Speaking personally, I think something like #1 is true on the grounds that I have seen many cases of white Australian people, often with considerable power, acting in excessively patronising and authoritarian ways towards Aboriginal people and I have no difficulty believing that similar things happen in the US.
However, I also do not think that racial disparities in outcomes are almost all caused by #1; in fact I think that probably less than 50% of almost any particular disparity is caused by #1. Thus, I think that outcome disparities are at best weak evidence for #1. Many people (notably Ibram X Kendi) say that in fact they are. I actually believe that the theory underlying this claim causes some of the authoritarian behaviour I observe. I think people reason something like this:
- We don’t want to be racist
—Differences in outcome indicate racism
—We must eliminate differences in outcome
—Eliminating differences in outcome requires substantial behavioural changes on the part of Aboriginal people
- Authoritarian strategies are the most reliable way we have to induce substantial behavioural changes
I think that overly authoritarian policy is often harmful.
I don’t know if DiAngelo endorses this claim—that outcome disparities are almost all caused by #1 - but claims like “being white is to know privilege” make me suspect that to some extent she is also reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to the existence of racismS. I think this is a big mistake!
I also think, with less confidence, that DiAngelo is not really popularising this theory but is rather explaining a theory that is already popular. Perhaps many people, like myself, think that this theory is flawed and that it is unfortunate that it is so popular. However, I suspect that they are making a mistake blaming DiAngelo for this. Criticism of her book could be a stand-in for criticism of this theory in general.
Maybe taking it further, I think that it’s possible that reasoning backwards from outcome disparities to racismS yields a flawed theory of what racismS is, because it’s a flawed inference to begin with. This might be why many people take issue with racismS rather than the premise (outcome disparities → racism), even though my best guess is that the premise comes first.
Sounds awful to me. I would absolutely hate to live somewhere where I was regularly told what to do and/or expected to fit in with rituals. I tolerate this kind of thing at work because I have to.
What will you say when people come to you saying “I’m not sure this is really worth it for me”? I personally don’t think self-improvement is a very stable overall goal. In my cursory acquaintance, most cults/high-demand living situations tend to believe in “something greater”—often something quite ridiculous, but nonetheless something bigger than the individual. Perhaps it is important to have something which seems to trump feelings of personal discomfort.