In a three tweet exchange several weeks ago, I finally understood why bad things - genocide; enslavement; Jim Crow; lynching - went on as long as they did, and why denial of those realities continues. I also came to understand what Robin DiAngelo refers to as the myth of White innocence and how that myth feeds disbelief in the lived reality of various groups in this nation.
That exchange I had all those weeks ago, finally convinced me how that presumption of innocence limits, indeed prevents, any truthful evaluation of the ugly behavior of White malefactors.
That exchange I had all those weeks ago, finally convinced me how that presumption of innocence limits, indeed prevents, any truthful evaluation of the ugly behavior of White malefactors.
When the default is to presume White innocence, the mind manufactures explanations for bad acts. So if there's an officer involved shooting of an unarmed person of color, we begin our rejection of any Black Lives Matter narrative with claims that observers do not know what came before; because in the unknown, unseen before must lie exculpatory evidence. It must be there, because White = innocent. Vindication, justification is in that window. Always. "Just wait until the truth comes out, you'll see!", so the mantra goes.
If there are White attorneys showing up in court to make specious (not to mention vile) arguments that children in the government's custody need neither soap nor toothpaste, ii is elitist to ask why these attorneys don't refuse to do their jobs or quit in outrage. Demanding morality in federal workers is elitist. It is unreasonable to demand an ounce, a milligram, a scintilla of integrity and human decency. They have mortgages to pay and those don't get paid with decency! Dollars over decency. Besides, "Why should they have to put their careers in jeopardy" (that's an actual quote from my Twitter exchange) because their boss is asking them to make an immoral argument?
At the end of the day, the performance of American Whiteness is about giving carve outs, exclusions, exceptions for the ugly things it does. This is why ugliness continues in America. Ugly things are done by people in power (and oftentimes by the powerless - c.f every lynching), and Whiteness is automatically exculpated. Kill dozens at Walmart? Mental illness! Vote for a pussy-grabbing lout? Economic insecurity! Show up at an immigrant detention center armed to the teeth and wearing body armor? Youthful folly!
If history were a graph, the plot points of Rosewood and the theft of Seneca Village would connect to the lynchings up and down the country; to the abuses of POC during the Civil Rights era; to school segregation and school shut downs to avoid desegregation; to redlining and the school-to-prison pipeline and now, to the caging of children at the border. And at every one of those plot points and everywhee in between, the perpetrators would all look the same: blameless White folk.
Still, I thank the woman with whom I had that brief exchange. She forced me to finally get it. The persistent belief in White innocence leads us down a path that ends with us patting murderous Johnny on the head and calling him a misguided child rather than a toxic product of a particularly putrid societal stew.
How different is justifying others' making of vile arguments in court over what children in detention are due from justifying having children in cages at all?
How different is arguing for a Muslim ban from arguing for the Chinese Exclusion Act?
How different is justifying enslavement from justifying lynching?
How different is justifying 'separate but equal' from arguing that integration would upset White people?
Answer? It ain't. There's no air between the one and the other. The justisplanations and (im)moral equivocations are how we ended up with genocide 400 years ago and how we've managed to wend our way back to it now.
A subconscious default belief in White innocence is dangerous and it is Making America Genocidal Again and Professor Glaude is right, if we refuse to really look at ourselves, we're just going to keep doing this ugliness over and over and over again.
.
If history were a graph, the plot points of Rosewood and the theft of Seneca Village would connect to the lynchings up and down the country; to the abuses of POC during the Civil Rights era; to school segregation and school shut downs to avoid desegregation; to redlining and the school-to-prison pipeline and now, to the caging of children at the border. And at every one of those plot points and everywhee in between, the perpetrators would all look the same: blameless White folk.
Still, I thank the woman with whom I had that brief exchange. She forced me to finally get it. The persistent belief in White innocence leads us down a path that ends with us patting murderous Johnny on the head and calling him a misguided child rather than a toxic product of a particularly putrid societal stew.
How different is justifying others' making of vile arguments in court over what children in detention are due from justifying having children in cages at all?
How different is arguing for a Muslim ban from arguing for the Chinese Exclusion Act?
How different is justifying enslavement from justifying lynching?
How different is justifying 'separate but equal' from arguing that integration would upset White people?
Answer? It ain't. There's no air between the one and the other. The justisplanations and (im)moral equivocations are how we ended up with genocide 400 years ago and how we've managed to wend our way back to it now.
A subconscious default belief in White innocence is dangerous and it is Making America Genocidal Again and Professor Glaude is right, if we refuse to really look at ourselves, we're just going to keep doing this ugliness over and over and over again.
.
