All white people are racists...or "white fragility" ??

[paulpablo]

It's stupid to tell white people to check their privilege and say "white people do such and such a thing" When theirs millions and millions of white people on earth, we don't have a uniformed gang and we aren't all privileged.

But that's the thing.  We are all privelaged when it comes to our skin color.  A white person may grow up in a life we wouldn't consider privelaged, like growing up in poverty, but they are privelaged in the sense that they are in a better position to overcome their adversities compared to a black person growing up in the exact same scenario.  That's the kind of stuff we need to be aware of.

But I can think of a scenario where it wouldn't put a person in a better position to be a white person.  A white person in a poor neighbourhood and he is targeted for being different because there's a large demographic of another race within that neighbourhood.

Statistically yes it would be correct to say you're more likely to be privileged if you're white.  But it's incorrect to say if you're white you are privileged.

But that's really besides the point anyway since I don't think the article did say that all white people are privileged.

I can pin point the statements that did annoy me and form less of a strawman exaggerated type argument than my other post.

 The arrogance of white people faced with questions of race is unbelievable.

We're all arrogant when it comes to questions of race, not just some white people, every white person on this thread who commented on the question of race answered it unbelievably arrogantly, not necessary arrogantly if a black person is answering the question though, it's ok in that situation.

Why White People Freak Out When They're Called Out About Race

So any white person reading this, do you freak out when being called out about race?

SAB: Something that amazes me is the sophistication of some white people’s defensive maneuvers. I have a black friend who was accused of "online harassment" by a white friend after he called her out in a harsh way. What do you see going on there?

It couldn't be that the black person was calling the white person out in a way that was harsh enough to constitute harassment, it's just a case of white people's sophisticated defensive manoeuvres.

 Yes. One of the things I try to work with white people on is letting go of our criteria about how people of color give us feedback. We have to build our stamina to just be humble and bear witness to the pain we’ve caused.

At this point it just sounds condescending to the "People of colour" The article is talking about.  Why shouldn't white people standards of how "People of colour" give us feedback?  I'd have standards of how other white people give me feedback and how other white people speak to me in general, "People of colour" don't have special needs in this area.
Also white people need to be humble and bear witness to the pain we've caused?  I've done nothing more than have light friendly chat with the few black people I've met and I'm being told as a white person I must be quiet, humble and bear witness to the pain I've caused.

They (people of colour) cannot always share their outrage about the injustice of racism. White people can’t tolerate it. And we punish it severely—from job loss, to violence, to murder.

In this part he's saying black people must trust him because they're willing to express their anger of racism to him.  I wonder how he managed to tame the people of colour into trusting him not to fire them from their jobs or kill them?
It's phrased in a way that's just idiotic. SOME white people do kill black people and punish them unfairly in certain situations, but you don't say white people kill black people, white people punish black people unfairly, as if that's just something we all do.

What if someone wrote an article saying "Black people can't resist white women, they rape them, they can't stay awake on the job they just fall asleep." It's phrased wrongly, it's a stupid blanket statement and it's insulting. Some black men might rape white women in certain situations, some black men might fall asleep on the job, but you don't say that's what black people do.