What Does It Mean to Be White?
Developing White Racial Literacy – Revised Edition
Series:
Robin DiAngelo
Chapter 6: What Is Race?
Extract
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WHAT IS RACE?
Race means about as much as what I had for lunch today. Sure I noticed it, and sometimes people had a different lunch. I don’t really care; it all goes the same way. Also, I am one of those people who don’t hate anyone’s lunch. Eat what you please I always say. I grew up in a three-house neighborhood in the woods. So, not much diversity. Messages I’ve received are that race doesn’t matter. Be colorblind and all that good stuff. Race means very little to me. (ASR)
I come from a small town. It’s not diverse in the slightest. Growing up the main messages I received were along the lines of: “Respect people of diverse backgrounds, meaning religion, race, etc.” All the messages were positive ones. I’m not really sure what being white has meant to my life except that I am pasty and I burn under the sun. I’m a common white guy from the hills. (ASR)
Growing up my neighborhood was not that diverse at all, basically almost everyone was white with no other backgrounds. I honestly don’t think about my racial group too much. I try not to discriminate against people of another race. (ASR)
Now that we have a framework for understanding how oppression works, we can focus on the form of oppression that is the topic of this book: racism. We begin with the very idea of...
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