Learning about one’s own whiteness isn’t guilt.
What’s to “feel guilty” about? It’s education about the past and unconscious assumptions about the world that aren’t true and learning about those things.
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Here’s an example: This phrase is a pejorative towards Americans. When I first heard of it as a teenager I thought “That’s not fair, not all Americans, etc”. But when I learned WHY that name came out and the common American behaviors that prompt that name, I realized I needed to see Americans from an outsider’s perspective for a second and so I did and i learned something.
Never felt guilty for being an American. But I learned why it’s not entirely wrong to use the word “ugly” sometimes.
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I can’t imagine what “self-loathing” would even look like in this situation.
If I have a cowlick in the back of my head that I can’t see, I’d like someone to point it out. Whiteness studies is just that. It’s not guilt or shame. That’s silly.
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