The point of this blog post is not to try and convince you you’re a bad person. There would be no point, if you were. You would never believe me.
But I do think a bit of critical self-reflection goes a long way. If you’re White, maybe ponder your Whiteness for a minute. (See link below.)
Our default position is to assume we’re good. Plato suggested that to do the wrong thing is to not understand justice. To know the good is to do the good. But, who among us is quick to admit that we’re ignorant? The oracle at Delphi judged Socrates the wisest man in all of Athens because he knew that he did not know. He was aware of his own ignorance.
Are we aware of ours? I have had too many conversations with people whom I would describe as uneducated and who present themselves as extremely erudite. Why? Because we do not like to think of ourselves as not being educated. “I see the world clearly. I don’t need to read a bunch of books to see the world! All those books are just going to tell me what I already know.” See? Everyone is educated, just ask them.
And everyone is good. No one is a racist. “You know how those people are.” We all see with perfect clarity and we’re all virtuous. “I’m not a racist!” Even though the person is a hundred mile an hour bigot. They do not want to think of themselves as participating in something that society frowns upon.
And we give ourselves endless praise and moral credit for doing nothing. “I eat right, I take care of myself, I go to the gym, do yoga, and listen to NPR.” Big deal. You do not get moral credit for those activities. Or I love when people tell you how dedicated they are to parenting. You’re supposed to take care of your kids. You’re the one who had them. That is your job. You do not get extra credit for tending to your children’s needs.You deserve an award because some people are bad parents? You reprimand your kids for the same abysmal logic. “Okay, mom, I got a C in geometry, but my friend Julie got a D-!” Um, the issue is the C. Not Julie.
Besides, you’re not that good of a person. Consider for a moment what you’re participating in. Cooking the planet? If you’re White or male, you’re a beneficiary of systemic racism and sexism. The prison system is a brutal, racist institution that many of us keep schtum about. So, before you bestow humanitarian awards onto yourself because you smiled nicely in your vacation photos on Facebook, take a good hard, uncomfortable look into the mirror.
