The White Moderation Genome Project

Hi everyone, if you’re not busy on Saturday January 31^st, at 9am Pacific Time, please join me in a FREE virtual conversation, “Leading the Work Without Losing Yourself: A Conversation for Nonprofit Practitioners,” where the awesome Kimberly O’Neil and I discuss how everyone in our sector is holding up during this moment, how we gather strength to keep going when everything is so heavy and we’re all so tired and need naps all the time. Please register here.

Also, if you’re available on Wednesday February 25^th at 10am Pacific Time, I’m finally having a virtual book launch. It should be fun, and there will be giveaways, and I know everyone will want a T-shirt that says “I am a pita wedge for the hummus of justice.” Register for that here. Come to both events if you can.

I hope everyone had a good MLK Jr. Day. I've seen lots of comments and quotes the past few days. But, just because the holiday is over, doesn't mean we should stop reflecting on his teachings.

Dr. King has been a significant beacon for our sector, and for anyone in general who wants to help advance equity and justice in the world. For the past several years, I’ve written about what I think is his most important lesson for us, which is about white moderation. You can read about it in his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, which should be required reading for everyone in this sector.

To summarize, Dr. King warned that the biggest threats to justice are not the overt racists and bigots, but the “nice” and “civil” people constantly calling for everyone to get along and “meet in the middle” and not ruffle feathers and be practical. I’ve spelled what I think some of these things look like in our sector, in this piece called "Have nonprofit and philanthropy become and white moderate that Dr. King warned us about?" as well as “21 signs you and your organization may be the white moderate Dr. King warned about.” Please check them out, as unfortunately, many people are still exhibiting many of those signs.

But those are not comprehensive lists. I think it will be great if we map out and categorize all the ways that white moderation manifests. Doing so will help us identify when we’re engaged in white moderation, and help us find ways to mitigate it. I’m going to call this project the White Moderation Genome Project (WMGP). After years of thinking and writing about this, and leaning on Dr. King’s writings, here’s what I have so far:

The White Moderate Genome Project: A Comprehensive Map, version 1.0

Category 1: Protection of Capitalism

·       Market fundamentalism: Believing the market will solve social problems, and thus being more concerned about the economy, the stock market, etc. than about justice

·       Property over people: Being more worried about property damage than about human lives

·       Corporate appeasement: Thinking that philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, and so on, justify the existence of capitalism and make up for its exploitative nature

·       Wealth worship: Thinking of billionaires and corporations as forces for good, and defending them when they are rightfully attacked

Category 2: Unquestioning adherence to laws, processes, and rules

·       Legalism: Believing laws should always be followed, and those who break them should be punished, no matter how unjust these laws are

·       Process worship: Believing that following rules and processes (“doing things right”) is more vital than engaging in what may be morally just but may break some rules (“doing the right thing”)

·       Process over people: Valuing meeting protocols, speaking time limits, Robert’s Rules, and so on, more than the voices of people most affected by injustice

·       Rule fetishization: Insisting that change must come through approved methods, even if those methods are designed to prevent change

Category 3: Prioritization of civility and respectability

·       Profanity policing: Being more concerned about people cussing than about inequitable systems

·       Appearance bias: Dismissing people because their personal appearance (hair, tattoos, etc.) may not fit with white- and corporate- established respectability standards

·       Tone policing: Policing people’s tones for being too harsh or aggressive when they are speaking about inequity

Category 4: Preservation of a negative peace

·       Conflict aversion: Treating any tension or disagreement as bad and destructive, even if those tensions and conflicts may be the catalyst for justice

·       Euphemism addiction: Refusal to use words like “genocide,” “apartheid”, or “white supremacy” because they cause discomfort

·       False equivalency: Insisting that all sides must compromise and “meet in the middle,” including those most affected by injustice to meet in the middle with those perpetuating the injustice

·       Grace expectation: Expecting those harmed by injustice to show forgiveness, empathy, and compassion to those responsible for their oppression

·       Historical amnesia: Erasure of history through a “let bygones be bygones” attitude

Category 5: Avoidance of politics

·       Program solutionism: Believing injustice can and should be addressed through programs, services, workshops, conversations, and other non-political ways

·       Nonpartisanism: Believing being nonpartisan/neutral is inherently good, and refusing to take political stances

·       Individualism: Focusing on changing individual behaviors instead of working on systemic transformation, which requires political engagement

Category 6: Defense of white-determined meritocracy

·       Credentialism: Valuing formal education degrees, certifications, and other credentials over first-hand experience and knowledge by people and community most affected by injustice

·       Professionalism standards: Defining “qualification” and “professionalism” to reflect and reward white, middle-class, heteronormative, male standards

·       Relationship privileging: Valuing and centering relationships without examining who gets access to those relationships

Category 7: Centering the privileged

·       Comfort prioritization: Creating policies and processes that focus on the comfort of the privileged

·       Emotional labor extraction: Insisting marginalized people to comfort those who are in positions of privilege and power when the latter are feeling discomfort

·       Selective safe-spacing: Defining safe-spaces as ones where those with privilege feel safe

Category 8: Shallow Intellectualism

·       Devil’s Advocacy: Playing “devil’s advocate” when people bring up solutions for inequity and injustice

·       False equivalence: Believing there are “both sides” to various issues and that “both sides” are equally “extreme.”  

·       Platforming hate: Allowing airtime for hateful viewpoints in the interest of “diversity of perspectives” or “free speech”

·       Terminology shield: Inventing or reinventing terminology and concepts like “pluralism” to include people with hateful, bigoted opinions

·       Complexity addiction: Excusing things as “complicated” or “nuanced” to justify inequity and injustice  

Category 9: Pragmatism and Incrementalism

·       Incrementalism obsession: Believing that change can only happen gradually and in small doses

·       Future deferral: Believing those affected by injustice should wait for the right time to demand change, which is usually decades in the future

·       Perfectionism: Insisting that people wait until perfect solutions come along before acting

·       Compromise compulsion: Believing compromise is inherently good, even when it means justice is delayed or prevented from being realized

Category 10: Performative Allyship

·       Symbolic solidarity: Posting on social media, wearing symbols, and so on, without taking meaningful action

·       Equity offset: Book clubs, DEI committees, and other actions that are necessary but are not sufficient (see this article I wrote)

Category 11: Misplaced Concern

·       Perpetrator protection: Worrying about the well-being of those responsible for injustice over the well-being of those they harm

·       Benevolent paternalism: Expressing concern for those affected by injustice should they achieve justice, and using that concern to avoid supporting solutions that may achieve justice

·       Gatekeeper anxiety: Being worried that people may not be able to handle difficult truths and the conflicts that may arise

Category 12: Karmic Acceptance

·       Fatalism: Believing the existence of injustice is natural and that the world will always be unjust, and determining actions based on this belief (such as foundations only giving out 5% of their assets each year; or people supporting the police and prison system).

·       System justification: Rationalize existing inequitable systems are natural, inevitable, or even “deserved”

·       Cynicism: Believing that humans are too selfish to actually achieve justice and equity anyway

Category 13: Toxic positivity

·       Malignant optimism: Believing that people are ultimately good and the world will eventually right itself without intervention

·       Resilience fetish: Insisting those who are most affected by injustice are resilient and can handle their oppression

Category 14: Meta White-Moderation

·       Concept dismissal: Dismissing the concept of white moderation and anyone who talks about white moderation

·       White moderation fatalism: Believing that white moderation is natural and can’t be changed

OK, I am sure I am missing quite a bit of stuff, and some categories and points can probably be combined, and each point can be expanded on even further. Please add your thoughts in the comments. We will continue to refine this list until it covers basically every single way that white moderation manifests in our world. And in the meanwhile we'll continue working to counter them.

Fun!

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