Is White Guilt the Answer to Racism?

June 21st, 2012 - By Brande Victorian

Source: The Daily Mail

Generally, I’m down for anything that makes a white person have some sort of introspection on race, but I’m genuinely a bit torn on this new University of Minnesota effort known as the “Un-Fair Campaign.” Running with the tagline, “it’s hard to see racism when you’re white,” the goal of the effort is to get Caucasians to do just that: see racism. And so phrases and questions like “is white skin fair skin” and “we’re lucky we don’t get followed by security when we go to the store” are splattered on the faces of white men and women to force white people to realize that they often overlook true instances of racism because they don’t understand their own privilege.

It’s a novel idea and highly progressive considering it originated in one of the whitest cities in America: Duluth, MN, where 90% of its population identifies as white. But can this movement truly spark change or just controversy? When I first saw the campaign posters my mind immediately drifted to the idea of light-skinned guilt and how this effort is quite similar in theory.  From my perspective, there is no sense in trying to make someone feel guilty for being born a certain complexion, race, ethnicity, or nationality when that’s completely out of their control. Granted if you’re a lighter skinned minority, you’re still a minority and certainly not equal to a white person in terms of society’s view, but there are instances when that melanin deficit plays into one’s favor—just listen to any rap song today—however the person in the privileged seat isn’t responsible for that inherent privilege. This why questions like, “is white skin fair skin” are not fair themselves. The issue here isn’t the skin, it’s how you allow that skin to serve and position you throughout life.

What’s interesting is how this campaign wants to force white people to see racism but then makes the practice an external being, by telling observers, if you see racism speak up. I don’t know that white people (speaking generally here) have so much of an issue recognizing racism when it’s exercised by other people, I think a far more effective method would be to challenge people to recognize their own racist behaviors—assuming they have them. That’s really the only way change can come about because racism is built on ideals and truly it’s not enough to just think, am I suspicious of black people or do I think they should be followed around in stores, it’s why do I think that way and how do I implement practices that reinforce my own privilege, like not hiring black people or voting for legislation that disadvantages them. One of the posters does touch on this idea by pointing out on a white man, “what you do is worse. You give me better jobs, better pay, better treatment and a better chance all because of the color of my skin and you don’t even realize it.” This is the type of confrontational message that can spark change, otherwise you’re just reminding white people of all the reasons why it’s good to in fact be white and then trying to make them feel bad about it. That’s probably not going to work.

There is an assumptive nature about the campaign still that is hard to overlook. It assumes one, that white people don’t recognize their privilege, and two, that they’re all responsible for the system of institutional racism because of their inherent whiteness, which isn’t totally fair. In addition to being oblivious to one’s privilege, there are also people who are fully aware of it and who see no problem with having the luck of the draw so to speak in terms of their race and I think those are the people who are far more dangerous because they’re more inclined to use that power as their God given right to keep the privilege going, but that’s a mindset no poster or billboard can fix.

The University of Minnesota-Duluth is certainly ruffling some feathers with this campaign, which could be due to the sheer fact that it makes people uncomfortable because it forces them to look at all the ways they’ve been given the upper hand, but its accusatory nature also runs the risk of alienating the very audience it was intended for and accomplishing nothing in the end.

Check out a couple promo videos from the campaign below. What do you think about this whole effort?





Brande Victorian is the news and operations editor for madamenoire.com. Follow her on twitter @Be_Vic.

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  • http://www.redconvoy.com redconvoy

    Thank you! Could you please say this on national television! As a white person myself, I find that movement offensive! I worked darn hard for what I got and my family came from poor backgrounds. They were hardly privileged and neither was I. If we truly want to get along as a nation, we have to see past nationalities, the color of our skin, our bank accounts, and our differences. This movement is not going to solve the problem. It will make it worse. If we make ourselves what we are today whether we are white, black, Spanish, Asian, etc. we did it because we wanted a better quality of life not only for ourselves, but for the people we care about and I don’t think anyone should feel guilty about that.

  • this_is_a_lie

    Total, complete, 100% cop-out. I’ve been passed over many times for jobs that I was well qualified for simply because I was NOT a “minority”. Nevermind the 7+ years and $100,000.00+ in DEBT that I incurred to become qualified for the position! The only racism in America is AGAINST whites. Minorities have EVERY advantage. If YOU choose not to work for it then YOU won’t achieve a level of “privilege”. I haven’t either — barely living from paycheck to paycheck with a family of five despite 60 hour work weeks and an Engineering degree.
    We fought like to give YOU unfair advantages in the workforce and you STILL can’t make it?! SHUT UP AND GET A JOB!!!!

  • http://twitter.com/MauMau1067 Mau67

    Feeling guilty isn’t the same as feeling empathy. There are those who lack that basic human emotion and I don’t see how this campaign will change that.

  • Plain Truth

    Of course white guilt is appropriate. Every social justice movement (which are, by definition, authoritarian and collectivist) must have a scapegoat. The doctrines pushed by the Frankfurt School are now orthodox. We are required by historical inevitability to progress towards an anti-family culture with mandatory “polymorphous perversity” (see Marcuse) for all. The recently leaked US Army manual shows the government is ready to assist white skin-criminals who are US citizens with re-education camps located on US soil. This is progress!

    • http://www.redconvoy.com redconvoy

      Not every white person is responsible for what happened in this country 400 years ago. As I said above, my family did not come from privilege and neither have I. We worked damn hard to get where we are. I am not going to feel guilty about it. If anything because my family was Jewish or Italian which were just as hated as black people, they knew discrimination also and no one would give them a job when they came to this country. They had to open their own businesses or join organized crime to make it. I don’t like racism either, but pandering and patronizing is just as offensive!

      • http://www.facebook.com/patrick.bonacoscia Patrick Bonacoscia

        “but pandering and patronizing is just as offensive!”

        Exactly. It’s like in a couple when the man never lets his wife do anything, always saying “ooh no darling, I will do it”. The result is the wife feeling suffocated and a divorce.

  • Adrina

    I see the effort but the approach is wrong. They shouldn’t feel guilty but instead put themselves in our shoes and/or look at their personal contributions to racism through their words and actions. They should only feel guilty about their personal actions not for being white.

  • IllyPhilly

    Can we get one like this, but with the “privilege” men have over women?

    • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/V6O2EBOSDDIC3EESW3JS22OYWA Vic

      I’m a black male and I don’t have privileges over white females. I can not assert patriarchy over them , and can only attempt to do so over black females IF I’m allowed to by somebody white.

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/V6O2EBOSDDIC3EESW3JS22OYWA Vic

    Stop defending white people

  • Tiffany Cleveland

    First of all the issues is white privilege in it self, there should have never been such a thing, But at the same time there are plenty of white people who don’t have that privilege, they live in trailers or in shacks and are really poor and live off the welfare system. but white people trick black people in to thinking that it is only black people who live below the poverty line, when in fact there are far more poor white people!

  • G

    This campaign is great – more awareness!!!!

  • Guest360

    I understand the effort but I don’t totally agree. No one has a choice in the skin they were born in nor how the world treats them as a result of their color. What we do have a choice in is how we TREAT people who are of different races and cultures. Hell, black people need to treat other black people well too. But realizing what racism is and speaking up against it does NOT mean you should feel bad about your race, who you are, and how you’ve benefited from the color of your skin. So long as you aren’t propagating this ideal that “White is right” and neither encourage it or sit back as you see it, you’re good with me. You don’t have to down yourself to prove a point. That’s not what anyone is looking for.

  • lalatarea

    i really don’t feel like this campaign is trying to guilt white people into anything, i don’t get that impression. but making ppl feel uncomfortable and forcing them to see things from the other side, i think, will help to enlighten and educate them in a way that say a lecture couldn’t.

    • L-Boogie

      That is true. Sometimes being offensive is the only way to capture someone’s attention.

  • FromUR2UB

    No one should feel guilt for having been born into privilege, wealth, favor, beauty, intellect, physical prowess, or whatever their particular advantage is. But it doesn’t hurt to recognize that their advantage makes life somewhat easier for them, and learn to have some compassion for those who have it tougher. People are not at fault for ANY circumstance into which they’re born. But, just as we expect people who lack something, to work to attain it, those with advantages should work to attain an understanding of how having or not having an advantage impacts lives. The sense of entitlement that some whites feel, is why they cry “reverse racism” whenever things don’t work out in their favor. One of the symptoms of privilege is that it sometimes makes people cavalier, believing it’s deserved even when it wasn’t earned.

    • TRUTH IS

      I am absolutely tired & fed up of the race baiting. Nothing gets better!! One race = the human race!!

      • TRUTH IS

        The WHITE man designed this system; its advantageous to them and a disadvantage to blacks, even to this day!! Simple!!

  • Anonymous

    No. The answer to racism is accepting one another and the differences. Judging based on individuality.