"Nice Racism"

[Cypress]

One evening, Robin DiAngelo became a nice racist.

DiAngelo, author of "White Fragility," remembers the precise moment it happened. A friend invited her to join a few friends of hers for dinner. When DiAngelo arrived at the restaurant, she was excited to see that the couple waiting for them at the table was Black.
DiAngelo was a college student who had no Black friends and had rarely spent any time around Black people. But she saw herself as a proud progressive and a feminist. She proceeded to tell the Black couple how racist her family was and spent the entire evening recounting every uncensored racist joke, story, and comment she could remember them making, despite her dinner companions' growing discomfort.

She didn't know it at the time, but DiAngelo was doing something she now calls "credentialing" -- a conversational tactic White progressives sometimes use to show Black people they are not racist. Well-meaning White liberals do this by casually dropping into conversations such comments as, "My grandchildren are biracial," or "I don't see color," or "My best friend is Black."
DiAngelo thought at the time that her progressive credentials preempted any suggestion that she could be racist.

If you're a White person who is now rewinding every conversation you've had with a person of color to see if you flashed your "I am not a racist" credentials, then you might understand the power of DiAngelo's hard-hitting new book, "Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm." In it DiAngelo delivers a systematic takedown of what she calls "well-meaning Whiteness" -- how well-intentioned White people unwittingly reinforce racism.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/26/healt...ake/index.html

Pretty interesting. What says you?

If somebody has black relatives in their family, I do not think it is condescending to mention it.

On the other hand, there is one conservative poster here who claimed to have a Hispanic wife, but then somewhat later claimed to have a Russian woman.

Another rightwing extremist poster who is noted for lying claims to be black.

My theory is that some rubes pretend to have a connection to people of color because they think it gives them cover to be racially insensitive.

On balance, you cannot go wrong if you try not to be a jerk or be condescending.

[Flash]

The author says nothing about your "credentialing" phenomenon being among the left, it's those who are racist and like to say they aren't. She was talking about racists doing it, you know, the right.

credentialing" -- a conversational tactic White progressives sometimes use to show Black people they are not racist.

[cawacko]

If you run with a pack of racists, vote for them, and agree with their racist views- I'M SORRY! BUT THAT MAKES YOU ARE A RACIST JUST BY MERE ASSOCIATION! It's as simple as that!

You may say, "Well, but I like their policies better"!

Perhaps you do, but you are basically promoting racist views- BECAUSE THAT IS WHAT COMES FROM RACISTS- AND IT SHOWS UP IN THEIR POLICIES!

Dude, the world involves more than just politics and policies. Thinking because you vote this way or support a certain policy means you can't be racist is a huge part of the problem if you think this country is dominated by white supremacy.

I've heard numerous P.O.C. call Democrats and their policies in the Bay Area and California racist. There are many people who think being a Democrat means you aren't or can't be racist. Both those statements can't be true.

[Flash]

What are these?
"s this "My grandchildren are biracial," or "I don't see color," or "My best friend is Black."
Are they racist? Unconscious or otherwise? If I say I taught in primarily black schools, is that racist?

They are not necessarily racist, but they are somewhat clumsy attempts to prove you are not racist.

I think unconscious racism can involve attitudes that blacks cannot succeed by themselves without help from sympathetic whites--that blacks are less able to get a voter ID, succeed in getting into college or a job without special help, etc. Not that some of these programs are not useful, but blacks and other minorities can succeed without them.

[Controlled Opposition]

Some of you may be describing the bigotry of low expectations.

[Yakuda]

We tend to think of racism as people like TDAK and Hawkeye who drop the n*word. A lot of people think to themselves I'm sure "I don't use that type of language so therefore I'm not racist." And then of course voting. If you vote Republican you either are, or are likely, a racist. If you vote Democratic you aren't a racist. So white people think they don't use racial slurs and they vote for Democrats so therefore they aren't racist.

There are other forms of racism of course beyond just racial slurs (and beyond white people but that's a separate discussion) and that's what she's addressing here. It isn't new. Liberal racism has been around a long time but will be interesting to see the response.

Its interesting how the left has itself convinced they are angels.

[cawacko]

They are not necessarily racist, but they are somewhat clumsy attempts to prove you are not racist.

I think unconscious racism can involve attitudes that blacks cannot succeed by themselves without help from sympathetic whites--that blacks are less able to get a voter ID, succeed in getting into college or a job without special help, etc. Not not some of these programs are not useful, but blacks and other minorities can succeed without them.

The phrase I've heard that I like best is soft bigotry of low expectations. It's an insidious form of racism.

[Flash]

The phrase I've heard that I like best is soft bigotry of low expectations. It's an insidious form of racism.

Great White Savior.

[cancel2 2022]

Books always get negative reviews, and rightly so.

But some of her points still stand.

Why do you Americans talk incessantly about race anyway? Do you want to know how to stop racism? Morgan Freeman said it best, “Stop talking about it.”

[BidenPresident]

Why do you Americans talk incessantly about race anyway? Do you want to know how to stop racism? Morgan Freeman said it best, “Stop talking about it.”

Unbelievably stupid.

[Geeko Sportivo]

Dude, the world involves more than just politics and policies. Thinking because you vote this way or support a certain policy means you can't be racist is a huge part of the problem if you think this country is dominated by white supremacy.

I've heard numerous P.O.C. call Democrats and their policies in the Bay Area and California racist. There are many people who think being a Democrat means you aren't or can't be racist. Both those statements can't be true.

I've already agreed to your suggestion that there is racism on both sides of the aisle.

Even Biden himself has admitted that his own previous Crime Bill ended up as being racist to Black People because his bill locked up more Minorities than White people out of proportion, and so he wants changes and a new police reform bill to correct some of the mistakes that the bill made. It was unintentionally racist. But it did end up as racist!