White defensiveness is a term to describe defensive responses by

white people White is a racialized classification of people and a skin color specifier, generally used for people of European origin, although the definition can vary depending on context, nationality, and point of view. Description of populations as " ...

to discussions of societal discrimination,

structural racism A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such as ...

, and

white privilege White privilege, or white skin privilege, is the Social privilege, societal privilege that benefits white people over Person of color, non-white people in some societies, particularly if they are otherwise under the same social, political, or ...

. The term has been applied to characterize the responses of white people to portrayals of the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of Slavery in the Americas, enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the tria ...

and

European colonization The historical phenomenon of colonization is one that stretches around the globe and across time. Ancient and medieval colonialism was practiced by the Phoenicians, the Greeks, the Turks, and the Arabs. Colonialism in the modern sense began w ...

, or scholarship on the legacy of those systems in modern society. Academics and historians have identified multiple forms of white defensiveness, including white denial, white diversion and white fragility, the last of which was popularized by scholar Robin DiAngelo. White defensiveness refers to the occurrence in which white people display highly defensive responses when confronted with the truth regarding race. In particular, white people display substantially uneasy responses when questioned about racial dynamics (i.e. instances of possible racism). It acts as a self-protective strategy to conceal grief, trauma, and intergenerational trauma.

Definition

White defensiveness describes some of the perceived responses when

are confronted with issues involving race and racism. Academics have proposed subtypes of white defensiveness, such as white denial, white diversion, and white fragility. There are also varied contexts and descriptions of what can cause the expression of this theorized defensiveness. For example, political scientists Angie Maxwell and Todd Shields have proposed that the examination of

"triggers white defensiveness." Academics, such as Robin DiAngelo, Julia Chinyere Oparah, George Yancy and Leah Gaskin Fitchue, have detailed ranges of what they define as white defensive responses in their works.

Subtypes

White denial

White denial has been identified as a defensive response by white people, in which realities of inequality are denied or downplayed. One example is the claim that racism simply does not exist. Historically, it has also taken more extreme forms such as the suggestion that

slavery in the United States The legal institution of human chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States of America from its founding in 1776 until 1865, predominantly in the South. Slave ...

was a benign system or even had a civilizing effect on

African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

. Regarding white denial, the theologian Leah Gaskin Fitchue wrote in 2015: While denial links to implicit and unconscious bias. White denial may also be driven by white guilt which suggests that acknowledgement of the existence of discrimination or racism against another group may be identity threatening for members of dominant and majority groups.

By its very nature, denial is a defense mechanism, a distortion of reality, a delusional projection to reshape reality in a way one desires to see it. James Perkinson's study, ''White Theology'', counters white denial in calling for a "white theology of responsibility (agreeing with
Cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...
) that a serious engagement with history and culture must be at the heart of any American projection of integrity"...

The philosopher George Yancy has spoken of his experiences of white denial in academia and within responses to his works, such as his 2015 article '' Dear White America''. From her 1998 research, professor Julia Chinyere Oparah proposed that when "white feminists cease to respond to challenges from

black women Black women are women of sub-Saharan African and Afro-diasporic descent, as well as women of Australian Aboriginal and Melanesian descent. The term 'Black' is a racial classification of people, the definition of which has shifted over time and ac ...

with counter-attack and defensiveness" that

anti-racism Anti-racism encompasses a range of ideas and political actions which are meant to counter racial prejudice, systemic racism, and the oppression of specific racial groups. Anti-racism is usually structured around conscious efforts and deliberat ...

efforts can progress "beyond white denial" by "acknowledging that white feminists, as individuals, often silence, ignore or otherwise oppress black women." Robin DiAngelo has argued that social pressure on

people of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

to "collude with white fragility" accommodates other forms of white defensiveness, in particular "white denial."

White diversion

White diversion is a term coined by the academic Max Harris to denote a phenomenon in which white people may obstruct dialogue or acknowledgement of race-based discrimination by redirecting or comparing the subject to other social issues. That proposed form of white defensiveness can seek to reorient blame towards people of color and

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

, rather than address the role of white people. Harris, a

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Fellow, suggests that when "racism or colonisation are raised, the conversation is derailed." Max Harris is the author of the book titled “The New Zealand Project”. He is based in New Zealand, but his background is from the United Kingdom. He believes that to name whiteness is to name dominance as it’s often connected to backgrounds. He believes there are four types of white defensiveness and that includes denial, diversion, detriment-centring, and the demand to move on. These terms were created due to Max witnessing the “Maori” people of New Zealand experiencing hostility towards them in as early as the 1990’s. The term is similar to the concept of “reverse racism” as the Maori people become often portrayed negatively when any aspect of racism is raised.

White fragility

Robin DiAngelo has theorized that as the mainstream perception of racism implies a conscious "meanness", racism's definition is the cause of practically all white defensiveness. DiAngelo, who coined the term "white fragility" in the early 2010s and later released her 2018 book '' White Fragility'', describes "white fragility" as a range of defensive responses by white people. According to Robin DiAngelo, white people react to "racial stress" with an "outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation". DiAngelo theorized that this reaction served to "reinstate white racial equilibrium". The term has since been analyzed in academia and described in media as a distinct range of expressions by many white people in a number of historical settings up to modern times. The term is often tied to the idea of

. The '' Washington Post'' critic Carlos Lozada endorsed the concept but found DiAngelo's book flawed. The book was criticized by the American linguist

John McWhorter John Hamilton McWhorter V (; born October 6, 1965) is an American linguist with a specialty in creole languages, sociolects, and Black English. He is currently associate professor of linguistics at Columbia University, where he also teaches Am ...

, who argued that it "openly infantilized Black people". The journalist Peter Baker argues that "white fragility" can be expressed by silence or shutting down; denial; accusations of

reverse racism Reverse racism, sometimes referred to as reverse discrimination, is the concept that affirmative action and similar color-conscious programs for redressing racial inequality are a form of anti-white racism. The concept is often associated wit ...

; or upset, anger, or rage at an interpersonal level. The latter individualistic form of response is not, however, to be confused with the terms "white backlash" or " white rage", which refer to exclusionary or violent group reactions by some whites to the societal progression of

History

European colonialism and slavery

Max Harris has observed the phenomenon in the politics of New Zealand. Referring to this form of white defensiveness as "Diversion," some

white New Zealanders European New Zealanders, also known by the Māori-language loanword Pākehā, are New Zealanders of European descent. Most European New Zealanders are of British and Irish ancestry, with significantly smaller percentages of other European a ...

deflect attention onto the pre-

Pākehā settlers Pākehā settlers were European emigrants who journeyed to New Zealand, and especially to the Auckland, Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Canterbury and Otago regions during the 19th century. The ethnic and occupational social composition of these New Z ...

era before colonization by ascribing an unrelated guilt or culpability to

Māori people The Māori (, ) are the indigenous Polynesian people of mainland New Zealand (). Māori originated with settlers from East Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages between roughly 1320 and 1350. Over several c ...

. In 1800, a failed rebellion planned by the slave

Gabriel Prosser Gabriel ( – October 10, 1800), referred to by some as Gabriel Prosser, the surname of his slaveholder, was a man of African descent born in Virginia, and a blacksmith enslaved by the Prosser family who planned a large slave rebellion in the Rich ...

caused both a drop in support for

anti-slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

societies, which had been petitioning against structural racism, and an increase in white defensiveness in the

Upper South The Upland South and Upper South are two overlapping cultural and geographic subregions in the inland part of the Southern and lower Midwestern United States. They differ from the Deep South and Atlantic coastal plain by terrain, history, econom ...

. In the post-slavery United States, there has historically been frustration from

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...

communities at white defensiveness and its consequences causing a lack of accountability.

Study of phenomenon

Multiple studies have explored how white defensiveness, intersecting with whiteness, operates in areas of society, such as education. Cynthia Levine-Rasky's 2011 research showed how an unconscious white defensiveness is often present in traditional teaching candidates in the West.

Types of expression

Reverse racism

Cameron McCarthy argues that a form of defensiveness can be an insistence on a relativistic view of history in which white people are also the victims of historical oppression and racism. In the late 1990s, Professor Paul Orlowski observed the emergence of white defensiveness in working-class communities of British Columbia, Canada, where investigating structural racism in the province led to accusations of being "anti-white."

Terminologist barriers

Some assert that the use of technical terms from critical theory (such as "white privilege" and "white fragility") may prevent proper engagement with the

social phenomena Social phenomena or social phenomenon (singular) are any behaviours, actions, or events that takes place because of social influence, including from contemporary as well as historical societal influences. They are often a result of multifaceted pr ...

involved with

. In 2019, as reported by Professor Lauren Michele Jackson, the writer

Claudia Rankine Claudia Rankine (; born September 4, 1963) is an American poet, essayist, playwright and the editor of several anthologies. She is the author of five volumes of poetry, two plays and various essays. Her book of poetry, '' Citizen: An American L ...

abandoned attempts to document conversations with white men, due to her perception that the use of accurate terminology was actually providing somewhat of a barrier to progress and further enabling white defensiveness.

Explicit, or conscious bias

In explicit bias, the person is fully aware and understands the ramifications of their actions and intentions. These actions might look different, like deliberate acts of exclusion, verbal or physical harassment, or derogatory or exclusive language, but all are processed consciously by the acting subject.

Implicit, or unconscious bias

Implicit bias comes from outside the person’s conscious understanding of themselves and the world, and can be in direct conflict with their expressed opinions and beliefs. Even though it may not be fully understood by the acting subject, this bias influences how people process decisions and make judgements, especially in cases where the acting subject is making a quick decision or is under duress. White Diversion can be an example of both conscious and unconscious bias, depending on the type and the situation. For instance, a knee jerk response may come from a place of unconscious bias, however denial and diversion are often more rooted in conscious bias. The underlying distinction comes from the acting subject’s intentions.

References

{{Racism topics, state=collapsed Critical race theory Racism Politics and race Post-structuralism Social phenomena Social psychology White culture White privilege