Even the world of social justice has issues.
Problems within the world of social justice? Always, put a group of people together and there will always be some with more power than others.
“When social justice organizations are unable or unwilling to advance conversations about racial equity, both internally and externally, everyone loses: the community served, the frontline staff, and the donors who support their work.”
I don’t know how this ties into the conversation we had in class about “calling out’ versus “calling in,” but there is a lot of walking on eggshells when it comes to white supervisors in every field. It’s as though people of color are worried to push their allies back to the opposing side.
I’ve personally been scolded by a white cis-hetero man for being “too critical” of white people. “If [I] wanted more people to come to [my] side, [I] should appreciate those who are trying to help.” Yeah. Right. As if “good enough” was ever “good enough.”
“But I eventually realized that for my ideas and contributions to be taken seriously, they had to be delivered through my white male colleagues. Many of them were amazing allies and co-conspirators in navigating systems with racial and gender imbalances, and others were just happy to get credit for someone else’s ideas.”
Why are our supposed allies willing to take our voices away from us? And then they get heralded as the fathers of the social justice movement. Why is it when I say it, it’s “too critical,” but when a white face says it, they’re “progressive,” “the voice of change?”
I can bleach my hair and lighten my skin all I want, the only message I am getting is that as a person of color, other people will not listen to me. I need to find an ally to be heard. I need someone else to “tone down” my message. White men are “strong.” Women of color are “opinionated.”
Even in a school as progressive as ours claims to be, professors constantly shy away from topics I bring up in class when it seemingly makes my white colleagues uncomfortable. I’ve been uncomfortable in my own skin my entire life. When will it acceptable for people of color to stop toning themselves down? Or are we doomed to always be figures of amusement/entertainment for the white man?
Thank you for sharing this, Ann. I agree – I don’t think that people of color (and especially women of color) should have to tone themselves down to make other people comfortable. I think that more white people interested in social justice should be challenging white fragility. I don’t have answers to your questions – but they all scream “white fragility” to me.
I agree with you that even the field of social justice itself has work to do – and as a teacher myself, I am constantly thinking of ways to structure lessons so that my students are the ones having a voice and how can my students feel empowered to talk rather than myself, the white person, just explaining how difficult things are for people of color.
The article you linked to reminds me of what we talk about in some of the IEM courses – simply “upping” management diversity by numbers does not mean that the person in a managerial position will be respected and embraced. Creating an environment of respect and inclusion is much more than a white person saying “hey, you’re in power now”. I’m still learning about what that looks like at a managerial level.
I don’t know who the white man was that said this quote to you. I don’t agree with him – we don’t have to give white people medals for trying to be a part of the fight. There is no such thing as “good enough” – for sure. But I do think that there is “good” in general and remaining optimistic, – while I acknowledge I am a white person saying this – is important. I don’t think caving in to white fragility is necessary, I don’t think being any less critical is what has to happen. I don’t think these conversations need to be toned down. But as White Fragility and uneducated people is inevitable in our culture of the racist vs. non-racist binary, perhaps the only way to transcend that it to maintain the conversation even when it is frustrating or makes one want to give up.