“I’m not racist”: Many self-proclaimed white allies say this to shut down conversations about how racism affects our society. Black people have been calling BS forever, but Robin DiAngelo, author of the 2018 bestseller White Fragility, has emerged as the leading white voice on the issue....
Robin DiAngelo: I was surprised that he was found guilty on all three accounts, just because watching the trial, it seems absolutely undeniable and indisputable that he’s guilty on all three accounts, [but] based on the history of our criminal justice system…I didn’t expect that to come through on all accounts. Symbolically, it is profound and of profound importance, but as Carol Anderson so powerfully argues using White Rage, every inch of racial progress has been met by a white backlash. We can see at the same time those forces growing really strongly. It is a potential beginning, but if we relax around it, that’s all it will be, I think.
Jason Johnson: So the day of the ruling, my first reaction is I was not surprised and I wasn’t particularly happy. I had long predicted that Derek Chauvin was going to be found guilty and the reason why is because I felt like white supremacy in America occasionally has its sacrificial lambs. How do you respond to that take, that it’s like, “Well, of course, the system will get rid of this one bad guy after a year of protest,” but does it speak to the fact that we may see changes when it comes to the other officers being held accountable? Or the half a dozen other shootings that we’ve seen just during the two or three weeks of the trial?
[Robin DiAngelo: ] Yeah, well, all systems of oppression can accommodate exceptions, but the rule will remain consistent and the exceptions will be used to negate the rule. We saw that during Obama’s presidency: ‘We’re post-racial now.’ It was actually harder for me to do my work during Obama’s presidency than it is today because I don’t think anybody is in denial that we are so not post-racial. Not only could the system accommodate that exception, but it gave it an infusion of racism, an infusion of explicit racism. It got more legitimacy to express than it had before. We’re going to have to be really careful as always—dot every i and cross every t, and still … the question that keeps coming to me is: what a price to pay. What does it take to get white people to see this? Is that what it took, nine and a half minutes, three minutes beyond no pulse, in order for us to say, “Well, maybe he didn’t do something.” And that’s what we’re going to be up against in every case.