How to Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divide

by Crystal Marie Fleming

Drawing upon the accounts of more than six hundred white college students across the country, the researchers pored over journal accounts of thousands of events that the students defined as “racial incidents” in their everyday interactions. The considerable volume and content of the student reports (collected over a period of several weeks) provide stunning insight into the sheer frequency and normality of racist behavior and comments in the lives of white Americans. Some of the most interesting findings pertain to whites’ reactions to other whites who criticize their racism. Significantly, when whites censure each other for racist behavior or remarks, Picca and Feagin show it is often the public nature of the racist performance that’s framed as a problem, not white racism itself. The same racist comments and behavior that many whites tolerate or participate in themselves behind closed doors become problematic and inappropriate in public. Thus, the problem, for many whites, isn’t white racism or systemic dominance; it’s a failed public performance of being nonracist.