HuffPo Columnist: White People Do Not Realize They are Racist

In Maja Tosic’s new piece for the Huffington Post, “The Problem with ‘Good’ White Folks,” she details how white people don’t realize the racism inside them.

Tosic begins, “I have seen it time and time again. White folks wanting to do good, be seen as good, and feel good. But, never wanting to accept the bad that lies within them.”

But that is just a way to deny the racism that is inside them, she explains. “The workings of our society allow white people to walk through life and be accompanied by an image of good,” Tosic asserts. “They do not have to confront the idea that they are racist. They do not have to work towards being seen as good. A smile from across the room is enough. When you are always surrounded by a cloud of good, it is easy to hold onto it.
“That is a privilege,” she exclaims.

Tosic goes on to explain that “white people” are seen as “good,” while minorities are seen as “bad.” She then argues that the racist system that controls the United States is the fault of white people who do not stand against it.

She concludes in the end, “If white people remain deeply embedded in their need to be perceived as good, this white supremacist system will prevail. If white people run away from confronting their own racist tendencies, racism will live on. The system is strong when white people believe they are good and do not want to hear otherwise. Change will come when we recognize the bad within each of us.”