Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, and White Fragility (addendum)

The primary issue I have with someone who wants to be able to believe there is such a thing as “white fragility” and also wants to be able to talk about such liberally and with abandon, speaking about it just like it is an absolutely verifiable thing, and yet also, simultaneously, is very strongly opposed to and is deeply offended by the idea that all blacks are lazy, all Native Americans have a biological/physiological disposition towards alcoholism, and the idea that there is a real ethnically based thing as “The Asian Dragon Lady”—is, for me, essentially one of consistency.

                                                             

There is no way to prove that any of these things is an absolutely real thing that characterizes any of the groups the specific pejorative assessment refers to. In order to incontrovertibly prove that each of these is an absolutely true characteristic trait found in any of the groups represented, a huge amount of scientific analysis and research, probably worthy of a Nobel Prize in medicine, would, I believe, have to be done. And it would likely take decades, if not much longer. And I suspect that in each case, after years of painstaking research and perhaps millions of dollars of grant monies spent, the researchers would come back with either a strong “no, none of these traits is scientifically provable” in each case or a resounding “inconclusive.” Biased, subjective observation of some number of subjects in each category would be woefully inadequate “evidence” of the real existence of any of these things being an intrinsic characteristic within any of these groups. And just as a refresher, because the phrase that is being used here is “White Fragility” and not “Very Intermittent and Very Randomly Occurring White Fragility,” I believe it is reasonable to assess that the term is being used to describe a specific trait believed to be found in all white folks. I will even give you a free pass on there being white fragility present in some white folks. But in return, you must give me a free pass on there being some blacks who are lazy, some Asian women who fit the “Dragon Lady” stereotype, and some Native Americans who are alcoholic. However, I don’t want such a free pass. I am of the opinion that none of these stereotypes is real in the deepest sense of the word. If however, I have to strike a deal with the devil, this is the one I’ll strike. But, again, I'm uninterested in a deal with such inconsistent people nor with the devil (which BTW, I also do not believe in).

One might say, “Well, many people believe white supremacy, white privilege, and patriarchy, for example, are real and they have not been subjected to this kind of rigorous scientific analyses and people still talk about them as if they are real.”

This is true.

My shortest response to that would be this: None of these purports to be a biologically, emotionally nor a physiologically based intrinsic trait in people. They all purport to be socially, relationally based phenomena. Also, they are not entire group based pejoratives in the same way “white fragility” is. People do not generally say that every single white person alive is a white supremacist, for example. White supremacy and patriarchy are viewed as being social, systemic, relational, and structural realities not personal traits necessarily housed in individual people.

While it is generally assumed and presented that “white privilege” is however, something that all white people have—as opposed to are—there is a significant difference there between the words “have” and “are.” I hope you see/catch that difference. White privilege itself is also seen as existing within the much larger construct, of a much wider construct of privilege, which is a much more vast, much more wide reaching, much more complex, much more pervasive construct that includes many other categories and even sub-categories. There is male privilege, the privilege that comes with heteronormativity, the privilege that is found in the belief in and adherence to the idea of binary based gender norms, economic privilege, able bodied privilege, so called “first world” privilege, educationally-based privilege, colorism (where brown people who are lighter skinned are believed to generally have greater privilege than darker skinned brown people), etc.

Because white privilege can only realistically and ultimately be fully understood within the context of all of these other, wider forms of privilege, white privilege cannot reasonably be viewed in the same way as the presentations of white fragility I have seen, can be viewed in. White fragility, short of being the recipient of that Nobel Prize in medicine, has much more in common with a stereotype than anything found in medicine or biology and it is my view that people who do not treat it as such, yet treat other well-known stereotypes as such, are being inconsistent and are pandering to their own subjective biases which themselves may be the result of unacknowledged, unhealed, disowned, unaddressed, or unresolved woundedness and trauma. Or they have simply fallen prey to propaganda; an expression of propaganda that is in alignment with an ideology or cause or a form of groupthink they subscribe to. If this is in fact the case, there are various forms of help available to address all of these quite adequately through the healing and helping professions. I am unaware of any similar help being readily available for someone who is simply wanting to be able to hold onto an unsubstantiated (or even a substantiated) negative view of another or an entire group of people and use that as a way of holding them, other than whatever inner/spiritual/emotional processes there might be that somehow allows such a person to dispossess themselves of these ideas. That, of course first requires seeing that the opinion one holds and wields is indeed detrimental to them in some tangible way or another. Perhaps this is where a spiritual guide/director or a therapist might come in handy in these cases as well.

Here are ecent questions (and a commentary) I have received. I’m paraphrasing it here because it was included as part of a much longer and boarder nonlinear narrative:

Sage, why, as a disenfranchised black, gay, impoverished man, are you so concerned with a little phrase like “white fragility” being used to describe white people when there is so much evilness and destruction white people have subjected the world to for so many thousands of years—and still are? Don’t you have anything better to do with your time? Look at all the marginalized, disenfranchised, and oppressed people there are, all the groups of people being killed every day and you are wasting your time on a silly little bullshit phrase that’s being used by a couple of people here and there to describe the most powerful, treacherous group of people the world has ever known. Where are your priorities? Shame on you, Sage. I’ve lost what little respect I had for you since you’ve come back on social media with all these bullshit “teachings” of yours.

My response:

None of us are free until all of us are free.

Part I of this piece can be found here.