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(CW: Discussion of racism) I want to be less racist, but I don't know where to start. (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 years ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I made this account as an alt because I'm deeply ashamed of the feelings and biases that could be considered reactionary. I know they're stemming from living in a country that subscribes to the delusion of white supremacy, and other views that ultimately support capitalism, but I want to take responsibility for the work I have to do.

To give some context to the post title, I don't think I'm virulently racist. I'm nonwhite, and I'm trying to address internalized racism and beliefs around white supremacy. I've read about and believe systemic racism is a thing, so I don't think it's a matter of me being convinced. I believe these are shitty and wrong things to feel, and I've done my best to consciously counter it, but I want to be better.

I'm trying to use things like Google to find resources, but it's been so bad lately, and I don't want to sink energy and resources into something like White Fragility when that's not the kind of work I'm trying to do. Does that make sense?

I want to be better about self-crit, but I want to make sure I'm doing it the right way. Are there recommended books, resources, audiobooks, ways of approaching personal biases and maybe getting to the root of an issue around race? Is this just something that will click as I continue to actively confronting myself?

If there's a more appropriate place to have discussions like this, I'm okay with this post/account getting removed. I don't want to stir shit, and if this is a thing I need to work on with a therapist or on my own, I'm willing to continue doing that.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (3 children)

I might be completely wrong, but I always thought that the white fragility stuff came from a non-Marxist, liberal, corporate training perspective. Or at least this is how Robin DiAngelo strikes me. I feel like the theory is fine, but it lacks any sorta deeper structural analysis, and this is what lets her work in academia and the corporate world. The annoying thing is that after the BLM protests were smashed, middle-of-the-road voices like here were quashed.

I'm big on Settlers. I feel like Frantz Fanon or Racecraft would be helpful. Revolutionary Suicide was a very readable book about the experience of black people in the US. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is a bit outside the topic of racism, but it's also very readable.

I'm not a theory guy, so I'm sure that others have more valuable insights.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You took the words out of my mouth. Reading books by Black Marxists can be helpful, while I strongly suspect that White Fragility is completely useless. I would add Assata Shakur’s autobiography and memoirs like Black Bolshevik, Black Boy, and The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Novels by Black communists (Kindred and Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, A Tempest by Aimé Césaire) are also a must. Gerald Horne’s youtube channel has the best geopolitical analysis I’ve encountered anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

I'm assuming you mean this one by Richard Wright?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Boy

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 years ago

W.E.B. Dubois and Baldwin are still extremely relevant, I like some of bell hooks' stuff even if she was a landlord.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Most of the good parts of White Fragility are references to Racism without Racists by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

I'd be careful with the Rodney, he essentializes the nation-state, hiding some liberatory avenues for post-colonial political orders