What Is the Answer to Overcoming Racism in America?
We've all seen the news. George Floyd, a black man, was murdered in broad daylight by a white Minneapolis police officer, who slowly suffocated him by pressing his knee into his neck while three other officers watched without intervening. In another incident, Christian Cooper, a black man who was bird-watching in Central Park's Ramble area, could have potentially lost his life after simply requesting that Amy Cooper, a white woman, abide by the park's policy of keeping her dog on a leash. Once Cooper refused to refrain from recording her, she leveraged her white privilege to call the police, accusing him of threatening her life. In Louisville, Kentucky, police bolted into the apartment of Breonna Taylor, an emergency room technician, firing several bullets, which resulted in her death. Then there's the case of Ahmaud Arbery. The unarmed black man was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia, when a white father and son followed him in a pickup truck and shot him to death.
Such heinous acts of racial injustice against black men and women aren't new in the U.S. Discrimination against and police brutality on black people has now become the norm, compounded with the lasting effects of slavery, and many are protesting around the world, demanding change. To make sense of it all, we invited Dr. Robin DiAngelo, a white woman and the author of White Fragility, to explore why she believes racism is a white problem. Dr. DiAngelo also reveals actionable steps white people can take to help effect change in society.
Good Housekeeping: How have you processed the recent news involving racial injustice, from the killing of black men and women, including George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, to Amy Cooper's use of her white privilege?
Dr. Robin DiAngelo: I'm very clear that the situation with Amy Cooper and George Floyd were not the exception. They were not aberrations. They've been happening all along on a consistent basis. The difference is that today we can videotape these situations and prove that they happened.
Amy Cooper's phone call could very easily have resulted in Mr. Cooper's death. It did not, but I think it's very representative of the kinds of interactions black Americans encounter on a daily basis. And I don't see these protests letting up or people giving up in the way they may have in the past, so I'm slightly hopeful, even with a very heavy heart.
Where does your sense of hope come from? Because it's fair to say many people have lost it at this point.
I am a white person who speaks primarily to white people about racism and what it means to be white, and I have done so for the past 20 years. I definitely struggle with hopelessness. I know that racism will not end in my lifetime. It's not a simple formula of being nice people. It's not as simple as "What's in our hearts is all that counts." I also recognize that, as a white person, I cannot be hopeless. I cannot succumb to the temptation of hopelessness, because that only serves me and my position within this structure. If, as a white person, I feel hopeless and give up, I'm going to be passive and inadvertently colluding.
I can only speak as a white American. How black Americans navigate hope is a whole other issue and not my business. It's not for me to tell you whether you should feel hopeful or how the impact of racism comes at you, from me. We're going to have different relationships to the concept of hope and what kind of action that sparks in us.
You've spoken a lot about believing white people aren't concerned with racial injustice—that there's this notion of white defensiveness. What do you mean by this?
I don't think most white people care about racial injustice if it requires anything that is remotely inconvenient or uncomfortable for us. It's evident in the state of our society right now. It's also been my observation that because most white people don't even understand what racism is, we think that niceness is all it takes to be certified as not racist. So we carry on doing nothing, which ultimately upholds the status quo. Until white people literally remove the phrase "I'm not racist" from our vocabulary, and we remove it because we understand that that's not possible, we're going to uphold racism.
Essentially, you're saying that acknowledgment is the first step, right?
Yes, that's a very provocative claim for most white people, because we've been taught that racists are individuals who consciously don't like people and are intentionally mean to them based on race. That simplistic formula powerfully upholds the system we're in, because it exempts virtually all white people from the system. What happens is that being a nice person, being a good person, and being complicit with racism become mutually exclusive. That's the root of most white defensiveness.
How can a white person shift their thinking and alter their actions if they're willing to do so?
Start with self-awareness and self-reflection, and then begin to educate yourself. I would recommend that white people take out a piece of paper and put down their answers to why they don't know what to do about racism. How, in 2020, they have managed to not know what to do about racism when the information is everywhere and when people have been telling us for decades, if not centuries.
They might respond with: "I wasn't educated on racism. I don't talk about racism with my white friends. I don't talk about racism with my friends of color. I don't have friends of color. I live a segregated life. I haven't cared enough to find out. I don't want to feel guilty."
Whatever is on that list is your map and can be addressed—not easily, not quickly, not simply, but all of it can be addressed. I also highly recommend Dr. Eddie Moore's 21-day challenge and Layla Saad's white supremacy workbook. Those two things would significantly point white people toward the right path.
What else should white people consider if they're eager to become more educated about racism?
Figure out how to put some support in place so that when this news cycle dies down, you're still working toward racial justice. Every moment you seek to challenge your racist conditioning, that conditioning is coming back at you. You can never be complacent; this is lifelong. Giving money is great, but it also doesn't take that much from us to fill out that form on the Internet. I recommend the workbooks I mentioned—that's active engagement.
How would you address a white person who is fearful of taking on this challenge?
We as white people are going to make mistakes. Try not to fear that you're making a mistake because that will incapacitate you. You cannot learn and grow without making mistakes. You can't use your mistakes or uncomfortable feedback as an excuse to disengage. We have been getting away with this kind of behavior for forever, for as long as we've had this society, and with (my book) White Fragility, I want to make it harder for white people to practice this nonsense with no accountability. There are so many people, even white people, who recognize white fragility now because they have language for it.
In addition to following the above steps, Dr. Robin DiAngelo recommends donating to any of the below organizations:
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