When a conversation of race becomes a topic with a white person, their response of anger, argumentation, silence, along with emotions of fear and guilt are all natural. Some people have grown up in a multicultural environment or society while some lived segregated lives. Growing up in a multicultural environment gives a white individual somewhat more knowledge on the differences of cultures and their races. They often see the issues that underlie the conflicts of racism and everything around it. Those who have been raised without seeing the aspects of a diverse environment (schools, magazines, social media, etc.), have not been able to participate well in conversations regarding race because understanding by how they are raised, these individuals will have difficulty to cooperate as they are incompetent to think with complexity for they have been receiving little to none facts or information of racism and with that they are unable to foresee the importance that embodies the aspects and perspectives of people of color. Situations like this and the idea of not wanting to engage in conversations and try to avoid race becoming a topic, is called “White Fragility”.
Although there are some things that each and every person have been taught and lived through and now considered as part of your identity, it is not too late to change some of those things. If one objects to change that specific perception, it does not hurt to hear the other side and gain more knowledge on it. To take part in a conversation about race you must be open to all the possibilities and to be educated about it too. Refusing to engage in conversations like these, if “White Fragility” means (according to Dr. DiAngelo), “the inability to cope with conversations about race that don’t protect individual white people’s sense of innocence”, is this being innocent, or are you being ignorant?
We make mistakes, we say and do things unintentionally. Sometimes we do it without knowing it’s wrong and often need someone to tell us why. Some are not innocent and just like to do all the bad and cruel things for entertainment. The thing is there are no sides for the good and bad, we are all mixed together. When we have a “bad apple” some automatically create an idea and define the rest bad as well. The same concept applies if it were vice-versa. To think that one spoiled apple or one good apple bad defines all is illiterate.
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