‘The Talk’ With My White Daughter: Don’t Be Like John Derbyshire (by Sally Kohn)
In the wake of the killing of Trayvon Martin, several commentators wrote artful letters to their black sons, warning of the reality of racial profiling and discrimination that still haunt us today. Subsequently, an either insanely ignorant or willfully obnoxious National Review columnist (now fired) named John Derbyshire wrote a letter to his two white children, spewing the sort of hateful stereotypes about black people that conservatives often hasten to argue are a part of America’s past, not present. As such, Mr. Derbyshire’s letter has nothing to do with actual black folks, but is a revealing warning about a certain subset of mostly white, mostly male conservatives who like to believe that racism and related injustices are merely myths concocted to disadvantage white people.
I’d like to explain to my daughter, who is white, why this is a load of bullshit.
(1) First of all, I don’t use words like bullshit or fascist casually. You shouldn’t either. Nor should you throw around words like racist. Just like we can never know what was in George Zimmerman’s head that evening, we cannot know whether Mr. Derbyshire consciously hates people of color. And that’s not the point. While we may never be able to control the silent thoughts in our heads, we can definitely control our words and actions and the bias they implicitly or explicitly perpetuate. Mr. Zimmerman’s actions, for instance, seem to convey implicit racial bias. Mr. Derbyshire’s words seem intentionally designed to perpetuate explicit bias. While words like “racist” and “fascist” can sometimes be inflammatory and unhelpful, but when someone is intentionally trying to hurt an individual or an entire community with biased words or deeds, such labels are entirely called for.
(2) You are white. (Once upon a time, some of your ancestors who are Italian and Jewish were considered to be closer to black in the United States, but they quickly realized that it’s always been advantageous to be white in America, so they aligned themselves with white people, instead of black people, and over time came to be seen as white.) You should know that white people in America have done atrocious things to Native Americans, black people and immigrants. But at times, white people have also stood up against slavery and stood up for civil rights. Being white is the reality of your ethnic heritage and you should always be proud of who you are.
FULL ARTICLE HERE.
