- Mar 11, 2015
- 76,397
- 32,711
- 2,330
This does not apply to all whites, but there is a subculture in the white community that claims not to see race while holding virulent racist views. In this subculture, people claim to not be taught to see race, but the reality is they are not taught to see themselves as a race. In this subculture this is what they see when they say American:
“The dominant group [whites] control the construction of reality through the production of ideologies or “knowledge” that circulate throughout society where they inform social norms, organizational practices, bureaucratic procedures, and common-sense knowledge. In this way, the interests of the oppressors are presented as reflecting everyone’s best interests, thereby getting oppressed groups to accept the dominant group’s interests as their own and minimize conflict.”
Pike, Karen D, “What is Internalized Racial Oppression and Why Don't We Study It? Acknowledging Racism's Hidden Injuries”, December 1, 2010, Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 53, Issue 4, pp. 551–572 Internalized Racism Among Asians
“Whiteness is what I call the “transcendental norm,” which means that whiteness goes unmarked. As unmarked, white people are able to live their identities as unraced, as simply human, as persons. And this obfuscates the ways in which their lives depend upon various affordances that black people and people of color don’t possess.”
www.theguardian.com
George Yancey puts the finger on the cause of the amnesia that seems to exist in parts of the white community. When this subculture sees a mental picture of an American, they see a white person. Ask Mitch McConnell if you don’t think so. His comments about blacks voting just like Americans were not slips of the tongue or gaffes. Part of the white community has conflated the word American to mean white and claim they do not see race when that is all they see. They do not think twice about how that is racist.
So because white has been used as default for normal we see debates about the experiences of others caused by whites get derailed and gaslighted with accusations of racism againsthose who present that side of Amerca and the claim of how we need to see each others as individuals.
Understanding the concept of discourse and the discourse of individualism shows me that “individualism” is just another method used in white supremacy. As I read and re-read writings on the discourse of individualism, I find that for people to consistently talk about how we should look at each other as individuals and not as races is an insult. Whites who believe strongly in individualism may not see it that way, but that is not my concern here. This belief says that we must ignore our experiences and history. What we have experienced as blacks did not happen to us individually.
"The Discourse of Individualism is a claim that we all act independently from one another and that we all have the same possibility of achievement and are unmarked by social positions such as race, class, and gender. As Mill states, however, “The reality is that one can pretend the body does not matter only because a particular body… [white] is being presupposed as the somatic norm.” The Discourse of Individualism posits race as irrelevant. In fact, claiming that race is relevant to one’s life chances is seen as limiting one’s ability to stand on one’s own; standing on one’s own is both the assumption and the goal of Individualism. Because it obscures how social positioning impacts opportunity, the Discourse of Individualism is a dominant discourse that functions ideologically to reinforce and reproduce relations of unequal power." - Robin DeAngelo
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 3 (2011) pp. 54, White Fragility | DiAngelo | The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, Why Can’t We All Just Be Individuals? Countering the Discourse of Individualism in Anti-racist Education, pg. 16
The argument of individualism, when used to excuse personal responsibility to erase racism from this society, is disingenuous. Individualism removes the collective responsibility whites have to end racism in their communities because “they are an individual and did not do it, so find those who did,” is the attitude you get from whites who use individualism as a denial. Those who argue about individualism would have a case if racism was practiced in a way that harmed a few individuals while being done by just a few people. Racism is a macro-level problem. Individualism is a micro-level philosophy. At its most elementary level, the definition of American is a GROUP of people living in the United States. Group identification doesn’t seem to be a problem for those who use the flag as a shield.
The bottom lie is that white is a race. When you talk about being white, you are talking about race. When you conflate American for white, you are talking about race. As a race, yuou are included in Affirmative Action.
“The dominant group [whites] control the construction of reality through the production of ideologies or “knowledge” that circulate throughout society where they inform social norms, organizational practices, bureaucratic procedures, and common-sense knowledge. In this way, the interests of the oppressors are presented as reflecting everyone’s best interests, thereby getting oppressed groups to accept the dominant group’s interests as their own and minimize conflict.”
Pike, Karen D, “What is Internalized Racial Oppression and Why Don't We Study It? Acknowledging Racism's Hidden Injuries”, December 1, 2010, Sociological Perspectives, Vol. 53, Issue 4, pp. 551–572 Internalized Racism Among Asians
“Whiteness is what I call the “transcendental norm,” which means that whiteness goes unmarked. As unmarked, white people are able to live their identities as unraced, as simply human, as persons. And this obfuscates the ways in which their lives depend upon various affordances that black people and people of color don’t possess.”
Is white America ready to confront its racism? Philosopher George Yancy says we need a 'crisis'
In his new book, philosopher George Yancy uncovers just how unprepared even well-meaning whites are for a courageous conversation about race
www.theguardian.com
George Yancey puts the finger on the cause of the amnesia that seems to exist in parts of the white community. When this subculture sees a mental picture of an American, they see a white person. Ask Mitch McConnell if you don’t think so. His comments about blacks voting just like Americans were not slips of the tongue or gaffes. Part of the white community has conflated the word American to mean white and claim they do not see race when that is all they see. They do not think twice about how that is racist.
So because white has been used as default for normal we see debates about the experiences of others caused by whites get derailed and gaslighted with accusations of racism againsthose who present that side of Amerca and the claim of how we need to see each others as individuals.
Understanding the concept of discourse and the discourse of individualism shows me that “individualism” is just another method used in white supremacy. As I read and re-read writings on the discourse of individualism, I find that for people to consistently talk about how we should look at each other as individuals and not as races is an insult. Whites who believe strongly in individualism may not see it that way, but that is not my concern here. This belief says that we must ignore our experiences and history. What we have experienced as blacks did not happen to us individually.
"The Discourse of Individualism is a claim that we all act independently from one another and that we all have the same possibility of achievement and are unmarked by social positions such as race, class, and gender. As Mill states, however, “The reality is that one can pretend the body does not matter only because a particular body… [white] is being presupposed as the somatic norm.” The Discourse of Individualism posits race as irrelevant. In fact, claiming that race is relevant to one’s life chances is seen as limiting one’s ability to stand on one’s own; standing on one’s own is both the assumption and the goal of Individualism. Because it obscures how social positioning impacts opportunity, the Discourse of Individualism is a dominant discourse that functions ideologically to reinforce and reproduce relations of unequal power." - Robin DeAngelo
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Vol 3 (2011) pp. 54, White Fragility | DiAngelo | The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy
Dr. Robin DiAngelo, Why Can’t We All Just Be Individuals? Countering the Discourse of Individualism in Anti-racist Education, pg. 16
The argument of individualism, when used to excuse personal responsibility to erase racism from this society, is disingenuous. Individualism removes the collective responsibility whites have to end racism in their communities because “they are an individual and did not do it, so find those who did,” is the attitude you get from whites who use individualism as a denial. Those who argue about individualism would have a case if racism was practiced in a way that harmed a few individuals while being done by just a few people. Racism is a macro-level problem. Individualism is a micro-level philosophy. At its most elementary level, the definition of American is a GROUP of people living in the United States. Group identification doesn’t seem to be a problem for those who use the flag as a shield.
The bottom lie is that white is a race. When you talk about being white, you are talking about race. When you conflate American for white, you are talking about race. As a race, yuou are included in Affirmative Action.
Attachments
Last edited:
