Thread by @LouisCentury

This essential #elxn43 piece by @DrCherylT got me thinking about the connection between politeness and racism in Canada.

I’ve tried to distill some recent learning & reflections, informed by Robin DiAngelo’s ‘White Fragility’. 1/12
nytimes.com/2019/10/23/opi…

The idea that a person who is polite is not racist, or that racism is somehow connected to politeness, is deeply entrenched.

We are hardwired to think that because we are ‘good people’, we are not racist. 2/12

Racism is understood as something committed by ‘bad people’ with ill intent.

Robin DiAngelo calls this the “good/bad binary”: the idea that racism is a question of good and bad people, and good people aren’t racist. 3/12

The Canadian version of the good/bad binary is captured by @DrCherylT in her article: “Nice and polite people can’t be racist, after all.”

Of course, this is not true.

I increasingly get how the association between politeness and non-racism is itself a tool of racism. 4/12

By reducing racism to a question of good and bad *people*, we obscure the *systemic* nature of racism.

In this way, DiAngelo describes the good/bad binary as “perhaps the most effective adaptation of racism in recent history.” 5/12

As @JoshuaSealy has put it: “The individualization of racism is what upholds its systemic force.” 6/12

DiAngelo: “If, as a white person, I conceptualize racism as a binary and I place myself on the ‘non-racist’ side, what further action is required of me? No action is required, because I am not racist. Therefore, racism is not my problem.” 7/12

The good/bad binary helps me understand how white Canadians turn a blind eye to systemic racism:
1- we define racism as overt acts committed by ‘bad’ people
2- we self-identify as good/nice/polite, ie not racist
3- by definition then, racism is not our (Canada’s) problem. 8/12

But racism is our problem.

By obscuring this basic fact, the mythology around Canadian politeness is not benign. It reinforces systemic racism and impedes change. 9/12

Rather than understand racism as a fixed identity – positioning oneself on “the good side of a false binary” – DiAngelo describes a continuum. Racism is “so deeply woven into the fabric of our society that I do not see myself escaping from that continuum in my lifetime.” 10/12

But our position on the continuum isn’t fixed. We can move along it. This reframes the question from “whether I am or am not racist” to a more constructive question: “Am I actively seeking to interrupt racism in this context? Perhaps even more importantly, how do I know?” 11/12

Canada’s politeness mythology does not interrupt racism, it obscures it, and in doing so, holds it in place.

@DrCherylT: “It’s time to get over being nice and comfortable. It’s time to...work toward understanding and validating the experiences of racialized Canadians.” 12/12