that whites could more easily justify the use of Black slave labor in a plantation economy. This system, into which all Americans are born, must be acknowledged in order for Black and white people to talk openly about it. Hearing from Black colleagues or friends about their racist experiences can help whites understand how white supremacy impacts Black people daily. Acknowledging racist behavior is not easy for most whites, as they have been socialized to accept the status quo. Part of that socialization is a fear and wariness of Black people. White people may not even be aware of the deep socialization they have received, until they find themselves having an emotional response to someone accusing them of racist behavior. Identifying these feelings of anti-Blackness can help white people understand their emotional response and begin to change.

The first step in interrupting a key privilege of dominance is for white people to stop seeing interactions with Black people on an individual, personal level, and understanding that their actions as a white person can be seen as representative of the white dominant group. If a Black person accuses a white person of a racist act, the white person may feel personally attacked. It is helpful for the white person to realize that their actions may be read as a representative of the dominant white structure. If these actions are called out by Black colleagues as racist, it is helpful for the white person to step back, understand that the accusation is not the result of a personal failing, and work to repair the damage done to the Black person.

White people also need to work on dismantling their own negative stereotypes of the Black collective. These negative stereotypes about Black people as a racial group can make many white people feel personally vulnerable, affecting how whites interact with Black people on an individual level. Many whites, according to DiAngelo, see Black people as taking jobs, homes, and places at college from more-deserving whites. Affirmative action programs created in the 1960s were meant to counteract documented discrimination against Black people but continue to spark white anger. This backlash is why Black people continue to be the most underrepresented racial group at the organizational leadership level. Whites move as soon as neighborhoods reach seven percent Black. Whites chant “blue lives matter,” and “all lives matter” when confronted with Black Lives Matter protests to raise awareness. Predominantly white, conservative media berated the first Black U.S. president daily for an endless list of perceived missteps.

Conversely, white people are given the benefit of the doubt. White people addicted to opioids get rehabilitation, while Black crack addicts get prison sentences. The “forgotten” white working class is shown incredible concern and credited with changing the outcome of a presidential election, while Black people, who have been impoverished for decades, are accused of being lazy welfare queens.

White racial socialization surfaces in conflicting feelings of benevolence, resentment, superiority, hatred, and guilt. A film like The Blind Side encapsulates many of the narratives that arise to help white people manage these conflicting feelings. In telling the true story of the Tuohy family rescuing a young Black man from his impoverished background, and turning him into a successful football player, it cements existing white narratives that Black neighborhoods are dangerous, virtually all Black people are poor or belong to gangs, and that individual Black people may succeed, but only with the help of whites. The film obscures that the problems the young Black football player experiences could be solved through greater social equality.

White people need to work to accept they have been socialized, acknowledge the existence of this white supremacist structure, and work to dismantle it by not falling victim to the emotional responses that anti-Blackness may create in them.

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