Re DiAngelo. Before the pandemic, a few people in an personal growth organization we've long volunteered for suggested White Fragility to us. My partner read it in good faith, but was appalled by a good deal of it so called it to my attention. We worked together on a review of sorts, which became more of a critique. We put the critiq…
Re DiAngelo. Before the pandemic, a few people in an personal growth organization we've long volunteered for suggested White Fragility to us. My partner read it in good faith, but was appalled by a good deal of it so called it to my attention. We worked together on a review of sorts, which became more of a critique. We put the critique up and linked to it from the organization's discussion list for volunteers. Kaboom! Major upset. It turned out that the leadership of the org had been using the book as a key part of their internal training, and we were attacking a sacred cow. To make it worse, we later learned that this landed just after an apparently stressful leadership retreat on DEI issues, as people were trying to recover from the heated discussion (of which we know no details) - and so to them it felt like somebody just threw another match on fire they were trying to put out. Worst case landing.
We are in our own ways beloved and respected by the long timers there, but for some of the newer folks we are seen as a bit dicey to this day - we heard that some who didn't know us wondered if we were white suprematicists (and one person simply called my partner one to her face and refused to discuss it further - a behavior which would have been very alien to the heartful organization this used to be, which teaches good communication).
As it becomes infused by concepts from neo-progressivism, long time norms of behavior and framing get trumped by the prescriptions and values of that political ideology.
We are about to go to the first in-person broader retreat (for leadership and volunteers) since then. It will be interesting. We are not in any position of power, as you are with your organization. We have puzzled about how to have a constructive impact; there are many ways to fail in this situation.
Re DiAngelo. Before the pandemic, a few people in an personal growth organization we've long volunteered for suggested White Fragility to us. My partner read it in good faith, but was appalled by a good deal of it so called it to my attention. We worked together on a review of sorts, which became more of a critique. We put the critique up and linked to it from the organization's discussion list for volunteers. Kaboom! Major upset. It turned out that the leadership of the org had been using the book as a key part of their internal training, and we were attacking a sacred cow. To make it worse, we later learned that this landed just after an apparently stressful leadership retreat on DEI issues, as people were trying to recover from the heated discussion (of which we know no details) - and so to them it felt like somebody just threw another match on fire they were trying to put out. Worst case landing.
We are in our own ways beloved and respected by the long timers there, but for some of the newer folks we are seen as a bit dicey to this day - we heard that some who didn't know us wondered if we were white suprematicists (and one person simply called my partner one to her face and refused to discuss it further - a behavior which would have been very alien to the heartful organization this used to be, which teaches good communication).
As it becomes infused by concepts from neo-progressivism, long time norms of behavior and framing get trumped by the prescriptions and values of that political ideology.
We are about to go to the first in-person broader retreat (for leadership and volunteers) since then. It will be interesting. We are not in any position of power, as you are with your organization. We have puzzled about how to have a constructive impact; there are many ways to fail in this situation.