General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Aaargh. Wading into it: I'm grateful for my "white privilege". I wish everyone had it. [View all]Eleanors38
(18,318 posts)in a constructive way. The older IR (quite current in the 60s and later) is an attempt to show that the systemic "memory" of institutions work in a racially biased way, even if "white" people had changed individually. Though the IR expression grew tiresome, it at least allowed acknowledgment of (though no strategy for dealing with) the lingering "unseen" aspects of racism.
But even in the day there was "white guilt," an aspect of "guilt tripping," which was employed in understandable frustration, but also in a far more gratuitous manner and charged with moral intensity.
IMO, the same dynamic is at work now, using the more aggressive "white privilege." What often passes for discussion is really an interactive pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game in which anyone who takes issue with "white privilege" is tagged with labels of Ignorance, Willful Blindness, Troll, or just plain Racist.
Central questions remain: If the "white guilt" or "shame game" is used by its practioneers as a change strategy, then have things changed for the better in terms of race over the last 50 yrs, and has this come about as a result of personalizing a societal problem?