Here’s what I observed on my Facebook feed about the
halftime show. Read carefully and please recognize that I recognize I am making
some broad statements.
Every negative comment was by a white person.
Every person of color who commented said something positive.
Some white people said positive things, too.
The positive and the negative comments did not
overlap. For example, no one said that objectification of women is a good
thing. And no one denied the fantastic physical shape that Shakira and Jennifer
Lopez are in.
We’re having two different conversations.
We white people are so quick to criticize people of
color, without also pointing out any great things, and rarely do we celebrate
aspects of people of color’s culture that don’t overlap with white culture.
As a result, people of color are put on the defensive and
can’t talk about the problematic things like overt sexualization because they
must instead build up their culture and point out all the positive.
This is white privilege. We don’t have to build up
anyone’s culture because our culture is the dominant one and has been for
centuries.
So, again, we’re having two different conversations.
We white people focus on the problems to the exclusion
of anything positive, like the celebration of Latin culture, the amount of
Spanish we heard on national TV, and the statement made by the children in
cages representative of the border crisis.
That halftime show made a huge statement for the
Hispanic/Latinx population, and rather than recognize that and applaud that,
like I heard our Black brothers and sisters do, many of us whites have to pick
it apart and put it down instead. This is white fragility. It would cost us
nothing to be kind instead.
I noticed the same phenomenon in Facebook comments on
my feed after Beyoncé’s halftime show in 2013, too.
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