White Fragility - Anti-Racism in Summer Camps
White Fragility
When white people are confronted with racial stress for the first time, the automatic response is to be defensive, guilt-ridden, and/or emotional. That concept has been termed “white fragility”. Getting past these feelings is another instance when anti-racist work is often bogged down.
Dismantling racism doesn’t have to be hard. Lots of introductory resources talk about how hard the work is. Once we get over the emotional response and agree that we need to do it, the work doesn’t have to be too difficult.
In addition to the typical response to interpersonal racism, white fragility exists at an institutional level. In camps it may sound like:
We don’t mean it like that
We’ve always done it this way
Our board (or parent organization) won’t approve making changes
Change is always met with resistance even change as insignificant as the color of the swag. What we’re proposing are bigger changes but they can be done.
Many folks heading into anti-racist work for the first time are afraid of having “tough conversations”.
Conversations about race are tough for two reasons.
White people don’t want to/can’t accept that they are the problem, contribute to the problem, and are afraid of being shown to be in the wrong.
People of color are afraid of retaliation, reliving trauma that exists in everyday life, and are tired of not being heard.
So tough conversations don’t happen. Listing it like this makes it much easier to see that all the “tough-ness” is in the hands of the white folks.
Let's get out of our own way and get to work.
If you haven’t addressed your own white fragility, or read a few books or articles, start there. Some resources are listed below. Don’t worry, we’ll be here when you get back.
White Silence is Violence
is one of the taglines of the anti-racist movements.
White silence is the act of not doing the work; maintaining the status quo.
At the beginning of June 2020, after the murders of three Black people at the hands of police in a short time went unaddressed, the US came to a breaking point.
Protests in the streets led organizations of all types to release statements about their support of the Black Lives Matter movement. But not everyone did. Not making a statement or doing the work when appropriate because we “might anger some white donors/parents/board members” is the definition of white silence.
Really, our camps should have a statement that guides our work all of the time, not just something we peddle out when everyone else is making a PR move. In a truly anti-racist organization, we don’t need to “make a statement” because we already have our anti-racist mission and our constituents see us living it every day.
This was designed for you.
“All are welcome here vs. This was designed for you” is often used to describe universal design concepts for physical differences and needs. It is the idea that a building should be designed to be accessible to as many needs as possible from the beginning.
It applies to racial and cultural inclusion as well. It's too late to design the traditional overnight summer camp but there is plenty of room to make the adjustments that are needed so that all can thrive.
Removing systemic and institutional racism will benefit others from marginalized classes: social-economic, gender, ability and intersectional, but we are doing this to support our Black campers.
When I was in high school, our multi-floor building didn’t have an elevator. It was rumored that the school board often said “It’s okay to not have an elevator, there aren’t any kids in wheelchairs at that school”...
So why aren’t there more Black kids at camp?
~LEILANI NUSSMAN
I am a mixed-race Kanaka maoli (Hawai’i) and white summer camp director. I use she/her pronouns. I live on the ancestral lands of the Duwamish people, past and present. I speak for myself and from my own lived experience. I still have work to do.
Resources
Intro to Race Discussions/White Fragility
So You Want to Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo
Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram X. Kendi
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? - Beverly Daniel Tatum
Pedagogy of the Oppressed - Paulo Friere
White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo
How to be an Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome - Joy DeGruy
Black Faces, White Spaces - Carolyn Finney
*Amazon affiliate links support the Equal Justice initiative
Articles Don’t Talk about Implicit Bias Without Talking about Structural Racism
Click to see the Other Posts in this Series
A Note From Travis
We are thrilled to be welcoming Leilani Nussman as a writer on the Go Camp Pro blog! Leilani is a Camp Pro from the US Northwest and she has spent her summer as part of our Camp Mavericks discussion on Racism, Privilege and Summer Camp. I was THRILLED when she asked if she could capture her thoughts on Anti Racism and summer camp in this space.
