Where does racism come from? “Enormous economic interests.”¹ It has served to “legitimize” the enslavement of Black people and their super-exploitation right up to the present. It sustains white privilege and buffers white guilt over it: Anti-blackness comes from deep guilt about what we have done and continue to do; the unbearable knowledge of our complicity with the profound torture of black people from past to present…. Our projections allow us to bury this trauma by dehumanizing and then blaming the victim. If blacks are not human in the same ways that we white people are human, our mistreatment of them doesn’t count. We are not guilty; they are. If they are bad, it isn’t unfair. In fact, it is righteous…. To put it bluntly, I believe that the white collective fundamentally hates blackness for what it reminds us of: that we are capable and guilty of perpetrating immeasurable harm and that our gains come through the subjugation of others. (emphasis in original)²
Robin DiAngelo Kicks Karen’s Butt (2/4)
Robin DiAngelo Kicks Karen’s Butt (2/4)
Robin DiAngelo Kicks Karen’s Butt (2/4)
Where does racism come from? “Enormous economic interests.”¹ It has served to “legitimize” the enslavement of Black people and their super-exploitation right up to the present. It sustains white privilege and buffers white guilt over it: Anti-blackness comes from deep guilt about what we have done and continue to do; the unbearable knowledge of our complicity with the profound torture of black people from past to present…. Our projections allow us to bury this trauma by dehumanizing and then blaming the victim. If blacks are not human in the same ways that we white people are human, our mistreatment of them doesn’t count. We are not guilty; they are. If they are bad, it isn’t unfair. In fact, it is righteous…. To put it bluntly, I believe that the white collective fundamentally hates blackness for what it reminds us of: that we are capable and guilty of perpetrating immeasurable harm and that our gains come through the subjugation of others. (emphasis in original)²