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White Euphoria

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Clarissa

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Almost at the end of Caldwell’s book, there’s this really great part where he explains that what we call “white guilt” is actually white euphoria.

The eagerness constantly to discuss your ‘inherited power to oppress’ is so strong because the activity gives pleasure. People enjoy repeating the words “white supremacy” because this gives them an illusion of supremacy. Of course, they realize it’s an icky feeling, so they project it onto imaginary evildoers. But the whole point is to keep saying the words. Because it feels so good. (To them, obviously. Not to me. I find the whole thing really distasteful.)

6 responses to “White Euphoria”

  1. Z Avatar
    Z

    Ugh. White supremacy is a system, not a moral failing of individuals. Racists imagine the opposite. This person sounds incredibly ignorant.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      I don’t think you mean it exactly as it came out. Nobody will deny that believing in racial superiority is a gigantic moral failure. Which doesn’t negate the systematic nature of the phenomenon.

      I’m sure we don’t want to give every actual racist the excuse that “the system made me do it.”

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      1. Z Avatar
        Z

        As an individual you can be prejudiced, bigoted, etc., and you can discriminate. You may or may not hold white supremacist beliefs when you do these things, and you may or may not be actively working to promote these, for example with an organization. System, on the other hand, we’re all in. To give an example from a different, although interlocking system: I can’t say, for instance, I’m not complicit in capitalism if I am participating – which I am just by taking wages, consuming

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “eagerness constantly to discuss your ‘inherited power to oppress’”

    Whites denouncing their privilege remind me a lot of old shakesville posts when she’d weep and moan about how she’d always defend and never abuse women or fat women or whoever…. while employing a bunch of nasty words that that let you know that she had the verbal ammo to skin you alive if you weren’t subservient enough and didn’t stay on her good side….

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  3. Izgad Avatar
    Izgad

    I am reminded of the joke of the Jew reading Der Sturmer. Reading the Jewish press all he gets are antisemitism and pogroms. He reads Der Sturmer and he gets to hear that he is in charge of global finance and Hollywood.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Brilliant. :-)))

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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