White Guilt, Paralysis, Amnesia & Fragility in Action: An Analysis of Louis CK, Gervais & Seinfeld

We recently released a blog piece titled “5 Social Justice Terms to Help Name and Deconstruct White Supremacy” meant to help facilitate the interruption of whiteness by those of us interested in seeing the dismantling of white supremacy. Shortly after we released that piece the clip of Chris Rock, Louis CK, Ricky Gervais, and Jerry Seinfeld in conversation and Louis CK using the N word went viral. We thought it may be helpful to analyze the clip using the 5 terms as a way to highlight examples in real life of these phenomenon taking place…

Truth TellingIan McLAughlinJanuary 8, 2019louis CK, Ricky Gervais, Senfield, White Guilt, White Fragility, White Paralysis, White AmnesiaComment

5 Social Justice Terms to Help Name and Deconstruct White Supremacy

Racism, the erasure of Native People, and anti-Blackness was all created to uphold White Supremacy: which encompasses the systems and institutions that benefit people considered white. White Supremacy has reigned in America for the past 400 years; dating back to the invention of the term in Anti-Miscegenation laws written by white men during the 1600’s. From James Baldwin to Rosa Clemente, prominent activities of color have noted time and again that deconstructing White Supremacy is the burden of white people - as we created it. However, one of the biggest issues with deconstructing whiteness is the idea that it hides itself in plain sight - especially to white people. Below are 5 terms related to whiteness that can help to sharpen our lens so we can see and name whiteness in efforts to break it down…

White Paralysis: How Racial Stress and Cognitive Dissonance can lead to Inaction

Consider the following scenario: Kathy manages a team of ten, she is white, nine of her teammates are white and one is black. Several teammates, including her black colleague, are often late to work. She addresses the attendance issue with her white colleagues but never addresses it with her black colleague despite thinking she should. Now, let's consider Mr. Joe a white male English teacher at a diverse high school. As a high school teacher he frequently redirects students in class when they are off task. Reflecting on his practice, he admits that he is quicker to redirect his white students when they are off task allowing his students of color to remain unengaged in class learning.

What do both of these scenarios have in common besides the soft bigotry of low expectations… Privilege…