A well-meaning problem of racism

I was incredibly excited to interview LeRon Barton on the WorkMinus podcast. I had read his article about hiring discrimination and using culture fit as a disguise to hire people who are like you. The article was a big eye-opener for me, and I really wanted to get him on the show. 

As usual, I did some research on him and put together a list of questions. The show started off well, but then my eyes hit the next question I had prepared:

What are other ways that well-meaning companies continue discriminatory practices without realizing it?

It was a shock to see my own racism play out in real time. It’s that word well-meaning. It assumes that those in privilege aren’t the problem. We didn’t mean for racism to happen–it just sort of developed. We aren’t the cause of the problem, just unwilling participants who happen to hold all of the power...by chance.

Questions like these let us off the hook. They immediately say, “Look, I’m the good guy here,” when the facts state otherwise.

If we live in an era where hiring discrimination (among other forms of racism) is still alive and well, then what causes that? I really appreciated what Robin Diangelo, author of White Fragility, said on Jennifer Brown’s podcast:

But left consistently off the table is struggles in relation to whom? Who’s giving this diversity so much trouble? Where is the pain coming from? It’s coming from the dominant group who’s oblivious to what they’ve internalized, who tend to be defensive about any suggestion. 

By adding the word “well-meaning” to my question, I was preempting any suggestion that white people are doing something on purpose. It was a way of being defensive even before it was required.

Thankfully, as I was about to ask the question live, I caught myself. Here’s the question I actually asked:

So, whenever white folks talk about this topic, we always say, “Okay, we didn't mean to do anything. There wasn't anything intentional about that.” Coming from your side of things, how does that sound to you? Does it sound like we're just trying to make excuses?

Because that’s the real issue. When we say we are well-meaning, we are telling those who experience discrimination, “Look, no one is doing this to you on purpose. It is just unfortunate. There’s no person behind the pain you are feeling. We’re all trying our best to fix this, and if you are still feeling this, then it’s not our fault. We didn’t mean anything by it.” 

What privilege sounds like

We live in a world where it is taboo to be openly racist. However, we also live in a world where white males don’t need to feel any accountability for the realities around us. We live in a world where we have all the best cards in our hand and benefit greatly from the racism that our forefathers practiced. 

We hide behind meritocracy without recognizing that the deck was stacked to begin with. Now that we’ve got all the good cards in our hands, we say, “Let’s just play the game fair and square.” We're accustomed to privilege so much so that equality feels like oppression.

We are quick to point out that we are well-meaning. Come on. Cut us some slack. We’re not doing anything bad on purpose. 

I had a similar shocking experience when I first read Malcolm X’s autobiography. In white suburban schools, they taught us implicitly that Malcolm X was dangerous and went too far. His biggest sin was that he had the audacity to say that white people were the problem–that all white people were the problem (a stance he later nuanced). Reading that book was the first time I started to realize he had a valid point.

But come on. We didn’t mean any of that. We’re well-meaning. 

We’re well-meaning as we continue to hire those like us. As we see no need to diversify our network. As we say, “There are no minorities who live here anyway”. 

An honest response

So, how did LeRon respond to my new question about being well-meaning?

I think that it sounds like excuses because the reason that I say this is because this train of thought has been happening for so long, over years, years, years, and years...And that’s one of the problems that we have when we discuss this issue because it seems that many white people are always being put on the defensive, and so, they’re going to start attacking us, but we’re just basically trying to highlight a real problem.

So if we aren’t well-meaning, what are we?