Recent Presidential Orders Related to Race

In these one hundred-plus days of the Trump presidency, his commitment to building and nurturing white supremacy culture has become overtly evident. Banning critical race theory (CRT)in schools, calling for the closing of DEI programs and offices in corporations and schools, firing or demoting leaders of color from leadership positions to be replaced by less competent whites, and banning books (including classics like Toni Morrison’s Beloved) from military school libraries. Trump criticizes these institutions for promoting what he calls “ a woke agenda.” He has ordered that public schools revise their history curricula to minimize the experiences and contributions of People of Color in U. S. History. He has announced his return to calling the October 12 holiday Columbus Day rather than Indigenous Peoples’ Day. And most horrifically, he has ordered ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to arrest and deport immigrants, whether they are in the country legally or not. Moreover, he has done so in defiance of courts demanding that potential deportees do not have a constitutional right to a legal hearing where a judge determines their status. The final act made evident this week was allowing white “refugees” from South Africa entrance into the United States, no strings attached. We knew that Trump operated from a white supremacist framework, but in his first term as president, he tried to soft-pedal it. Not anymore.

White Fragility

All these actions make evident a white supremacist agenda. Ironically, at the same time, they also make evident what author Robin DiAngelo has called white fragility. DiAngelo describes it this way.

“… any attempt to connect us to the system of racism an unsettling and unfair moral offense. The smallest amount of racial stress is intolerable – the mere suggestion that being white has meaning often triggers a range of defensive responses. These include emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and withdrawal from the stress-inducing situation … I conceptualize this process as white fragility.”

She adds,

“Though white fragility is triggered by discomfort and anxiety, it is born of superiority and entitlement. White fragility is not weakness per se. In fact, it is a powerful means of white racial control and protection of white advantage.”

Symptoms of White Fragility

Physically, white fragility is primarily characterized by two types of reactions. The first is seen when whites do not feel safe in the presence of bodies of color, whether in public gatherings or indirectly through environments where People of Color’s influence seems to dominate (e.g., driving through predominantly Black and Brown neighborhoods, attending ethnic churches, attending African American cultural events, etc.). In response to these feelings of discomfort, a white person will do whatever they can to remove themselves from the uncomfortable situation: walk away, change the subject, or avoid the person or a situation where race and racism might be an issue. This has happened to me. In predominantly white settings, I have experienced the other person turn around and walk away without a word when I bring up the topic of race.

The second common reaction is the almost instantaneous defensiveness, anger, guilt, and withdrawal that whites exhibit when the topic of racism is raised in social gatherings.  In such settings when I have brought up the topic of race, I have been accused of trying to make the other person feel guilty or of being racist against white people. People will talk about the one Black friend and colleague who he gets along with just fine, using that as proof that they are not racist. What is odd about that response is that I have not even made any reference to the other person as being racist. Menakem challenges whites to ask themselves why they react as they do when in the presence of Black bodies and BIPOC bodies in contexts where the topic of racism is broached. Even when whites have nothing to fear but their discomfort, they are caught in the throes of what Psychologist Resmaa Menakem calls white-body supremacy trauma.

Systemic White Fragility

Up to this point what I have described are instances of white fragility on an inter-personal level. What we are seeing now with President Trump’s executive orders in this area is a full systemization of White supremacy, which in turn has led to systemic white fragility. What these orders are seeking to do is to make it illegal to even mention in a history class what happened in eras of African enslavement or indigenous peoples’ removal from their tribal lands. It is not to mention in an economics class that the average wealth of Blacks and Latines is only a fraction of the average of whites due to centuries of discriminatory laws, policies and practices. And on it goes. If something has a European or white American background, it has value, but if it comes from an African, or Asian or Latin American culture, it does not even get a mention.

All these actions and more are a clear sign of white fragility expressed on a systemic scale. In their effort to assert their white supremacist power, members of the Trump administration, most notably Donald Trump himself, are telegraphing their fear and discomfort with the inherent value and power of People of Color.

Sadness, Anger, and Action

I must admit, as a white male, I find it extremely sad that we white people need the government to “shield” and “protect” us from the painful and oppressive aspects of our past history and our present reality. I am sad that we whites feel threatened by DEI programs designed to help us understand and work effectively with people who are racially, ethnically, and sexually different than us. I am sad that we whites don’t have the capacity to listen to and learn from people whose life experiences are qualitatively different from ours. I am sad that so many white people are resistant and afraid to face the hard facts of racism, homophobia, poverty, and injustice, and instead hide behind religion and ideology rather than see the world as it is—rife with racism.

I am sad, but I am also angry that President Trump and his cabinet continue to foster the lie that the U.S. is a place where white people must come first. I am angry that he has punished and threatened universities and companies that have not bought into his lies and are standing up against him. I am angry that Black, Asian, Indigenous, Latine, and other People of Color are deemed unqualified and unfit simply because of their racial and ethnic heritage. I am angry that undocumented migrants of color are being whisked off to foreign prisons or deported with no chance to plead their case, while white South Africans who want to hang onto their land unjustly gained through apartheid get to stand in the front of the line as “refugees.”

We must act by calling out Trump’s white supremacist actions and the fragility that feeds it. Just as the leaders of the Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter movements stood their ground and demanded their concerns be heard and taken seriously, so too white people and People of Color must take a stand together to not accept these white supremacist actions. We need to call out the lies, the acts of injustice, and the systematic white fragility caused by Trump’s executive orders. These are difficult times that cause us sadness and fear. But we can’t stay there. Working with others, we need to find a way to channel our anger and our hopes for a just society and not allow the current administration to continue in their evil ways.

Sources

DiAngelo, Robin. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2018.

Menakem, Resmaa. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. Las Vegas: Central Recovery Press, 2017.