Week 1: Day 2
White fragility
Never have I heard of this term either, this book is full of educational facts and it is proof you are never too old to learn or continue to learn. I consider myself a professional student.
White fragility is defined as a state in which minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.
Think about that for a minute
I have experienced this first hand, remember a few posts back when I shared my very first facebook post that said I was standing with my black family, friends and those I have never met and I said “Black Lives matter!” and that post was met with so much anger so much hatred and so much ignorance.
I began seeing white fragility up close and personal and it wasn’t pretty. Sometimes the truth hurts though so here we go.
People commented on my post with words like ” it is a black problem” “I grew up in a different time and that is why I have a different perspective” “All Lives Matter” “Stop believing BLM” “BLM is a bad organization”
Everyone of those commenters were missing my point but were proving to me that white fragility is a real and a powerful thing.
Why is the phrase “Black Lives matters” so angering to some white people? I needed to figure it out, I mean you can disagree with me about a lot of things and I am fine with it I mean I can say I dont like a certain food and that food is your favorite people disagree everyday, God made us all uniquely different and so we all are not the same and that is a good thing. But when I take a stand and say that human life is precious and that black lives matter because in the past 3 months we know of 4 major killings of black individuals their lives are in danger, we have to recognize that we must recognize that.
Once reading this book with this particular chapter it all made perfect sense to me. White people have always been on top always had the upper hand and always had the advantage, the supreme group of people, the best, the center of attention, and now the “Black Lives Matter” movement is taking that away making white people feel uncomfortable feeling like white lives are not as important. (this is not the case at all but how often do you see a white person get pulled over get yanked out of their car thrown onto the ground in a choke hold or shot by police…. I will give you a second you may need to read that question again…. not very often if ever!!! On the contrary we see it happen far too often with people of color, it isn’t right it has to stop, their lives matter too!
When responding to Black Lives matter statement with “All lives matter” it makes white people look fragile, immature, selfish, insensitive and foolish.
I encourage you the next time you read black lives matter and feel like you are getting angry or defensive take a minute before you respond, consider why are you getting so angry, what would God say about the statement, look inward are you perhaps part of the problem?
the song that we teach our children to sing in children’s church Jesus loves the children
“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world
red or yellow black and white they are precious in his sight
Jesus loves the little children of the world
Did you ever notice that white is the last to be named? Hmmmm that is something to think about!
White fragility is trying to justify to others you are not a racist. When people have to say it out loud to other people it is a good sign that they exhibit racial tendencies or racial bias or are in fact racist.
It is not enough to be Not a racist we have to be Anti-racist