I asked this question once in a seminar full of white people. Got no answers. Have you got one?
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Wut they sed
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- panracial on Mistaken identity, part 346
27 comments
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October 29, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Sue
Fear, ignorance and resentment are not healthy emotions to live with, but they also are hard to trace to their origins and not nearly as damaging as racism is to POC. Isolationism is also a bad thing, for families, for individuals.
However the benefits of racism to white people trump the nebulous side effects, so we really do not have enough motivation to do enough about it. My primary motivation comes from my kids, and I am sorry to say that before they came along, I was not motivated or active enough against racism.
October 29, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Kim
Reasons why white people should care about racism:
1. What goes around, comes around. We all live in the same society. I don’t understand what makes white people think that the social ills that our actions (or inactions) are actively maintaining in the ghettos aren’t going to come around and bite us in the ass one day, too. It’s easy to maintain the illusion that these are “their problems” in an all-white enclave, I suppose, but social ills like increased crime (and abusive and untrustworthy law enforcement) and the economic/social marginalization and geographic isolation of a huge chunk of our population WILL affect white people’s standard of living too. How can having such a huge number of Americans (predominantly young, black, male Americans) not have an effect on American society as a whole?
2. On a personal level, as a white woman, racism hurts me because I can never look in the mirror and say to myself “I earned and deserve my accomplishments.” Every victory is slightly hollow for the reason that I don’t know what percentage of my accomplishments are due to my own actions, and what percentage was simply due to white privilege.
3. On a similar note, I feel like my country doesn’t represent the values that it claims as a foundation - fairness, justice, equality of opportunity. I grew up believing in these values and internalizing them - I was ashamed to discover that the real America is so far from the ideal. I’d like to be proud of my country.
4. In middle school, I was attacked by a girl who was frustrated with white people in general and was looking to vent that frustration. Imagine - in seventh grade - a 12 year old girl is already so fed up with the unfairness of a racist system that she would go after someone she barely knew. White people can’t be the victims of reverse racism (i.e. the girl who beat me up does not have the systematic power to deny me a job, etc.) but individual whites may still reap some of the consequences of what a racist system sows (see point #1).
5. Systematic racism has created a climate of interracial distrust and suspicion. It’s a sad truth that I had far more friends of color as a 5th grader than I do now - and I’m hardly the exception to the rule. Many white people I know have expressed “discomfort” interacting with minorities, without realizing that it’s the racist system they (consciously or not) maintain that generates their discomfort.
Obviously, there are more, but that’s all I’ve got for 9:13 a.m. on a Monday. Thank you for all the good work you do with this blog. America needs more voices like this.
October 29, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Kim
Under comment 1, I meant to say “How can having such a huge number of Americans IN PRISON not have an effect on American society as a whole?”
October 29, 2007 at 1:42 pm
amanda
i agree with sue on this - there’s a whole lotta ways that racism hurts white people, but none of them remotely compare to the ways that it hurts black and brown people.
October 29, 2007 at 4:10 pm
Melissa McEwan
How does racism harm white people?
It induces them to shut themselves off from millions and millions of people, some of whom might make them think, some of whom might make them laugh, some of whom could be best friends, lovers, teachers, business partners… Racism drastically limits the world for the people who subscribe to it.
And I say that with not the slightest inclination to disagree that it’s nothing compared to how racism hurts people of color — because racism is primarily hurtful to the white people who make the choice to practice it.
October 29, 2007 at 6:06 pm
Nightprowlkitty
Wow, that’s a good question.
How do you explain the feeling of knowing Iraqi families and young American soldiers are dying over in Iraq in a bloody war of aggression? I’m not over there, I’m not killing anyone, I don’t even know any soldiers or Iraqis. Yet it hurts every day, it hurts personally. I’m not hurting the way they are, the Iraqis, the wounded and twisted soldiers. But it hurts every day. How do I explain that?
How do I explain the feeling of knowing good people are being treated badly, wondering how our society would be blessed and improved if those with real abilities and talents were given a fair chance to contribute to society, wondering if the mess we are in today would be any different, would there be more cures for diseases, better teachers, would we have a wiser culture, more art, more love and laughter? Wondering and never, ever knowing, because that chance has been robbed from us all. How do I explain that feeling?
How can I explain the damage done from ignorance and hatred? I see it all the time, I see the damage to everone that comes from racism, xenophobia, sexism, why does it hurt me, why does it make life almost unbearable sometimes, when I am treated well enough, I am not discriminated against?
If it is true that we are all made from the same stuff, that we are all connected, then it’s like having one’s eyes put out, one’s ears stopped, one’s heart always broken, having a chronic sickness, knowing one is always incomplete, never having any real union, that’s how it hurts.
I don’t know if this answers your question. I tried to look into my own heart as to why witnessing racism gives me such feelings of pain — it was difficult to come up with words to accurately describe what I saw.
October 30, 2007 at 10:19 am
links for 2007-10-30 at Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture
[...] How does racism harm white people? - Resist racism Really interesting discussion taking place here. I’ve often wondered the same thing. If racism benefits white people so much, what incentive would they have to help end it? (tags: racism white) [...]
October 30, 2007 at 4:21 pm
anna
I’m deffinately not a racist in the least bit, but may I ask why the question singles out white people?
October 30, 2007 at 5:52 pm
lisa13
It harms white people because, well, . . . . gosh it affects white people as much as the african americans. White people can be offended by the remaarks blacks makes against white and i’m not the prejudice one. I love people of all colors. i wasn’t brought up to see colors!!! dangett!
October 30, 2007 at 5:56 pm
Tom
Racism/white supremacy kind of looks like a mental health problem to me. So it has to be harmful to the people who have the condition.
I’m not saying that white supremacy harms white people more than it does the victims. I’m only saying that it looks like a sign of really poor mental hygiene.
October 30, 2007 at 8:15 pm
Allen
Anna feels singled out.
October 30, 2007 at 8:54 pm
WTTO
Racism hurts white people through empathy to the extent that they are at least somewhat aware of systemic racism.
October 30, 2007 at 9:47 pm
laura
Institutionalized racism (which denies power and access to resources to non-white people, while simultaneously denegrating and scapegoating them for “society’s problems”) does hurt white people and should be important to everyone. I am shocked that a room full of white people could not give one reason why.
I am a white woman who grew up with racial and economic privilege. Waking up every day to an awareness that my privilege comes from a deeply-rooted system of social injustice is a painful thing. Feeling a huge disconnect with people in my community is a painful thing. Hearing the testimonies of friends and strangers alike who survive racism everyday is a painful thing. Seeing racism in advertising and other media that damages the self-esteem of children in this country and everywhere else is a painful thing. Feeling the resentment of strangers because of our different experiences in life, because of a system that is huge and overwhelming, makes me feel powerless, frustrated and very sad.
My family gives me grief when I correct their racially insensitive comments or language, saying I’m too PC. I tell them that their views affect my friends and their families, and therefore it is personal to me. If it is personal to me, it might become something comprehensible to my family.
I had a professor in college who responded to the idea that non-oppressed people cannot understand or aid the cause of oppressed peoples. He said that this idea extremely limits and underestimates the powers of human empathy. He also said that if this idea is true, the world is f***ed.
White people must start with empathy and exposure. They must walk into situations of racial tension with humility and not defensiveness. White people cannot experience racism the way other people do, but they can feel the pain it causes others and be grieved.
October 31, 2007 at 12:41 am
Sue
I just had a thought–while reading comments on this and the “what white feminism looks like” post, where a few commentors are quick to point out that this is how the RICH not the WHITE live (begging the question: how many rich brown celebrities have adopted white kids from poor but intact families and can be photographed on cell phones with white maids pushing their foundlings around?)
SO.
If you had asked how classism harms rich people, I would have been dumbfounded. Yet I was quick to give a psychological way in which racism harms white people, because I guess I wish it did.
But if being rich does not harm the rich, then it might be logical to conclude that having white privilege does not harm whites.
So….that leaves with more of an “I got nothin’”
October 31, 2007 at 4:21 am
From Other Blogs… « Assumptions, Biases & Irrational Fantasies
[...] From Other Blogs… From Resist Racism: How does racism harm white people? [...]
October 31, 2007 at 6:42 am
baby221
It can be alienating.
And I say this as a mixed daughter of a white father, who to this day has difficulty relating to me through my ethnicity. He prefers to think of himself as colourblind, so things related to race that are difficult for him to hear simply get laid aside and forgotten — which means that, to a degree, a big part of who I am gets laid aside and forgotten. And that’s hard, and is among the reasons why we are no longer as close as we were when I was a child and still thought of myself primarily as white.
October 31, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Tim Wise
Though it is certainly true that racism’s impact on whites is far less than that on people of color, there are several serious injuries to whites (call it “collateral damage” for lack of a better phrase) that come from white supremacy and privilege. The ones already mentioned are good ones, but here are some more:
1. Racism and white privilege/supremacy have served to trick working class white folks (the majority) into believing their interests were racial rather than economic/social, etc. The whole history of whiteness as a concept was created to divide and conquer class-based coalitions of Europeans and Africans in the colonies of what became the U.S. Instead of providing decent jobs, land and working conditions, the elite extended skin privilege to euros, no matter how poor, so as to get them on the “white” team. After these benefits were created (the right to own a little property, to serve on slave patrols, etc), rebellions diminished greatly. The divide and conquer worked. In the civil war, this same race privilege and identification with the elite on the part of working class and piss-poor whites led them to go off and fight to maintain rich folks’ property interests in slaves. Ironic, since the slave system actually undermined the wage base of working class whites (think about it, if I have to charge you a dollar a day to work on your plantation but you can get someone who is enslaved to do it for free, guess who gets the gig?). Then in the early days of the union movement, white labor leaders elevated whiteness above class interests by barring folks of color from their unions (supposedly to maintain the “professionalism” of the working class). This meant their unions were smaller, weaker and less militant, to the detriment of working people everywhere. So, historically, white privilege and racism against people of color has created an alternative form of property for whites (whiteness) which may pay psychological dividends, to be sure, and material ones too in a relative sense, vis a vis people of color, but which comes at the direct expense of their overall well being.
2. Racism and white privilege/supremacy generates a mindset of entitlement among those in the dominant group. This entitlement mentality can prove dangerous, whenever the expectations of a member of the group are frustrated. Principally this is because such persons develop very weak coping skills as a result of never having to overcome the obstacles that oppressed folks deal with every day and MUST conquer in order to survive. SO, as a result, it is the privileged (the beneficiaries of racism, and also, it should be pointed out, the class system) who are ill-prepared for setback: the loss of a job, stocks taking a nose-dive (who were the folks jumping out the windows in the great depression–not poor folks and folks of color, but rich whites who couldn’t handle being broke!) Likewise, if you look at the various personal pathologies that tend to be disproportionate in the white community (and upper middle class for that matter) they are interesting in that they all are about control–controlling one’s anxiety, emotional pain, or controlling and dominating others–like suicide, substance abuse, eating disorders, self-injury/mutilation, serial killing and mass murder (as opposed to just regular one-on-one homicide), sexual sadism killings, etc. Now, think about it, which group would be most likely to manifest a control pathology: the group that had never been in control, or the ones who always had been, and had long felt entitled to be, but who then had their expectations frustrated and snapped. Think Columbine (and the vast majority of the mass murder school shootings, for that matter–Va Tech was an exception to the rule on these things).
3. Not knowing how the world works is dangerous. White privilege and racism allow the dominant group to live in a bubble of unreality. Most days that’s no big deal I suppose. But every now and then reality intrudes on you and if you haven’t been expecting it, the trauma is magnified. So, when 9/11 happened, millions of whites were running around saying “why do they hate us?” because whites have never had to see our nation the way others do–we’ve been able to live in la-la land. But folks of color didn’t say this, because those without privilege HAVE to know what others think about them. Not to do so is to be in perpetual danger. So whites flipped out, and by virtue of being unprepared, pushed for a policy response (war) that folks of color were HIGHLY skeptical of from the beginning. But whites, enthralled by our sense of righteousness (itself a manifestation of privilege), pushed forward, convinced that the war in Iraq would go swimmingly. How’s that working out?
In other words, racism and privilege generate mentalities and policies that are dysfunctional, even deadly for whites as with folks of color. Folks of color are the first victims, to be sure, and the worst. But as someone else said, what goes around…
There is more I could say here, but these are a few of the key points I try to make when speaking about these issues, and in the re-write to my book White Like Me.
October 31, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Bryan
“The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice.” MLK
One day they are going to find themselves as the “other.”
October 31, 2007 at 4:55 pm
deb
Tim Wise, you did a “re-write?” Cool. Guess I’ll be re-reading “White Like Me.”
November 1, 2007 at 11:07 am
Tim Wise
Yep, it’s been updated, revised, extended and vastly improved. There’s a new chapter on denial, lots of new stories in the existing chapters, (some of which replaced old ones that I didn’t think made the points quite as well), and an epilogue on Katrina and New Orleans. It should ship to stores by late November.
thanks
tim
November 1, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Anna
yea, i have to agree with lisa13.
November 1, 2007 at 3:53 pm
Anna
BUT, racism doesn’t only have to do with remarks directed to black people. It envolves white people too.
November 1, 2007 at 4:20 pm
Jeremy Pierce
The question does assume that there is never any anti-white racism. A question that would better express the original intent is “How does white racism harm white people?”
I would think that the primary way racism of any sort harms the racist is that it is bad to be a racist. It’s bad to be bad. It’s bad for you, not just because it has bad consequences but merely because it’s bad to be bad.
But there are all sorts of bad consequences of racism on those who are exhibiting it. One is that much of what’s excellent in the culture that surrounds us, including things racists appreciate and rely on, is due to those racism harms and victimizes. So there’s a kind of inconsistency in any kind of racism that names things as bad in the person one isolates as “other” and therefore bad. It’s bad to be inconsistent, because it’s irrational.
Also, we’re all morally and socially interconnected, and harm toward an entire community of people is thus harm toward an entire segment of humanity, and we’re all part of humanity. Thus harm toward other human beings of any sort (including racism) is thus harm to ourselves inasmuch as we are all human. Crimes against humanity are crimes against ourselves.
It’s only after all that that I’d bring in things like how our lives will be better off externally when we interact in a moral way with those who are different.
April 14, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Jen
Sounds like white racist need a 12-step program!
April 18, 2008 at 5:52 pm
death
I would comment but this whole blog is stupid. As a white male I owe you nothing.
May 6, 2008 at 11:33 pm
nobody.really
I contrast racism with meritocracy – that is, treating people on the basis of some bona fide measure of merit in lieu of race. So, when do I as a white person benefit from a lack of meritocracy, and when do I suffer from it?
As an applicant to med school, meritocracy may hurt me; I may benefit if racism gets me in the door past other more qualified applicants. As a patient, however, I want my doctor to be the most qualified person available; to the extent that racism prohibited the most qualified people from becoming doctors, I (and all other potential patients) suffer. Now, let’s count the number of white people who are med students, and the number who are patients, and decide whether on balance racism helps or hurts white people.
As a building contractor, meritocracy may hurt me; I may benefit if racism gets me a bridge-building contract that otherwise would have gone to some other, better builder. As a member of the public, however, I want bridges to be built on time, on budget, and to stand up over time; to the extent that racism impeded the best builder from building a project, I (and everybody else wanting to use the bridge) suffer. Now, let’s count the number of white people who are in the bridge building business, and the number of white people who cross bridges, and decide whether on balance racism helps of hurts white people.
When Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, he probably displaced some white player who otherwise would have gotten on the team. And Robinson won a lot of games. On balance, is a white Dodgers fan – even a racist one – happy or sad for this development? On the other side of the coin, is a white soldier who is stuck in Iraq – even a racist soldier – happy or sad that Donald Rumsfeld, not Colin Powell, got to manage the occupation of Iraq?
I know this seem too obvious to say, but Gary Becker got a Nobel Prize for saying it: Everybody benefits from excellence – yes, even white people. Everybody suffers from incompetence – yes, even white people.
May 13, 2008 at 8:36 pm
panracial
Death, who said you owed minorities something — other than justice? What specifically do you not owe?