Denial. The single greatest force that maintains the existence of white privilege

Denial of white privilege is ever-present. It’s all around us. Everywhere you look you’ll find people denying its reality. This is important because denying white privilege serves a critical function — to maintain its existence.

This is the hill I choose to die on.

Whenever I interact with strangers on social media, many claim “White privilege doesn’t exist” or “White privilege is a myth”. Some feel very strongly about this and become borderline abusive. But, their message is clear: “I don’t believe that white privilege exists”

Still more comment: “I treat everyone the same” or “I don’t discriminate”. Or “The solution to this is simple, treat everyone the way you want to be treated.” When asked, these people accept that black people and people of colour do face discrimination. But — and this is important — they firmly believe that this topic does not concern them. That they are not part of the problem. That they sit outside of this issue.

Reader, you’ll probably have guessed that I don’t agree with these statements. And whilst I can and do challenge them, I’m not going to do so today.

Why do people deny the existence of white privilege?

Today I’m going to spend my time asking a more thought-provoking question: What is the function of these statements? The sentiments that they represent are widespread, so they must serve a purpose. But what is that purpose? Why do people deny the existence of white privilege?

Both groups of comments are about denying the existence of white privilege. In the first example, people are denying that it exists at all. And in the second they are denying that it has anything to do with them.

As both these forms of denial are common, they must serve a purpose. And they do. Ironically, they serve to maintain the existence of white privilege itself.

How so? Can the denial of a thing keep that very thing going? How is it possible that claiming white privilege doesn’t exist helps keep it alive? It doesn’t make sense!

If there’s no problem, then no solution is needed

But think about it. The first rule of solving any problem is to admit that the problem exists. If we don’t admit that there’s a problem, then no solution is needed.

So if white privilege doesn’t exist then there is no problem to solve.

And there are 2 distinct ways to deny the existence of white privilege. The first is what I call Global Denial. This is the outright rejection that white privilege exists at all. The second is what I call Personal Denial. This is where people accept that white privilege exists, but deny their part in it.

Let’s explore them both.

Global denial of white privilege — it’s a myth

Global Denial is when we claim that white privilege is a myth. That it doesn’t exist. That it’s all made up.

It’s important to ask ourselves, what is the purpose of this claim?

Well, denying the existence of white privilege has one purpose: to refuse responsibility. If white privilege doesn’t exist, then there can be no problem. And if there is no problem then there’s nothing to fix. If there’s nothing to fix, then we don’t have to take on the responsibility of doing anything about it.

And honestly, I get it. I understand why we would deny the existence of white privilege. Talking about it makes us feel bad, it makes us feel like we’re being blamed. It makes us feel uncomfortable and awkward. It’s far easier to say that it doesn’t exist. Because if we do that then we feel ok. I understand wanting to feel ok.

But we must face facts. The fact is that racial inequality exists. And white privilege is part of racial inequality. Pretending that white privilege is imaginary doesn’t make racial inequality magically disappear.

This means that the problem of white privilege goes on, unchecked. Denying its existence sustains its reality. It maintains the status quo.

And nothing changes.

This is how the existence of white privilege is maintained by Global Denial.

Poverty and class

Those of us who deny that white privilege exists offer alternatives to the causes of racial inequality. Instead of attributing it to racism or white privilege, we attribute it to other things. For example, many of us insist that racial inequality is due to poverty, class, or ‘natural differences between the races’. So, let’s look at these.

Now it’s true that solving poverty would go a long way to solving racial inequality. Eliminating class would too. I have no arguments with those statements. But racial inequality also exists independently of class or wealth status. We know this because middle-class people of colour still experience racism. This means that racial inequality is a problem in and of itself. One that cannot be solved by tackling wealth and class inequality alone.

‘Natural differences’

Those of us who look for alternative reasons to explain racial inequality often claim that there are ‘natural differences between the races’. I’m afraid that this is utter rubbish. It is racist pseudoscience that has been thoroughly debunked by many people, including Angela Sani in her book Superior. There are no natural differences between the races that would explain inequality. They simply don’t exist.

These claims serve a purpose too

But claiming that racial inequality is due to poverty, class or ‘natural differences between the races’ serves a purpose too. And that purpose is to distract. To take attention away from white privilege and direct it elsewhere.

Of course, poverty and class inequality are real issues that need to be solved. They deserve time, attention and resources. But when they’re raised to explain racial differences they only serve to distract us from the topic. They re-direct our attention away from race and onto other things.

Thus, the true culprits of racial inequality — white privilege and systemic racism — are never addressed, and white privilege lives on.

It’s brilliant when you think about it. And honestly, it’s so effective. We can spend hours, days, years even justifying why poverty and class have different effects in society. And if we’re talking about those topics, then we’re not addressing white privilege and racism.

So the Global Denial of white privilege acts to distract our attention away from race. Its purpose is to deny the problem entirely. If there’s no problem, then we don’t need to find a solution. Nothing changes. White privilege lives on.

Personal denial of white privilege — I am not part of the problem

While the Global Deniers of White Privilege are vocal, I believe that they are the minority. In contrast, our next group are often silent. And, I believe, they are the silent majority.

The second form of denial is Personal Denial. As I said earlier, this group accepts that white privilege exists. But they maintain that they are unaffected by it personally. They recognise the existence of racial inequality, but firmly believe that they are not part of the problem. They’re not affected by race, so all this talk of white privilege is not their problem. Other people are the problem, not them. They are the good guys.

Those of us who are Personal Deniers truly believe that we are not affected by society’s messages about race. We believe that when it comes to race, we are objective and impartial.

Robin DiAngelo, the author of White Fragility wrote a paper about this in 2010. In it, she says: “We present ourselves as outside of socialisation, unaffected by the relentless racial messages we receive on a daily basis from films, advertising, textbooks, teachers, relatives, segregated neighbourhoods, and countless other dimensions of social life.”

Our refusal to recognise the effect of these racial messages is where Personal Denial comes in. The internal narrative runs something like this: “I am fair and unbiased. I am not the problem here. Bravo to everyone else who’s doing the work, but I don’t need to. I’m above all this. White privilege does not concern me.”

We insist that we are unique, one-of-a-kind individuals. We maintain that we are unaffected by these relentless racial messages; that we are not racially biased.

But it is not true. None of us is immune to these racial messages.

Our refusal to see ourselves as racially biased is the basis of Personal Denial of White Privilege. And, as with Global Denial, Personal Denial serves a wider function.

Personal denial means we can believe in our own merit

Personal Denial exists because we want to believe that we are fair, unbiased and objective. Believing in our merit makes us feel good. We got where we are today because of hard work and determination, not because we’ve had an unfair advantage.

Of course, there is some truth in that. Hard work and determination have played their part. But so has our skin colour. Unfortunately, many of us are not comfortable with this idea.

The idea that our race might have given us unfair advantages is difficult to accept. Furthermore, if we accept that we are affected by society’s racial messages, then we’ll have to recognise that we’re not as impartial as we think.

We all desire to be good, moral people. If we accept that we benefit from white privilege then that means our skin colour has granted us unearned advantages. And if that’s true, then are we really good and moral people?

Personal Denial allows us to uphold the belief that we got where we are because of merit. Because of our natural abilities or intelligence. Our skin colour played no part in our success. Therefore, we cannot be part of the problem.

The beauty of this type of denial is that we can still acknowledge the problems of racial inequality. We can still accept that it exists, that it’s an issue. But, we believe that we sit outside of any kind of racial bias. We believe that we are unaffected by racial messages. We’re not part of the problem. And this allows us to absolve ourselves of the responsibility to do something about it.

If we don’t see ourselves as part of the problem then we have no responsibility to fix it.

Why denial of white privilege matters

Both forms of denial serve the same function — to reject the idea that white privilege is a problem. Either at a societal level or a personal one. And if there is no problem, then there is nothing to fix.

This is how denial becomes the single greatest force upholding white privilege. Denying the existence of white privilege doesn’t make it magically disappear. It just means we absolve ourselves of any responsibility to fix it.

So it marches on, completely unchecked.

Summary

Denial is the single greatest force that maintains the existence of white privilege. Denial comes in two forms. Global denial says that white privilege doesn’t exist. It’s all made up. Personal denial recognises that racial inequality does exist. But it maintains that “I am not part of the problem”.

Both forms of denial serve the same function — to reject the idea that white privilege is a problem. Either at a societal level or a personal one. And if there is no problem, then there is nothing to fix. So white privilege marches on.

So, where do you sit on the denial scale? Do you completely reject the idea that white privilege exists? Are you sure it does, but believe it has nothing to do with you? Or are you somewhere in the middle?

I want to close by asking: what if we accepted that white privilege was an issue? What if we set about trying to unravel it, to get rid of it? How hard would that be? And what would that work look like?

Thanks for reading.

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