White Fragility and How it Shuts Down Play

     When I read the title of blogposts this week I was honestly excited to start reading. The amount of times I have run into someone who just gets enraged similarly to the introduction story has happened too many times then I would like to count. Furthermore the reading makes me draw connections between my immigration class like DiAngelo stated, "At the same time that whites are taught to see their interests and perspectives as universal, they are also taught to value the individual and to see themselves as individuals rather than as part of a racially socialized group. Individualism erases history and hides the ways in which wealth has been distributed and accumulated over generations to beneft whites today" (DiAngelo 59). We are talking about the Cuban War of Independence and this concept of "white" as universal is very much key in the propaganda the United States used when showing the war.. Similarly I can see these concepts of how white people are taught how things are "good schools" or "good neighborhood" that is coded as "white" is just engrained in our communities and culture. I see this stem into pretty much all our media as minorities have to fight tooth and nail for roles in movies and television as Hollywood is engrained with this same mind set. Especially thinking to my Asian American Film class it has been a challenge for Asian American actors, directors, and producers have none white actors in media and that they can show what is universal. In their report of Hollywood's diversity Hunt et al found that 74.6% of directors are white and a majority of those white directors are male.

    Even with looking at just our media being dominated by white people it shuts down the ability for anyone to play or have dialogue about race or racism. Without having diversity in media one can not play explore concepts, or learning about hardships people have. For example watching Asian American focused series and movies can highlight issues they face, like the racist stereotype of the model minority where Asian Americans are seen as the closest thing to white and used to put other minorities down, and puts them in very focused stereotypical roles like doctor, scientist, newreporter, ect. That or understanding how they are seen as forever foreigners, where they are read for their physical features as "not from here" and seen, regardless of anything as foreigners.

    DiAngelo in their conclusion talks about white racism being ultimately a white problem and I agree. There is a massive gap white people have understanding how privileged they are. Having relatives that don't understand that eternally frustrates me. They can't grasp the concept that they had privilege getting out of poverty by being white and chalk it up to working hard and not to the fact being white gave them advantages going to school or walking into an interview. My extended family is slowly changing due to our collective younger family members slowly chipping away at their racist and uninformed views, but it is a very slow, arduous, and at times frustrating process.

    

Diangelo, Robin. White Fragility. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 2011.

Hunt, Darnell, et al. Hollywood Diversity Report 2021. UCLA College Social Sciences, 2021.