“Good White People”

I recently attended a talk given by Dr. Shannon Sullivan a philosopher and author of the book Good White People: The Problems with Middle Class White Anti-racism. Her talk related a great deal to some of the topics we discussed about racism like colorblindness, white privilege, unconscious/implicit racism, and the change of the social construct of race over time. Her talk which was around the ideas published in her book is around the effects racism has and the role white people play in it. A large deal of what she talked about was around colorblindness and that it is not the way to go about dealing with racism. We need to be aware of it occurring and care about it. Why should we (as white people) care? was one of the questions she posed. We all need to care about racism because it is “like an illness that affects people of all colors” These ways may not even be noticeable, and many of them are unconscious forms of white privilege. But they are all harmful for society as a whole. She talked about how racism is not what it once used to be and although it is something to celebrate, racism is not over, and we still need to work to advocate about it. But the way that white people have been going about it is all wrong. Black people do not need us to help them, and by treating racism like a charity you are only worrying about your moral redemption. Its like a “look at me I’m good because I’m helping to stop racism” But this is all wrong. In order to truly stop racism we need to get personal. We need to evoke a reason for white people to stand up with blacks to say there needs to be a change. By tapping into the personal reasons for change we can work together to push for institutional changes. And only then will racism be dealt with effectively.