Stop Your White Fragility – It’s Racial Violence and Here’s Why

Stop Your White Fragility – It’s Racial Violence and Here’s Why

Author: Amelia Shroyer

Everything I’m going to say has already been said, better and with frequency by other people of colour. But it seems like when it comes to racism (just like men and feminism), white people need to hear it from other white people. So let me state this plainly: White people, you are massively failing with your white fragility. When you are asked to do the very least in empathetic listening, you center entire conversations around our own feelings.

You argue with people of color about their lived experiences of racism, and you are quick with the reply “not all white people!” and “all lives matter” and totally miss the point. You ask people of colour to educate you – and to be “nice” about it. You talk about our good intentions. You bring up the times we were also treated badly. Why? Because you can, because you are white. As white people living in white supremacy type of society, you have the power to take that focus because society values your words more than those of people of color.

It’s hard to even recognize you’re doing it. But it has to change. You have to be able to comprehend a point about racism without demanding that a person patiently hold your hand and explain it to you very delicately as to avoid hurting your feelings. Let’s just get this out of the way: The fact is, if you’re white in America, you’ve likely said, thought, or done something racist. It’s just a fact. You were all brought up in a white supremacist culture, and the culture continues to exist now. The author Amelia says, “ Whatever it is, we have to face that shit. And it’s hard. And it should be hard. We’ve had everything handed to us; we can’t demand racial enlightenment on a silver platter, too. We have to do the work.”