Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm

by Robin DiAngelo

for Sue and Bob, race has disappeared, because they already proceed as if race doesn’t matter.

“we all have ideas about race. Even the most open-minded among us. Those ideas have the power to bias our perception, our attention, our memory, and our actions—all despite our conscious awareness or deliberate intentions. Our ideas about race are shaped by the stereotypes to which we are exposed on a daily basis.”4 Those stereotypes are consistent and we all receive them. The overwhelming whiteness of those at the top is due to so much more than the “cream rising” idea that individualism suggests.

“How does this function?” How does the insistence that we all be seen as unique individuals—specifically in the context of discussions of racism—function? What dynamics might the ideology of individualism protect and obscure?

INDIVIDUALISM DENIES THE SIGNIFICANCE OF RACE AND THE ADVANTAGES OF BEING WHITE

half of all parental income advantages are passed on to children.

Our country was founded on the wealth produced from the enslavement of Africans and the genocide and land theft of Indigenous peoples.

not only have we never aligned the ideals of a country founded on Thomas Jefferson’s statement that “all men are created equal” with its practices, but any degree of alignment achieved thus far has been from the efforts of African Americans.

The

ideology of individualism is dependent on a denial of the past as relevant to the present, allowing us to ignore the results of centuries of systemic racial discrimination.

Individualism keeps our focus on isolated exceptions to the rules and allows us to deny the significance of the rules themselves, who makes the rules, and whom the rules serve.

this practice ensures that middle- and upper-class students, who are more likely to be white, will get a superior education and have less competition in the future workplace. This

“There’s never been a moment in the history of this country where Black people who have been isolated from white people have gotten the same resources. They often don’t have the same level of instruction. They often don’t have strong principals. They often don’t have the same technology.”

when applied to racism, universalism has similar effects as individualism; once again, the significance of race and the advantages of being white are denied.

White feminism is a relevant example of how individualism can slip into universalism. White feminism refers to the assumption that a subset of white women stand in for all women and can speak for all women, when they actually only speak for their subset of middle-class, white, cisgender women. Therefore, white feminism focuses on issues that exclude women of color and does not recognize, acknowledge, or address the different realities and concerns of women of color.

Individualism is a very effective form of denial. If we insist that group membership is insignificant, social inequity and its consequences become personally irrelevant. So too does any imperative to change inequity. Insisting that each white person is different from every other white person (“do you have to keep saying ‘white’?”) enables us to distance ourselves from the actions of other white people. Since we aren’t responsible for the actions of other white people, we aren’t responsible for challenging their racism. This leaves racialized people to deal with the issue. Yet racialized people are often dismissed in a range of ways: accused of playing the race card, of having a chip on their shoulder, of seeing race in everything, and of being oversensitive or angry. When white people break with racial solidarity and speak up to challenge racism, it is also difficult for us and rife with social risks, yet white people are still seen as more credible, more objective, and the resistance is less painful for us because speaking up doesn’t bring up a lifetime of racial invalidation. This gives us a particular entry point in challenging our fellow white people, and we should use that entry point to do so.

Having an opinion does not make it informed.

Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted, “A great challenge of life: Knowing enough to think you are right, but not knowing enough to know you are wrong.”

individualism not only upholds the myth of meritocracy (success is the result of ability and hard work) but also upholds social Darwinism (survival of the fittest) and belief in the overall superiority of those at the top.

There is nothing I have heard to this point in my work that has convinced me that someone can exist outside the social forces of race and be untouched by the racist conditioning, practices, and outcomes infused in the society in which they live. How we respond to that conditioning varies based on many factors, but none of those factors provides immunity.

A simple question can be applied to any exception white people offer up as evidence that they are free from racial conditioning: How does being white shape how you experience that exception?

most often those who consider themselves the choir are receptive to critique only as long as their own patterns of racism are not highlighted. Most members of the “choir” do not have the ability to articulate an anti-racist framework, are all too often silent in the face of explicit racism, and fall apart when directly challenged. Voluntarily or even enthusiastically participating in an anti-racism seminar doesn’t mean that one acts in allyship in daily life.

vast majority of racist acts perpetuated daily by white progressives are neither conscious nor intentional.

Talking over and silencing BIPOC people in meetings • Ignoring or taking credit for their ideas • Leaving BIPOC people out of information loops • Assuming BIPOC people are inherently unqualified “diversity hires” (and all the ways that assumption and resultant resentment is implicitly expressed) • White solidarity in the face of racism • Relentless pressure on Black people to keep white people comfortable, including pressure to modify their hairstyles or speech patterns • Inequities in promotions • Assigning Black people to train white people who are then promoted above them • Double standards in what emotions can be expressed and by whom • White women weaponizing their emotions so that any feelings of racial discomfort

around a colleague of color become an HR issue for that colleague • Over-scrutinization • Gaslighting • Off-loading all diversity work to BIPOC people • Punishing BIPOC people who challenge racism

Let’s use a checklist adapted from a handout created by professor of education John Raible to measure how likely it is that the white people I stand in front of every day are in fact the choir and can claim most of these skills: • I demonstrate knowledge and awareness of racism. • I continually educate myself about racism and the perspectives of BIPOC people. • I hold awareness of my whiteness in all settings and that awareness guides how I engage. • I am involved in anti-racist projects and programs. • I raise issues about racism over and over, both in public and in private. • I make sure anti-racism is part of the discussion in meetings and project planning. • I avoid personalizing racial issues as they are raised in conversation. • I can identify many aspects of racism as they are happening. • I attend to group dynamics to ensure the inclusion of BIPOC people. • I support and validate the contributions of BIPOC people. • I have personal relationships and know the private lives of a range of BIPOC people, including Black people. • I use my position as a white “insider” to share information with BIPOC people. • I have developed the skills to strategically intervene in racist dynamics. • I have demonstrated that I can accept leadership from BIPOC people. • I debrief with BIPOC people to give and get “reality checks” and affirmations after meetings and interactions. • I accept—with no explanations or “proof” necessary—a person of color’s experience. • I can be present emoti...

may not be a producer of racist ideas, but I have been a consumer.4 This changes the question from “Have I been impacted by the racist ideology circulating in the culture?”

“How have I been impacted by the racist ideology circulating in the culture?” And “How does this show up in my relationships and interactions?”

Psychologist Beverly Daniel Tatum succinctly defines racism as “a system of advantage based on race.”5 This system encompasses economic, political, social, and cultural structures, and actions and beliefs that institutionalize and perpetuate an unequal distribution of resources between white people and Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

course BIPOC people have racial bias, but it is not backed in a way that embeds it into the entire fabric of the society and all of its institutions. I simply refer to their bias as “bias.”

Systemic racism consistently works to the benefit of white people overall and to the disadvantage of BIPOC people overall, which is why I reserve language to capture its directional nature.

“Racism is an ideology and a practice that produces a society in which some people systematically have less access to resources, power, security, and well-being than others.

If we limit racism’s scope to individual acts, then we are actively ignoring the insidious ways it operates. We also open the door for each of us to take an exemption.

We employ more subtle methods: racial insensitivity, ignorance, and arrogance. These have a racist impact and contribute to an overall racist experience for BIPOC people, an experience that may be all the more maddening precisely because it is easy to deny and hard to prove. I am constantly asked for examples, so here are a few:

Confusing one person for another of the same racial group • Not taking the effort to learn someone’s name; always mispronouncing it, calling them something that’s easier to pronounce; making a show of saying it, or avoiding the person altogether • Repeating/rewording/explaining what a BIPOC person just said • Touching, commenting on, marveling at, and asking questions about a Black person’s hair • Expecting BIPOC people to be interested in and skilled at doing any work related to race • Using one BIPOC person who didn’t mind what you did to invalidate another who did • Calling a Black person articulate; expressing surprise at their intelligence, credentials, or class status • Speaking over/interrupting a BIPOC person • Lecturing BIPOC people on the answer to racism (“People just need to . . .”) • Bringing up an unrelated racial topic while talking to a BIPOC person (and only when talking to a BIPOC person) • Blackface/cultural appropriation in costumes or roles • Denying/being defensive/explaining away/seeking absolution when confronted with having enacted racism • Only naming the race of people who are not white when telling a story • Slipping into a southern accent or other caricature when talking to or about Black people • Asking for more evidence or offering an alternate explanation when a BIPOC person shares their lived experience of racism • Making a point of letting people know that you are married to a BIPOC person or have BIPOC people in your family • Not being aw...

efforts by continually raising a concern that your organization is “not ready” and needs to “go slow” to protect white people’s delicate racial sensibilities • Not understanding why something on this list is problematic, and rather t...