Damn, what a racist! I overlooked that one...
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Yancy posits that, because whiteness is the norm, the standard, the status quo, the usual, it becomes invisible, especially in the eyes of white people who benefit from it. These benefits come in the form of seeing themselves as neutral, unracialized people, but also in the form of societal structures that empower white people socially, politically, economically, etc. This invisibility and normative nature of whiteness is precisely what has allowed white people to remain comfortable within their privilege, blinded by their own sense of self that stands in the way of integration. But how does one become aware of something they cannot see?
Yancy, Baldwin, and Fanon all touch on the same concept; white people must become aware of their whiteness through a counter-gaze, a mirror, a flipping of the script, or a pointing finger saying “Look, a white!”, all of which disrupt the unquestioned white identity by marking it as a defining trait that requires attention, in the same way white people have used “Look, a N-” against Black people. By forcing white people to become aware of their whiteness, they are forced to question the ways in which they have power over Black people, they might understand just a little bit of the Black perspective, they might understand how their whiteness is so entrenched in all parts of society. Indeed, this counter-gaze is a gift that Black people give white people with love, in hopes that they can remove the barriers making integration difficult. Just as Yancy learns of his implication in perpetuating patriarchal and misogynistic practices, white people might come to a similar conclusion:
“I have dared to see the world and my identity through their critical analyses, from their experiences of white dominant culture, from their mirror. “Damn, what a racist! I overlooked that one.” Yet I am thankful for their gift. And while it is true that I always fail to comprehend the sheer complexity of what it is like to be a white person in a world that is based on white superiority, and the multiple forms of white violence toward Black people, I can use that mirror to make a difference. I can see me differently; I can see the operations of male hegemony differently, in ways that implicate me. And as a gift, I treat it as such. I am humbled by it.”
(this is the second half of the second paragraph on p.10 of the Yancy reading, I’ve just changed the words relating to feminism, women, male patriarchy, to words that would fit the issue of whiteness and race)
If they are not able to recognize this gift and use it to achieve self-awareness and as long as they do not do so, white people will remain trapped in this constructed history and nature that portrays them as superior, just as Baldwin says.