‘Whites’: Black Prof’s Letter Asks to ‘Admit’ to the ‘Racist That Is Inside of You’

The Blaze ^ | 12/26/2015

[Altura Ct.]

n an open letter to white Americans, Emory University professor of philosophy George Yancy asked readers to deeply consider “the ways in which you perpetuate a racist society, the ways in which you are racist.”

Yancy called his letter “Dear White America” — published in the New York Times on Christmas Eve — a “gift.” In it he also asked readers to not “run to seek shelter from your own racism. Don’t hide from your responsibility. Rather, begin, right now, to practice being vulnerable. Being neither a ‘good’ white person nor a liberal white person will get you off the proverbial hook.”

More from Yancy’s letter: George Yancy (Image source: GeorgeYancy.com)

George Yancy (Image source: GeorgeYancy.com)

I can see your anger. I can see that this letter is being misunderstood. This letter is not asking you to feel bad about yourself, to wallow in guilt. That is too easy. I’m asking for you to tarry, to linger, with the ways in which you perpetuate a racist society, the ways in which you are racist. I’m now daring you to face a racist history which, paraphrasing [James] Baldwin, has placed you where you are and that has formed your own racism. Again, in the spirit of Baldwin, I am asking you to enter into battle with your white self. I’m asking that you open yourself up; to speak to, to admit to, the racist poison that is inside of you.

Again, take a deep breath. Don’t tell me about how many black friends you have. Don’t tell me that you are married to someone of color. Don’t tell me that you voted for Obama. Don’t tell me that I’m the racist. Don’t tell me that you don’t see color. Don’t tell me that I’m blaming whites for everything. To do so is to hide yet again. You may have never used the N-word in your life, you may hate the K.K.K., but that does not mean that you don’t harbor racism and benefit from racism. After all, you are part of a system that allows you to walk into stores where you are not followed, where you get to go for a bank loan and your skin does not count against you, where you don’t need to engage in “the talk” that black people and people of color must tell their children when they are confronted by white police officers.

As you reap comfort from being white, we suffer for being black and people of color. But your comfort is linked to our pain and suffering. Just as my comfort in being male is linked to the suffering of women, which makes me sexist, so, too, you are racist. That is the gift that I want you to accept, to embrace. It is a form of knowledge that is taboo. Imagine the impact that the acceptance of this gift might have on you and the world.

Take another deep breath. I know that there are those who will write to me in the comment section with boiling anger, sarcasm, disbelief, denial. There are those who will say, “Yancy is just an angry black man.” There are others who will say, “Why isn’t Yancy telling black people to be honest about the violence in their own black neighborhoods?” Or, “How can Yancy say that all white people are racists?” If you are saying these things, then you’ve already failed to listen. I come with a gift. You’re already rejecting the gift that I have to offer. This letter is about you. Don’t change the conversation. I assure you that so many black people suffering from poverty and joblessness, which is linked to high levels of crime, are painfully aware of the existential toll that they have had to face because they are black and, as Baldwin adds, “for no other reason.”

“What I’m asking is that you first accept the racism within yourself, accept all of the truth about what it means for you to be white in a society that was created for you,” Yancy wrote. “I’m asking for you to trace the binds that tie you to forms of domination that you would rather not see. When you walk into the world, you can walk with assurance; you have already signed a contract, so to speak, that guarantees you a certain form of social safety.”

More from Yancy’s letter:

White America, are you prepared to be at war with yourself, your white identity, your white power, your white privilege? Are you prepared to show me a white self that love has unmasked? I’m asking for love in return for a gift; in fact, I’m hoping that this gift might help you to see yourself in ways that you have not seen before. Of course, the history of white supremacy in America belies this gesture of black gift-giving, this gesture of non-sentimental love. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered even as he loved. [...]

Take one more deep breath. I have another gift.

If you have young children, before you fall off to sleep tonight, I want you to hold your child. Touch your child’s face. Smell your child’s hair. Count the fingers on your child’s hand. See the miracle that is your child. And then, with as much vision as you can muster, I want you to imagine that your child is black.

In peace,

George Yancy

While it appeared many of the more than 1,600 comments gave Yancy’s letter a thumbs up, there were detractors.

“The article should have been titled ‘Dear Humanity.’ Racism isn’t endemic to whites only,” reader Song Yu commented. “Growing up in the 70s as one of the few Asian Americans in my neighborhood in Connecticut, I occasionally experienced racism from other kids. Particularly relentless badgering about how ‘funny’ I looked and spoke came from Puerto Rican and Black kids who did not already know me. Desire to feel superior and belonging to a ‘better’ group is a natural human instinct. We need to fight this instinct through education and awareness. However just picking on the whites is ignoring the true nature of the problem.”

Another commenter wrote: “This focus on getting white people to admit their privilege instead of focusing on conversations about how to improve black schools, inner cities and poverty makes no sense. I don’t buy all whites are racists but for the sake of argument, suppose the white race (which itself is very diverse you realize?) admits this. Fine, now what? What’s next? How do we destroy gangs in the city? How do we ensure all kids get a good education? How do we stop the violence? Those are topics worth a long-winded NY Times editorial. This isn’t.”

[al_c]

If anyone has racist thoughts against blacks, crap articles like this probably contribute to those thoughts.

[DoodleDawg]

Emory University professor of philosophy George Yancy asked readers to deeply consider "the ways in which you perpetuate a racist society, the ways in which you are racist."

I will when he does.

[RummyChick]

Black boy shot down at the mall “Donkey Cartel”- his twitter account is full of racist posts.

[LydiaLong]

I’m going to step out on a limb and admit that I’m a racist. I hate black ghetto culture; i hate black crime, black laziness, and black juvenile behavior.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Black people are 13% of the population but commit 52% of the murders, and 93% of the people they murder are black.

Why do black people hate black people?

[PAR35]

Or to summarize: Dear Liberal Whites - no matter what you do, you be raciss. So quit being such a self hater, an let free you’ inner Cracker.

[paint_your_wagon]

I did a search for living conditions in Liberia. What I found was utterly appalling. Here is a small snippet from one of the articles.

“In the Clara Town slum, 75,000 people share 11 public toilets and 22 public taps; West Point’s 70,000 residents must make do with just four public toilets, said Bessman Toe, head of the Montserrado County slum-dweller association, which represents over 40 slum communities in and around the capital. “

To the extent that there is such a thing as “white privileges”, I would suggest that everyone of every race is benefitting more than they realize. Take a look around the world before you start complaining about how bad your life is.

[Gay State Conservative]

PROFESSOR YANCY'S BACK ON THE CRACK PIPE!

[EandH Dad]

Thanks to the bombardment of this kind of drivel, especially the last 7 years, I now know it is because I’m white that I’m racist and because I’m male, I’m also misogynist. Thanks for the useless and pointless knowledge. In my list of priorities I place this just below rotating the air in my tires.

[muir_redwoods]

pretty much but who asked you? :)

[Cecily]

This Yancy clown definitely lacks a sense irony. He is a highly privileged and no doubt highly compensated professional living in a nation/society which has worked very hard to make up for past wrongs and to level the playing field for all Americans and which has elected a black president twice, yet here he is, whining and bloviating about how terrible, wrong thinking, and wrong feeling whitey is (in his opinion). What a colossal jerk.

Furthermore, there are many white Americans who have wanted to adopt black children but were not allowed to do so because some social worker or organization deemed it to be culturally inappropriate.

[A_perfect_lady]

Dear George Yancy:

I accept your challenge. Here are the ways in which I am racist.

1.) I think that working hard, having moderate wants, and keeping one's vices under control is the best way to live. This way of life seems specific to certain cultures, therefore I think their cultures are superior.

2.) I think that refusing to work, breaking the law, indulging in expensive and addictive vices, and creating several out-of-wedlock children is the mark of an inferior person. If one particular race or culture manifests an abnormally large amount of this behavior, I suspect they are inferior in general, and I will only accept them as equals when they stop.

3.) I support capitalism, and I don't intend to stop.

4.) I intend to keep to this mindset, regardless of how it impacts you and yours. I recommend that instead of me changing to suit you, you should change to suit me.

5.) I do not care how you feel about this, and being called a racist is now like hearing that little brat on the hill cry "Wolf." Don't care.

Thank you for your time and attention,
Your local racist, a_perfect_lady.

[bassmaner]

Dear George,

FOAD.

With all due contempt, B'er.

[Tucker39]

This despicable fraud pretends to be honoring non-whites. What he’s really doing is reinforcing the scurrilous claim that non-whites are somehow inferior. Look at what he has written, and think about all those paragraphs he wrote in a fervor to beat into the hearts and minds of whites, that non-whites are inferior, and how awful and ashamed we should feel because we are white.

If non-whites ever see through these frauds and what they’re actually saying, these stuffed shirts might find themselves being stoned, and they’d desrve it. IMHO.

[Mears]

Dear Professor Yancey,

Whatever !!!!

Mears

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Dear Professor,

If holding certain black individuals in utter contempt makes me a racist in your eyes, then I must confess that by your definition I am a racist.

Yours in contempt,

White America

[markoman]

Hi,
My name is Marko.....
and I’m a racist.

[Vaduz]

The racist is always the first to scream racism.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

So 0bama, being half-white, is only half-racist?

[generally]

Have you ever had to deal with a sociopath? If you have, you will likely have noticed that when they do something wrong (regardless of whether it was deliberate and intentional or whether it was just a mistake), their immediate response is to point the finger and blame someone else. Their primary concern is to absolve themselves of any responsibility for the problem they have created. They are not concerned about fixing the problem. They are only concerned with getting themselves off the hook and foisting the problem on someone else.

This applies to any problem they encounter, but especially to those problems they have caused themselves.

It is very difficult to fix a problem when the problem is shrouded in lies. They lie about the very existence of the problem. You can’t fix a problem that you won’t admit exists. If you finally do admit it exists, it is far more difficult to fix if you won’t admit the causes and instead spend all your effort trying to deflect any blame from yourself.

When a problem has multiple causes, as many complex problems do, spending your time and effort trying to force others to fix it instead of doing what you can to fix the part of it that you caused or have control over is the strategy of a sociopath and a loser. For him it is much easier to whine, blame, and play victim than it is to make any genuine effort. Pretending to be a victim is a role that has become all too comfortable and familiar. Being a hard-working problem solver would require the sociopath to move out of his comfort zone.