Why White People Are Afraid | Alternet

Why White People Are Afraid | Alternet
John Butts@JBMedia - Reports:

What do white people have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? Their own fears.

June 6, 2006  |  

 

 It may seem self-indulgent to talk about the fears of white people in a white-supremacist society. After all, what do white people really have to be afraid of in a world structured on white privilege? It may be self-indulgent, but it's critical to understand because these fears are part of what keeps many white people from confronting ourselves and the system.

 The first, and perhaps most crucial, fear is that of facing the fact that some of what we white people have is unearned. It's a truism that we don't really make it on our own; we all have plenty of help to achieve whatever we achieve. That means that some of what we have is the product of the work of others, distributed unevenly across society, over which we may have little or no control individually. No matter how hard we work or how smart we are, we all know -- when we are honest with ourselves -- that we did not get where we are by merit alone. And many white people are afraid of that fact.

 

 

http://www.alternet.org/story/36892/why_white_people_are_afraid/