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自佛洛依德事件以来，美国社会关于种族的争议不断。最近又有一个热点，来自于一位叫Karida Leigh Brown的社会学学者，现任加州大学洛杉矶分校的社会学助理教授。她是一位黑人，同时也是2017年美国社会学协会最佳博士论文的获得者。我们可以在美国社会学协会的官网上查到这篇论文的获奖记录。 Karida Leigh Brown 2016年从布朗大学毕业，这篇论文是她的毕业论文。论文关注的是一个在大迁徙期间从阿拉巴马州迁移到肯塔基州的非洲裔美国人社区。她运用复杂的历史分析和口述史方法，运用种族、移居和文化创伤的理论来揭示种族隔离和公民权利背景下的黑人移民主体性。 ASA在给这篇论文的颁奖辞中提到“布朗博士的杰出论文为我们的领域做出了独特的贡献。” 然后，Karida Leigh Brown却在6月8日发推特揭露了一桩陈年旧事：当年这篇论文答辩时却被系里的白人教员指责为“not sociology”，因为brown不愿意更改主题最后被迫更换了论文答辩主席。 在众多的评论中，有人提出了问题的核心在于“白人脆弱性”（White Fragility）。这个词出现在2017年，来源于罗宾·迪安吉洛（Robin DiAngelo）出版的《白人的脆弱性：为什么白人很难谈论种族主义》（White Fragility：WHY IT'S SO HARD FOR WHITE PEOPLE TO TALK ABOUT RACISM），意指“当接触到涉及种族不平等和不公正的信息时，一名白人会感到不自在并带有防卫情绪”。 作者是一位白人女性，常年从事关于种族问题的“培训”，应邀到各种企业，帮助他们提高员工的种族问题意识。该书基于作者二十年经验的总结和观察，发现，终极问题是，大多数白人拒绝把种族歧视看成是自己的问题。 在本次弗洛伊德事件之后，该书成为了热门畅销价书，一度在美国亚马逊图书销售榜中排名第一。这本书当年刚出版后，《纽约客》杂志就发表了一篇长篇书评，此次事件后《纽约客》也在推特上再次转发这篇书评。我们把这篇书评翻译出来，以飨读者。 凯蒂·沃尔德曼，《纽约客》，2018年7月23日 罗宾·迪安吉洛（Robin DiAngelo） （灯塔出版社，2018） 在为美国公司举办多元化培训和文化能力工作坊的20多年中，学者和教育家罗宾·迪安基洛（Robin DiAngelo）注意到白人不擅于谈论种族主义，这一点出人意料又颇具戏剧性。2011年，迪安吉洛（DiAngelo）杜撰了“白人脆弱性”一词，用以描述白人在种族和种族主义观念受到挑战尤其是当他们感到被牵涉入白人至上问题时所表现出的令人难以置信的防御性。 迪安吉洛在新书《白人脆弱性》中指出，我们这个高度隔离的社会是为了使白人免受种族尴尬的影响而建立起来的，以至于他们一遭受压力就会崩溃。 本身是白人的迪安吉洛强调构成“白人脆弱性”的观点是“站得住脚的”， 迪安吉洛解释说，“特别是在他们击退挑战的同时，恢复白人均衡和我们的种族舒适感，并保持我们在种族等级体系中的主导地位。” 她发现，事实证明对于黑人来说唤醒“白人脆弱”这一沉睡巨龙的社会成本往往太高，以至于许多黑人在看到歧视时不会冒险指出这一点。而对“白人团结”的期望——白人不会纠正彼此的种族错误，以维护和平——也使得真正的盟友关系难以实现。“白人脆弱性”使种族主义这一话题被避而不谈。 迪安吉洛在她的书中主要针对白人，她对像她自己（和我一样）这样的白人自由主义者保留了最严厉的批评，她认为他们拒绝承认自己参与了种族主义体系。她写道：“我相信，白人激进分子每天都在给有色人种造成伤害。”这些人不仅没有认识到自己也是同谋，而且对正在进行的反种族主义运动抱着自私的态度：“以至于达到了这样的程度，白人进步分子认为我们已经达成目标了，我们就会竭尽全力确保其他人也认为我们已经达成目标。”甚至那些看上去真实可信且出于善意的种族观念和回应也可能是白人至上主义的产物，以使白人至上主义永存。白人从美国的政治和经济体系中获利，这种体系使种族“赢家”获得优势，也使种族“输家”受到压迫。然而，迪安吉洛写道，白人坚持种族清白的概念，这无疑是一种把概念武器化的否认，将黑人定位为种族概念的“持有者”和种族知识的守护者。相反，白人却是不显眼的，默认的，即一种无种族状态。而“色盲”即种族无所谓的观点，也阻止我们去应对解决种族差异其实还是有所谓的这一问题。 《白人脆弱性》一书致力于揭开这些所谓白人支柱的面纱：那些在我们没有意识到的情况下支持种族主义信仰的假设。这些思想（意识形态）包括个人主义，或者说是认为一个人自身命运要靠自己来书写的显而易见的美国白人梦，以及客观态度——一个人可以让自己完全摆脱偏见的信心。她指出，作为一个个体而不因你的肤色而与任何负面的东西相关联，这大多只是白人的特权；尽管在美国，大多数学校枪手、国内暴恐分子和强奸犯都是白人，但街上的白人很少会沦为负面的刻板印象。 当人们决定不再容忍偏见时，偏见也不会消失。它只是在寻找避免被发现的方法。迪安吉洛声称：“随着时间的推移，对种族主义最有效的适应方式，就是认为种族主义是卑鄙之人所持有的有意识的偏见。”这种“好/坏二元对立”构造了一个由邪恶的种族主义者和有同情心的非种族主义者组成的世界，它本身就是以种族主义为架构，消除了系统性的不公正，并给种族主义灌输了如此具有破坏性的道德意义，以至于白人，特别是进步人士，无法忍受他们在其中的共谋。（暂停一下，白人读者。您可能潜意识里对种族主义产生了强烈的负面情绪以避免不得不帮助消除种族主义。。）在打破黑人男性是充满危险和暴力的幻觉时，她并不满足于简单的事实核查；她向白人展示了这个神话的用武之地——去掩盖历史上对非裔美国人的暴行，并为持续的虐待提供正当理由。 在书里，迪安吉洛时而会对白人读者采取一种舒缓的抚慰式语气，就好像在安抚一个快要发脾气的孩子。她写道：“如果你认为种族主义就是有人有意识的因为种族问题而讨厌别人，那么我同意，在我不认识你的情况下，把你看作种族主义者是非常冒犯的行为。”“我也同意，如果这是你对种族主义的定义，而你又反对种族主义，那么你就不是种族主义者。现在让我们深呼吸。我不是在利用种族主义这个定义，也不是说你不道德。如果你能在我阐述观点的时候保持开放姿态，那么你很快就会发现我说的有道理。” “自以为是”成为《白人脆弱性》的诱人补充，就像杜松子酒之于神秘小说一样。（当迪安吉洛描述她的一个朋友对一个以黑人为主的社区不屑一顾，说它“糟糕”，不安全时，我心里想“我永远不会”。）然而，这本书的重点在于每个白人都认为自己是个例外，是为数不多的能神奇地在他们的人生中有幸摆脱种族歧主义预设的人。 《白人脆弱性》的价值在于它系统性地、无可辩驳地揭露了思想和行动上方面的种族主义，并且呼吁人们时刻保持谦逊和警惕。与个人内心深处不易察觉的，有时具有无法抵制的说服力的种族偏见做斗争，是一个人要为之毕生努力的事。 附原文： White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo (Beacon Press, 2018) In more than twenty years of running diversity-training and cultural-competency workshops for American companies, the academic and educator Robin DiAngelo has noticed that white people are sensationally, histrionically bad at discussing racism. In 2011, DiAngelo coined the term “white fragility” to describe the disbelieving defensiveness that white people exhibit when their ideas about race and racism are challenged — and particularly when they feel implicated in white supremacy. In a new book, “White Fragility,” DiAngelo {snip} argues that our largely segregated society is set up to insulate whites from racial discomfort, so that they fall to pieces at the first application of stress. DiAngelo, who is white, emphasizes that the stances that make up white fragility {snip} “work,” DiAngelo explains, “to reinstate white equilibrium as they repel the challenge, return our racial comfort, and maintain our dominance within the racial hierarchy.” She finds that the social costs for a black person in awakening the sleeping dragon of white fragility often prove so high that many black people don’t risk pointing out discrimination when they see it. And the expectation of “white solidarity” — white people will forbear from correcting each other’s racial missteps, to preserve the peace — makes genuine allyship elusive. White fragility holds racism in place. DiAngelo addresses her book mostly to white people, and she reserves her harshest criticism for white liberals like herself (and like me), whom she sees as refusing to acknowledge their own participation in racist systems. “I believe,” she writes, “that white progressives cause the most daily damage to people of color.” Not only do these people fail to see their complicity, but they take a self-serving approach to ongoing anti-racism efforts: “To the degree that white progressives think we have arrived, we will put our energy into making sure that others see us as having arrived.” Even the racial beliefs and responses that feel authentic or well-intentioned have likely been programmed by white supremacy, to perpetuate white supremacy. Whites profit off of an American political and economic system that showers advantages on racial “winners” and oppresses racial “losers.” Yet, DiAngelo writes, white people cling to the notion of racial innocence, a form of weaponized denial that positions black people as the “havers” of race and the guardians of racial knowledge. Whiteness, on the other hand, scans as invisible, default, a form of racelessness. “Color blindness,” the argument that race shouldn’t matter, prevents us from grappling with how it does. Much of “White Fragility” is dedicated to pulling back the veil on these so-called pillars of whiteness: assumptions that prop up racist beliefs without our realizing it. Such ideologies include individualism, or the distinctly white-American dream that one writes one’s own destiny, and objectivity, the confidence that one can free oneself entirely from bias. To be perceived as an individual, to not be associated with anything negative because of your skin color, she notes, is a privilege largely afforded to white people; although most school shooters, domestic terrorists, and rapists in the United States are white, it is rare to see a white man on the street reduced to a stereotype. {snip} Nor does prejudice disappear when people decide that they will no longer tolerate it. It just looks for ways to avoid detection. “The most effective adaptation of racism over time,” DiAngelo claims, “is the idea that racism is conscious bias held by mean people.” This “good/bad binary,” positing a world of evil racists and compassionate non-racists, is itself a racist construct, eliding systemic injustice and imbuing racism with such shattering moral meaning that white people, especially progressives, cannot bear to face their collusion in it. (Pause on that, white reader. You may have subconsciously developed your strong negative feelings about racism in order to escape having to help dismantle it.) Unpacking the fantasy of black men as dangerous and violent, she does not simply fact-check it; she shows the myth’s usefulness to white people — to obscure the historical brutality against African-Americans, and to justify continued abuse. DiAngelo sometimes adopts a soothing, conciliatory tone toward white readers, as if she were appeasing a child on the verge of a tantrum. “If your definition of a racist is someone who holds conscious dislike of people because of race, then I agree that it is offensive for me to suggest that you are racist when I don’t know you,” she writes. “I also agree that if this is your definition of racism, and you are against racism, then you are not racist. Now breathe. I am not using this definition of racism, and I am not saying that you are immoral. If you can remain open as I lay out my argument, it should soon begin to make sense.” Self-righteousness becomes a seductive complement to “White Fragility,” as gin is to a mystery novel. (“I would never,” I thought, when DiAngelo described the conversation in which her friend dismissed a predominantly black neighborhood as “bad,” unsafe.) Yet the point of the book is that each white person believes herself the exception, one of very few souls magically exempt from a lifetime of racist conditioning. {snip} The value in “White Fragility” lies in its methodical, irrefutable exposure of racism in thought and action, and its call for humility and vigilance. Combatting one’s inner voices of racial prejudice, sneaky and, at times, irresistibly persuasive, is a life’s work.
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