Robin DiAngelo: White people are still raised to be racially illiterate

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Who the hell is Robin DiAngelo? More importantly who cares?

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Ah never mind....a freaking moonbat

Robin DiAngelo is an academic, lecturer and author and has been a consultant and trainer on issues of racial and social justice for more than 20 years. She formerly served as a tenured professor of multicultural education at Westfield State University. She is the author of "White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism."

 

[Asclepias]

Who the hell is Robin DiAngelo? More importantly who cares?

You care. Thats why you responded to the thread. Good doggy.

 

[mudwhistle]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

Learning about racism at a young age only does one thing, screw your head up.
It's like sex-ed. Most kids don't think about it till they start telling us what our Tallywacker or our Cuchie is really used for.


I got a lesson in racism at age 8 from my cousin Richie (who is half Lakota), when he brought over his Native American friend and they proceeded to torture me, and shove me into a corner, about being a pale-faced white kid that deserved to be made fun of.
Needless to say, I reacted very negatively to this.
Here was my cousin who I loved calling me names I wouldn't repeat in public.

 

[MarathonMike]

"The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them."

Well that's you. I was raised in a non-Racist home and was taught by example and not lecture to treat people the same. I guess that is what the author calls "Racial Illiteracy". We called it "who cares".

 

[BlackFlag]

White people will be replaced so I don't see why we need to bother with their "feelings"

 

[Billy_Kinetta]

"Racially illiterate"? Who makes up these nonsensical tags?

See my Morgan Freeman sig.

 

[WillowTree]

Whiteness studies!

 

[night_son]

White people will be replaced so I don't see why we need to bother with their "feelings"

Be careful what you wish for. Want to know about ghosts in the genes? Ask the descendants of any conquering peoples whose ancestors interbred with those they conquered before wiping them off the face our blue marble. While hybrid vigor doth rock in many regards, the consequent divided mind and instinct can sometimes be less than manageable. No more so than in a society like our own where the graveyard cenotaph of an entire people exists only disguised in blood pumping through unlikely veins, and so accordingly loyalty to the majority of such an individual's majority genetic make up, which matches up with the social majority, is ever subject to the beckoning call of the ghosts of the vanquished conquered in one's genes; an endless voice of dissent and self-dissembling.

 

[Unkotare]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

Liberals

I'm sure your teacher will give you a "great job, champ!" sticker for that parroting of partisan pablum.

 

[Weatherman2020]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

Takes a real freak to divide people by their skin pigmentation.

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Who the hell is Robin DiAngelo? More importantly who cares?

You care. Thats why you responded to the thread. Good doggy.

Left loons can never grasp when they are being mocked....and they are mocked mercilessly everyday on here...lol

 

[miketx]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

Right, and black and brown families teach their kids all about other races. Bullshit.

 

[Asclepias]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

I thought about your post today when I encountered a white woman that exemplified what you are saying. I have a shirt with a West African symbol on it that I am wearing today. I was at the store being rung up by a Black lady when the white woman working with her says to me that she likes my shirt because it didnt have a message. She said she likes abstract art. I didnt want to be mean so I just said thank you. She asked me where I got it and I told her it was an African symbol. She looked startled, like Africa was the last place she expected it to be from. She says "I didnt know Africans do art like that." I let her have it after that remark. I told her not only do Africans do art like that but the symbol means to never forget your history so it actually did have a meaning. I told her it was important to remember our history especially in the US where it was stolen from Black people.

 

[boedicca]

I hope anyone who reads the entire article does so with an open mind and not merely as a reaction to the title. She makes some very good points

Robin DiAngelo White people are still raised to be racially illiterate. If we don't recognize the system, our inaction will uphold it.

The question is not whether I have been shaped by and participate in the forces of racism, it's how I've been shaped by them.

Sep.16.2018 / 5:32 AM ET

As a white person, I was raised to be racially illiterate. On the rare occasion in which race came up in school or professional development, we typically studied “them,” not “us.” I learned about their histories, struggles and triumphs. But consistently left off the table was the question: “Histories, struggles and triumphs in relation to whom?”

Take the Jackie Robinson story. Robinson is celebrated as the first African-American to break the so-called color line and play in Major League Baseball. While Robinson was certainly an exceptional baseball player, framing the story this way depicts him as racially special. The subtext is that Robinson was the first black athlete strong enough to overcome the barriers preventing blacks from competing with whites; no black athletes before him were skilled enough to do so. While this tagline elevates Robinson as an individual, it implicitly positions African-Americans overall as inferior. It also falsely propagates the belief that racism in sports ended with Robinson, implying that current struggles against racism in sports are unnecessary.

Narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy.

Such narratives of racial exceptionality obscure the reality of ongoing institutional white control while reinforcing individualism and the illusion of meritocracy. Importantly, these narratives do whites a disservice by promoting racial illiteracy, leaving us with simplistic explanations for racial inequality. By not naming what those barriers were, who put them there, and how they were removed, we are also denied much needed anti-racist role models. In Robinson’s case, these role models are the white people who actually changed the rules and opened professional sports leagues to African-American players.

Historical narratives of racial exceptionality also leave us unprepared to address current conditions. For example, they hide the role of race in the response to the opioid crisis versus the crack epidemic, the Parkland shooting versus the Black Lives Matter movement, gentrification versus Flint, Michigan, the Bundy Standoff versus Standing Rock. We are left without the analysis needed to engage with these deeply complex social dynamics.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.

Continued​

^^^ Race Baiting and Virtue Signaling Combined! ^^^

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Takes a real freak to divide people by their skin pigmentation.

You mean like the people who founded our country? The segmenting isn't the worse part, it's attributing false designations of superiority of one race and inferiority to others in order to rationalize and justify their crimes against the designated "inferior" group.

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Liberals

I'm sure your teacher will give you a "great job, champ!" sticker for that parroting of partisan pablum.

Which teacher would that be? I haven't seen a sticker on any of my work since about the 2nd grade.

Imagine instead, if the story of Jackie Robinson went something like this: “Jackie Robinson was the first black man whites allowed to play major-league baseball.” This telling acknowledges the role of white control. It simply wasn’t up to Robinson. Had he walked onto the field before being granted permission by white owners and policy makers, the police would have removed him. Critically, the real Jackie Robinson story is a story of the relationship between blacks and whites in this country, between this individual black man and a white institution. Reframing race in the Jackie Robinson story reveals white structures of power and the strategies used by those who contested that power, strategies that we can build upon today as we work for racial justice.​

 

[NewsVine_Mariyam]

Right, and black and brown families teach their kids all about other races. Bullshit.

Maybe they didn't have to so much teach it because instead they lived it, but yeah my family is an international one - interracial, interfaith and members from various countries around the world.

I am probably the exception to everyone of your stereotypical racist ideas.

 

[SobieskiSavedEurope]

Here I thought being racially illiterate was being unaware of the racial hierarchy.