White Fragility

White people respond with outrage over any allegation, perceived or actual, of racism because they see racist as synononymous with bad people who hurt others. This narrow view contributes to being closed off to the idea of systemic racism because it allows white people to say it’s not them it’s bad people.

Not understanding socialization

White people don’t view race as an important characteristic of themselves and dismissive of the experience of people of color.

Individualism and objectivity contribute to this and make it difficult to acknowledge societal and systemic issues and tend to blame the individual for failures.

Individuality prevents reflection on group membership (e.g. rich/poor, young/old) and unearned advantages. Group membership conflicts with objectivity–we would need to acknowledge we don’t see the world objectively, but through a group’s cultural lens.