Over the last few months I have seen several viral racist incidents where self-proclaimed white progressive liberals seemed to hijack a moment to engage with their fellow white progressive liberal peers in a form of enlightenment pissing contest, but where they did nothing to elevate people of color or address the racism. Furthermore, they seem to use these moments to generate some amount of goodwill so that they can turn to tear down a person or community of color.
This plays out often enough that I am starting to see a pattern. 1. White person does something racist (which anyone with a brain knows is racist and doesn't even need some in depth analysis-let's use racist lawyer, for example) 2. Self-proclaimed white progressive liberal spends all energy spreading that video and going on about the racism of the racist actor, implying heightened understanding of racial injustices in society 3. This incident is so far removed from the outraged progressive liberal that there is no chance in hell they will actually have to do any work to help improve society for people of color 3. Other self-proclaimed white progressive liberals jump on the bandwagon and laud the first white progressive liberal for being so enlightened and being able to call out racism when they see it 4. Self-proclaimed progressive liberal then turns around and tears down the people of color in their communities or 5. Exploits their "wokeness" to extract resources from communities of color or intended for communities of color for their own edification 6. There is no reinvestment in people or communities of color by this self-proclaimed white progressive liberal.
There is always a spectrum of ally-ness, as there should be, since we are all always growing and improving, but then you have people who are outright saboteurs, impostors. In the fight for any kind of social justice, it is hard to tell the difference between an ally who needs work and the impostors movements have been historically warned about. But make no mistake about it, this white progressive liberal's outrage has nothing to do with improving society for people of color, but everything to do with self-edification among more powerful segments of white America, silencing intellectual contributions from communities of color, silencing criticisms by people of color. In short, it is about keeping the status quo, while looking like you are fighting against the status quo.
I often joke and refer to these people as the [insert race, class, gender, etc.] justice Munchhausens. Munchhausen by proxy according to Kidshealth.org can be described as follows:
Because the parent or caregiver appears to be so caring and attentive, often no one suspects any wrongdoing. Diagnosis is made extremely difficult due to the the ability of the parent or caregiver to manipulate doctors and induce symptoms in the child.
Often, the perpetrator is familiar with the medical profession and knowledgeable about how to bring on illness or impairment in the child. Medical personnel often overlook the possibility of MBPS because it goes against the belief that parents and caregivers would never deliberately hurt their child.
Most victims of MBPS are preschoolers (although there have been cases in kids up to 16 years old), and there are equal numbers of boys and girls." [emphasis mine]
I would reword this definition for the people I speak of to be as follows:
Because the ally appears to be so caring and attentive, often no one suspects any wrongdoing. Diagnosis is made extremely difficult due to the the ability of the ally to manipulate people of color and fellow progressive liberal whites and induce symptoms of racism.
Often, the perpetrator is familiar with systems of oppression and knowledgeable about how to bring on outrage about or actual racism against people of color. Members of the racial justice movement will often overlook the possibility of RJMBPS because it goes against the belief that allies would never deliberately hurt people of color.
These people exist in all types of movements and are extremely harmful. Any depth to understanding systemic oppression is silenced by their outrage. The voice and, or interests of people of color gets lost in the outrage. So for example, racist lawyer's video went viral, he became a famous martyr for the far right, the progressive liberals showed how progressive they were, none of these progressive liberals used this opportunity to improve conditions in their schools, hospitals, or place of employment or worship for people with limited English abilities... in some instances, when the lack of accessibility to LEP individuals of one of their spheres of influence was pointed out they simply showed how that was not intentional given their outrage against racist lawyer.
Recently we saw the shutting down of Roseanne's show. There was so much outrage, the show was cancelled, she is now a bigger idol for the far right, white progressive liberals got to show how non-racist they were, and now the only people in entertainment talking about racism are people of color...except maybe that white Texan sportscaster, I don't even know his name!...but I don't see any calls for there to be more people of color in media boardrooms, that her show be replaced by one where more actors of color would be hired, or more producers of color be welcomed to develop their craft, At the end of this debacle, a white woman will get a more lucrative contract with a more conservative company, white progressive liberals will declare victory, and actors, creators, producers of color will be in the same place they are today.
I am still thinking this through, I am not suggesting that we shouldn't call out racism or other isms, am not saying that what these people did wasn't racist. I am questioning the value of making racist people famous for acts that are so blatantly racist that no one even needs to spell it out. What I am saying is we need to be cautious about outrage expressed by people who call themselves allies, specially when we don't see them elevating the people they claim to support. If we want to grow as a nation we have do delve into the muck that is racism, and all other isms for that matter, not shut down awkward and uncomfortable discussions about it, for a different outcome that what transpired during the last wave, people of color need to be front and center in those discussion, not the outraged white progressive liberal. That outrage will just send white supremacists underground again, leaving only people of color to recognize and deal with them, they will develop a new coded language that will seem reasonable to mainstream Americans and continue to insidiously oppress people of color. 30 years from now, if we don't deal with the "impostors" this time around we will be having that era's version of "it's not racism if they are illegal" conversation again.
1. I don't think impostors necesarily are intentionally impostors or have ill intent, which is why I think they are so harmful.
2. I think these Munchausens come in many forms, the abusive spouse that is all about eliminating domestic abuse, the LGBT rights activists who will never let their children be LGBT, etc. etc.
3. I am still thinking this through.
This plays out often enough that I am starting to see a pattern. 1. White person does something racist (which anyone with a brain knows is racist and doesn't even need some in depth analysis-let's use racist lawyer, for example) 2. Self-proclaimed white progressive liberal spends all energy spreading that video and going on about the racism of the racist actor, implying heightened understanding of racial injustices in society 3. This incident is so far removed from the outraged progressive liberal that there is no chance in hell they will actually have to do any work to help improve society for people of color 3. Other self-proclaimed white progressive liberals jump on the bandwagon and laud the first white progressive liberal for being so enlightened and being able to call out racism when they see it 4. Self-proclaimed progressive liberal then turns around and tears down the people of color in their communities or 5. Exploits their "wokeness" to extract resources from communities of color or intended for communities of color for their own edification 6. There is no reinvestment in people or communities of color by this self-proclaimed white progressive liberal.
There is always a spectrum of ally-ness, as there should be, since we are all always growing and improving, but then you have people who are outright saboteurs, impostors. In the fight for any kind of social justice, it is hard to tell the difference between an ally who needs work and the impostors movements have been historically warned about. But make no mistake about it, this white progressive liberal's outrage has nothing to do with improving society for people of color, but everything to do with self-edification among more powerful segments of white America, silencing intellectual contributions from communities of color, silencing criticisms by people of color. In short, it is about keeping the status quo, while looking like you are fighting against the status quo.
I often joke and refer to these people as the [insert race, class, gender, etc.] justice Munchhausens. Munchhausen by proxy according to Kidshealth.org can be described as follows:
"In MBPS, an individual — usually a parent or caregiver— causes or
fabricates symptoms in a child. The adult deliberately misleads others
(particularly medical professionals), and may go as far as to actually
cause symptoms in the child through poisoning, medication, or even
suffocation. In most cases (85%), the mother is responsible for causing
the illness or symptoms.
Usually, the cause of MBPS is a need for attention and sympathy from
doctors, nurses, and other professionals. Some experts believe that it
isn't just the attention that's gained from the "illness" of the child
that drives this behavior, but also the satisfaction in deceiving
individuals whom they consider to be more important and powerful than
themselves.Because the parent or caregiver appears to be so caring and attentive, often no one suspects any wrongdoing. Diagnosis is made extremely difficult due to the the ability of the parent or caregiver to manipulate doctors and induce symptoms in the child.
Often, the perpetrator is familiar with the medical profession and knowledgeable about how to bring on illness or impairment in the child. Medical personnel often overlook the possibility of MBPS because it goes against the belief that parents and caregivers would never deliberately hurt their child.
Most victims of MBPS are preschoolers (although there have been cases in kids up to 16 years old), and there are equal numbers of boys and girls." [emphasis mine]
I would reword this definition for the people I speak of to be as follows:
In RJMBPS, an individual — usually a self-proclaimed white progressive liberal— causes or
fabricates outrage about symptoms of racism against people of color. The adult deliberately misleads others
(particularly white progressive liberals), and may go as far as to actually
cause symptoms of racism by not hiring, promoting, training, including, or dismissing, discrediting, undermining, or stepping in to speak on behalf of people of color. In most cases , the self-proclaimed white progressive liberal ally is responsible for causing
the illness or symptoms.
Usually, the cause of RJMBPS is a need for attention and sympathy from white progressive liberals. Some experts believe that it
isn't just the attention that's gained from the racism against people of color
that drives this behavior, but also the satisfaction in deceiving
individuals whom they consider to be more important and powerful than
themselves, such a wealthy whites.Because the ally appears to be so caring and attentive, often no one suspects any wrongdoing. Diagnosis is made extremely difficult due to the the ability of the ally to manipulate people of color and fellow progressive liberal whites and induce symptoms of racism.
Often, the perpetrator is familiar with systems of oppression and knowledgeable about how to bring on outrage about or actual racism against people of color. Members of the racial justice movement will often overlook the possibility of RJMBPS because it goes against the belief that allies would never deliberately hurt people of color.
These people exist in all types of movements and are extremely harmful. Any depth to understanding systemic oppression is silenced by their outrage. The voice and, or interests of people of color gets lost in the outrage. So for example, racist lawyer's video went viral, he became a famous martyr for the far right, the progressive liberals showed how progressive they were, none of these progressive liberals used this opportunity to improve conditions in their schools, hospitals, or place of employment or worship for people with limited English abilities... in some instances, when the lack of accessibility to LEP individuals of one of their spheres of influence was pointed out they simply showed how that was not intentional given their outrage against racist lawyer.
Recently we saw the shutting down of Roseanne's show. There was so much outrage, the show was cancelled, she is now a bigger idol for the far right, white progressive liberals got to show how non-racist they were, and now the only people in entertainment talking about racism are people of color...except maybe that white Texan sportscaster, I don't even know his name!...but I don't see any calls for there to be more people of color in media boardrooms, that her show be replaced by one where more actors of color would be hired, or more producers of color be welcomed to develop their craft, At the end of this debacle, a white woman will get a more lucrative contract with a more conservative company, white progressive liberals will declare victory, and actors, creators, producers of color will be in the same place they are today.
I am still thinking this through, I am not suggesting that we shouldn't call out racism or other isms, am not saying that what these people did wasn't racist. I am questioning the value of making racist people famous for acts that are so blatantly racist that no one even needs to spell it out. What I am saying is we need to be cautious about outrage expressed by people who call themselves allies, specially when we don't see them elevating the people they claim to support. If we want to grow as a nation we have do delve into the muck that is racism, and all other isms for that matter, not shut down awkward and uncomfortable discussions about it, for a different outcome that what transpired during the last wave, people of color need to be front and center in those discussion, not the outraged white progressive liberal. That outrage will just send white supremacists underground again, leaving only people of color to recognize and deal with them, they will develop a new coded language that will seem reasonable to mainstream Americans and continue to insidiously oppress people of color. 30 years from now, if we don't deal with the "impostors" this time around we will be having that era's version of "it's not racism if they are illegal" conversation again.
1. I don't think impostors necesarily are intentionally impostors or have ill intent, which is why I think they are so harmful.
2. I think these Munchausens come in many forms, the abusive spouse that is all about eliminating domestic abuse, the LGBT rights activists who will never let their children be LGBT, etc. etc.
3. I am still thinking this through.
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