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White Fragility - A Self-Reflection

 

July 2020 Update. 

I've considered deleting this blog, because clearly it reveals many of my blind spots. But I'm leaving it here for the meantime to show, which was my original intent, the process of shifting consciousness. 

Recently I have discovered Robin DiAngelo's work and book White Fragility. She answers all the questions I pose in this blog. I highly recommend all white people read her book, so we can all see our blind spots and truly begin to embody cultural humility. She is also featured in many videos online. No need to wait for the book to get started. This video will give you the Coles Notes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45ey4jgoxeU 

To gain essential knowledge of how white supremacy is built into the fabric of our consciousness, watch the film 13th, recently made available via You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krfcq5pF8u8 

Other resources I have found essential to break through my white blindness: 

http://www.400yearsofinequalit...-years-timeline.html

https://www.nytimes.com/intera...r&smid=tw-nytmag

I continue my journey of understanding what it means to be white and how that actually impacts people of the global majority, with the goal of just being one human among many with no greater or lesser advantage than any other. 

I also now actively work to promote Anti-Racism. I now realize I wasn't doing enough and have increased my public and private efforts to disrupt racist consciousness.

Elizabeth

 

White Fragility – A Self-Reflection                                                            July 14, 2019

One of my obsessions in life is becoming aware of my blind spots - what it is that I don't know about myself, that may be a source of discord with others. 

As a Canadian I have prioritized understanding Indigenous perspectives. Lately I've had the time to explore my beliefs about Black people. 

If I offend anyone with this piece, I'm sorry. Please be patient. I'm genuinely interested in "getting it" and I have centuries of lies to disrobe. 

These are thoughts and questions that have come up during the process of getting to my naked truth. They will not exist forever, but they capture this stage in my cleansing process. 

I’m working through My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem.

I was doing ok with the work in the book until I got to the chapter The False Fragility of the White Body.

I remember when I first heard the term White Fragility. It was being screamed at an audience by a young woman who had recently experienced a very public humiliation. I agreed with her anger at the time. I just didn’t think screaming at and accusing her potential allies was the best way to get support.  I questioned at the time if my very response to her was evidence of my own White Fragility.

I’ve held that possibility in my self-check template since then, aware that if it’s true for me I will need to deal with it. I’ve been busy self-educating myself about trauma, resilience, indigenous perspectives, equity. Reading My Grandmother’s Hands has given me the opportunity to dive deeply into the experiences of many Black people in a white body supremacist world.

Much of what Menakem writes resonates with conclusions I had already come to myself and written about in “Addressing ACEs as a Social Transformation Initiative.”

Menakem writes:  “White Americans must accept, explore, and mend their centuries-old trauma around the oppression and victimization of white bodies by other, more powerful white bodies.” (Page 104)

I’ve been promoting people with power and privilege taking accountability for recovering from their own pain all my life in various ways in order to inspire them to stop creating pain for others as an effect of their unresolved hurt. This stemmed from my own experiences while growing up neglected and criticized for existing and being inadequate at that.

I was not socialized in an environment that included Black people. The only Black people I was exposed to were on the TV as entertainers.

“Whiteness does not equal fragility. That’s a dodge created by white fragility itself – a way for white Americans to avoid the responsibility of soothing themselves, metabolizing their own ancient historical and secondary trauma, accepting and moving through clean pain, and growing up.”

This is the paragraph Menakem writes on page 105 that digs into me.

I had to learn how to soothe myself because there was no one available for me to be soothed by, not a white person, nor a Black nanny. I work every day to metabolize my own temporal trauma as well as my ancestral and secondary trauma, to accept and allow myself to experience clean pain. I’ve been so grown up my entire life, I have to work every day to allow myself to be a normal human.

Is this White Fragility or just another affected human?

I recently had a conversation with a friend during which I shared some personal struggles I was going through. Just because he’s Black doesn’t mean I was relying on him to soothe me. He’s my friend and has been my friend for a few years and specifically told me he would support me through thick and thin.

Was this White Fragility? Was he just enabling my White Fragility? Or were we just two friends doing what good friends do with each other – share and support?

A young Black man leads a group I attend. I look to him for leadership and control as the authority figure. Is this White Fragility?

The exercises Menakem invites us to practice are excellent. I agree that it’s important to pay attention to my body’s responses to interactions with black people.

Imagining walking into a wedding where I was the only white person made me stop at the entrance, but I quickly caught my reaction and overrode it, entering as one human among others, and remembering I was there to support my friend. Was that White Fragility? Was I able to override my initial reaction because of my privilege of existing in a white body which may actually give me security within that context? Or have I internalized that all humans are Mother Nature’s Children and I’m secure enough in my own identity that I’m not threatened by other identities, and I’m respectful and compassionate enough about other humans that I can relate to anyone, anywhere, without fear for my safety?

I actually feel safer in groups than with individuals. But that’s because of my past relational trauma.

I recently presented some material by a third party to a group of employees to assess the usefulness of the training for their organization. I was specifically asked to present it as written, to not modify it in any way. I spent an hour being criticized for the content, and eventually the criticism became personal. Admittedly if I had known that’s what would happen I never would have agreed to the work.

The most disdain was expressed by a white woman with significant power. My body felt like puking all over her self-righteous face. The one Black person present, after accusing me of triggering trauma and telling me I should be paying her for her opinion, in the end chastised me for not acknowledging my colonial heritage on unceded Indigenous territory.  

Obviously in that experience a lot of my sacred self-image buttons were pushed. I was actually proud of myself that I kept focused and kept presenting the material exactly as requested, even though I was a deer in the headlights being triggered myself by the verbal assaults.

Was my being triggered evidence of White Fragility? Or was it the result of years of relentless criticism by people with power?

When I finally snapped back at the Black woman, “What words would you like me to use?” I felt bad that I had lost the ability to disguise my own reaction for that one instant. When leaving I shook her hand and thanked her genuinely for her contribution to the discussion. I was genuinely disappointed that the opportunity for connection with her was hampered.

The disdainful white woman looked at me with disgust and refused to shake my hand. I didn’t care what she thought. She had proven herself to me to be overcompensating for her own issues. I’ve encountered enough people like that in my life I don’t give them any credence. They all probably remind me of my mother in their intellectual arrogance. I leave people like that to self-destruct on their own.

Was that White Fragility? Was I fawning over the Black woman? Was I genuinely concerned with how I made her feel? Or was I most concerned with how I was perceived and my own reputation?

When I didn’t get any support from the person who invited me to that dog fight, I had to soothe myself. Was I able to do that only because of my white body privilege or was I able to do it because I’d learned a specific coping mechanism during my own intensive trauma recovery process?

I recently attended a presentation by Deborah Levans of Harvard. She reminded us of Freud’s 8 defense mechanisms.

I wonder if everything I’ve written above is just more defense of white body supremacy that I’m oblivious to.

I don’t want to have a colonized mind. I have had many cross cultural experiences in my life. As a poor, oppressed white kid I empathized with and intentionally included and befriended the different kids in my world. As a kid I probably did it because I felt we were kindred spirits. Or more likely, I included them because I wished that for myself. I have been exceedingly blessed throughout my life by my relationships with people who embody different intersections than me.

I always valued my diverse friends as human beings and I thought that made me more accepting and appreciative of the diversity of humanity. As a white bodied human, though, I admittedly didn’t grasp their experience as non-white in my community. I knew what it felt like to be rejected, but I never had to feel that way because of the colour of my skin.

I’ve obviously got a lot of work left to do to decolonize my mind. It seems like a bottomless pit of toxic programming to unravel.

I feel betrayed by my ancestors, for more reasons than I’ve discussed here. I’ve made sacrifices in my life to protect those I love from the prejudices I experienced within my own family. I work every day to create a trauma preventive humanity.   

I look forward to the day when everyone I interact with can know that I respect them and value them as equal children of our shared Mother, Nature.

Back now to My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. I hope I finally get it and my answers by the end of the book.

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Comments (11)

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Hello back Elizabeth.

Yes, evolution takes longer than we would like but as Michael Dowd has it, Thank God for Evolution. :0

Feels like three steps forward and two steps back sometimes though.

" I look forward to the day when everyone I interact with can know that I respect them and value them as equal children of our shared Mother, Nature. Back now to My Grandmother’s Hands by Resmaa Menakem. I hope I finally get it and my answers by the end of the book."

Me too.

Hi Dennis,

I remember your feedback on my book review. And yes I did recommend you read My Grandmother's Hands.

Many have been working on this issue for decades. Evolution takes longer than is comfortable, and yes, recent developments remind us we still have a long way to go.

It's good to be doing the work together. 

Stay tuned for more opportunities.

Elizabeth Perry :-)

Elizabeth..sorry I confused you with Elizabeth Prewitt (blush) She advised me to read Menakem's book. NONETHELESS... Everything I said applies to your post!It was so powerful it must have induced an altered state of consciousness in my poor brain.

But thank you Elizabeth Prewitt for turning me on to the book.

Elizabeth, you were so right when you advised me to encounter Menakem's book the other day. I commented on your review of Change Your World and your concerns about the possible misuse of the concept of resilience and I shared some ideas about the broad concept of structural violence. I immediately downloaded the book and have begun the journey of self examination of my own White Fragility.

I first had a hint of it when I was a Social Work student at UC Berkeley. Long time ago. 1969. I was taking an experimental class starkly called Racism . The instructors were African American, Japanese American, Chinese American  and American Indian. I and my fellow students were asked to discuss our heritage. We were asked, and not gently,  to recognize that most all of us came from immigrants to this continent within the last three hundred years at the earliest. By then we had been apprised of all that had been done to the ancestors of our instructors. Just as an example, one of our texts was America's concentration camps which detailed the trials of Japanese American citizens in WWII. I was acutely aware and reminded  that my sister in law had been born in one of those camps.

Yes I became gradually more aware of my body reactions accompanying emotions of fear, shame, humiliation all reaching a peak when being yelled at  "Go back to where you came from!". In my case, Northern Ireland.

So today, as this issue has come bubbling up to the forefront of the news cycles I begin immersing myself in Menakem's book.

Your courage to share your own process and the crazy, ambiguous messiness that it requires of us urges me to proceed. 

Reminds me of my swimming teacher gesturing to me by the pool when I was 7 years old. "Come on! You can do it!. Jump in!

Hi Fred,

Thanks for contributing to this conversation. I need clarification about what documentary you are referring to. 

I've been reading the book My Grandmother's Hands by Resmaa Menakem and it's helping me beyond words. I highly recommend it. 

You are definitely not alone in being white with high ACEs. More of us are affected than we know and realize. That's why I do all the work I do in this field. 

My goal is humility across humanity, definitely within my own race and factors of privilege. 

If you haven't listened to the Dr. Gabor Mate video I posted yesterday, please watch it. He provides equivalent insights to Resmaa Menakem of white body trauma and our consequent inhumanity to humanity, which is my passion to eradicate. 

In solidarity,

Elizabeth

This year I have learned about ACEs and have been following it since I took the test when I first discovered this website and found that I have 6 ACEs and a life of chronic adversity. This knowledge has helped me heal as I understand and realize that I am not alone. I just learned of this documentary and and hungry to watch it and I already feel supported. I am 70 years old and am learning so much .Now I am telling so many about this and am not alone . Now about white privilege;I was 16 years old when I was walking down highway 99 in the Central Valley of California,homeless,dirty,skinny,tired and hungry.It was that I was white when this Mexican lady stopped me and asked me when the last time I ate and where I lived and when I told her that I was making a camp under a bridge down the road ,she ordered me into her house and fed me and I ended up living there for the summer ,she got a job for me picking tomatoes ,then figs,then almonds as the harvests ended for each crop.It was from her that I learned what a family is about and about love for your fellow human no matter what race. I later started a food business ,little did I know that the job that she gave me was the first stepping stone towards starting my wholesale food business. 54 years later as I was writing my life  story in my first book that I released last November,I decided to find her and when  did,After thanking her again for what she did for me,I asked her why did she stop and help me. She said," when I saw you,a skinny,dirty,tired looking white boy walking alone out here ,I knew something was wrong. White kids don't have problems,not like this." She continued,"Where I come from it is people of color who have problems not white folk." It was me being white that got me the help . When I saw the posts regarding white folks ,I had to share. thank you Elizabeth for your story and for making me feel that I am not alone especially being white and full of ACEs.

I also appreciated your post Elizabeth as well as Menakem's text. Just yesterday, I discovered Ruth King and her book and work advocating for Racial Affinity Groups. Here is a link for her guidelines in developing such a group. https://ruthking.net/racial-af...ty-group-guidelines/ If you decide to try one online, let me know. 

I have been told the same, to find a community of white folks to work on these things together.  I would be interested in exploring creating something here. Others, let us know if you might be interested. Elizabeth, i will private message you!

It's great work Gail.

I'm ok with messy, as long as people don't attack me. Is that white fragility or just a human with low tolerance for criticism due to trauma of that nature?  

Resmaa has also been very helpful directly. Thank evolution for Twitter

He suggests we develop a community to work through our white body privilege issues together. Maybe that's something we could do here. 

Hi Elizabeth- thank you for sharing your experience struggling through and untangling this important issue. It sounnds messy, confusing, hard. I too feel the same when dealing with my racism, white privledge and fragility.   I hope we can create a safe community to support each other towards a creating a better world. I'm planning to download My Grandmother's Hands right now!

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