A couple of weeks ago, Rachel, fournier, and myself decided to create a collective post regarding White Guilt. Below is the original contribution I wrote. Its amazing how quickly one’s mind can shift, however. In just a short period, after having read what my co-bloggers have written, there is so much that i would like to add to the words below. For example, blackamazon has helped me to recognize the distinction between guilt and shame. But i will keep these words in their original as a piece of the much larger dialogue. Please be sure to check out Ally Work to see the contributions of Rachel and fournier.
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I have come to be a firm believer that guilt is a good thing for people to experience and recognize. When we feel guilt that means there is a disconnect between our conscience and our actions. Therefore, guilt can be used as a guide to keep us on track with our principles. If we feel guilt, we need to recognize that we got off track and ask ourselves how we can reconnect what we believe is just and what we are actually creating.

However, the beneficial use of guilt stops at its role as an indicator. If we are to act from a place of guilt, our motivation will too easily stray to the forces that wish only to allieviate ourselves of that guilt as opposed to sincerely working against a system of unearned

privileges. If we wish only to alleviate guilt, then we will only do as much work as it takes to do so and not continue further to the more challenging and long-term work that is involved in the struggles of solidarity and persynal liberation. In this instance, guilt allows us to act in the belief that we are working to liberate ourselves and others from oppressive forces, but, in fact, we are working merely from the self-centered and masturbatory position of “what will make me feel good about myself.”

Another danger in acting from guilt is to get caught in the zealotry stage of anti-racist work as White people. This stage often manifests as White anti-racists believing they are above the masses because they have “seen the light.” The zealot will go on a crusade that will often alienate them from every other White persyn (and often people of color, as well). They loose friends and distance themselves from family. It gets lonely as the sole crusader for justice. This is why the zealotry stage is often the final stage that White people will enter before stepping back into the world of privilege and unchallenged White Supremacy. The zealot believes that the massive amount of guilt that they were dealing with was to blame for their loss of friends and family. They therefore believe that by no longer viewing the world with an anti-racist lens or taking action against White Supremacy that they won’t have to feel that guilt. In my opinion, the guilt doesn’t go away, it is simply ignored and bottles itself up (often times creating a new David Horowitz - we should not forget that he was once a young radical lefty).

As a White ally in the struggle against White Supremacy, I am often accused of just trying to make White people feel guilty. I say, on the contrary. I’m trying to help White people get rid of that guilt. I think any White persyn with a smidgen of conscience feels guilty about the unearned privileges we receive. What anti-racism does, in my opinion, is to name that guilt, to draw attention to it so that we may recognize it and take action to create a consistent praxis in our lives. We shouldn’t feel guilty about a system we didn’t create as long as we are working sincerely to change that system. Otherwise we are capitulating with an oppressive system and should feel guilty that we are furthering the cause of White Supremacy.