Defensive response reflects national struggle to discuss race productively.

The Washington Post’s video series, “The New Normal”, was originally introduced as an advice column of sorts, intended to help viewers navigate life in the pandemic era.  Early videos helped viewers deal with canceled graduation ceremonies and end relationships while in quarantine.  But after George Floyd’s death in police custody, the series shifted its focus to race, addressing everything from anti-racism and racial trauma to colorism and discrimination within communities of color.

To people already engaged in these sorts of conversations, there was nothing especially groundbreaking or revolutionary here.  More than anything, each video served as a five-minute introduction to a broad topic that demanded more research and discussion.  But one video in particular – “What is White racial identity and why is it important?” – resonated deeply and ignited a fierce online debate.

In the video, a group of experts discussed the need for White people to acknowledge the ways they benefit from white supremacy.  They urged White viewers to become more self-aware and be more proactive in forming meaningful relationships with people of color.  One segment in particular encouraged viewers to form white accountability groups, where they could process their observations about race and establish ways to act more responsibly in their everyday lives.  It’s this suggestion that overshadowed the core message of the video and ignited a firestorm.

The New York Post ran a piece highlighting the negative response.  Featured critics were quoted as saying the video promoted “ignorant neoracist nonsense” and that it was part of an attempt to impose negativity on White people “through guilt, shame, and school indoctrination”[1].  Fox News also reported on the backlash, quoting pundits who thought the video called for White people to “self-segregate”[2]. 

In the grand scheme of controversies involving race, this dust-up hardly registered on the cultural Richter scale.  However, the outrage about “The New Normal” video served as a microcosm of a much bigger issue.

The ultimate takeaway from this video was that White Americans need to recognize how their whiteness has positively impacted their access to opportunities.  People of color have faced, and continue to face, disparities in unemployment, wages, wealth, and so many other categories because of this – not because of a lack of talent, aptitude, or determination[3].  Stepping into this conversation requires White people to look back at this country’s history of oppression, from slavery to Jim Crow to the war on drugs, and see the direct correlation between yesterday’s atrocities and today’s struggles.

This video was an appeal for true allyship, in which White people are open and honest about how they have been propped up by a system of racism, even if they haven’t consciously participated.

But the backlash demonstrates the defensiveness that often results from these sorts of conversations.  Critics attempted to discredit the work and frame the video as an assault on both White identity and national unity.  In the process, the video’s meaning became muddled, and the headlines focused on the controversy, not the video itself.  As with so many other cultural debates, people on both sides retreated into their silos and ended up with entirely different understandings.  In conservative circles, this was just another piece of Critical Race Theory propaganda.  On the liberal side of things, it was a necessary step toward national healing.

All of this underscores what’s been happening in America when it comes to race.  Uncomfortable conversations devolve into noisy battles, where the focus shifts from the core problem to distracting tangential issues.  Many White people refuse to engage in this discourse in a productive way, maintaining a defensive posture and branding anything that discusses race as problematic.  As a country, we have an urgent responsibility to address equity in all areas of American life.  But we’re still on the very front end of that work.  What “The New Normal” was asking viewers to do was simply engage, listen, and open their minds to having the discussion.

If we’re to move the needle and make any sort of progress, this is where we have to start – with discomfort, uneasiness, and provocative ideas.  Change certainly won’t be easy, but getting the ball rolling shouldn’t be this hard.

[1] Steinbuch, Yaron. (June 22, 2021). Washington Post blasted for video urging ‘white accountability groups’. Retrieved from: https://nypost.com/2021/06/22/washington-post-blasted-for-video-urging-white-accountability-groups/

[2] Kornick, Lindsay. (June 21, 2021). Washington Post slammed for video highlighting expert’s call for ‘period of deep shame’ for White people. Retrieved from: https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-video-deep-shame-white-people

[3] Gal, Shayanne, et al. (July 8, 2020). 25 simple charts to show friends and family who aren’t convinced racism is still a problem in America. Retrieved from: https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-video-deep-shame-white-people