Fragility

"White Fragility" as proposed by "diversity trainer" Robin DiAngelo is an imaginative and provocative concept.

I myself am neither white, nor racist, nor fragile. That statement in DiAngelo's universe is absolute certification as a white, fragile racist.

I do not think of myself as white. I am Catholic, as distinct from Protestant and other faiths; I am Irish-German in contrast to Italian, Russian and other Europeans and to Africans, Asians, and others; I am old not young; American in contrast to foreigners (not a bad word); Republican not Democrat; Conservative not Progressive; masculine not feminine; and so forth. My skin is not white especially in the summer. I have never lived in a binary black/white, oppressor/oppressed universe: not in the parochial ethnic, working class of my childhood; not in Jersey City nor in UPS nor in Catholic education nor in my Church nor in my boarding homes. I am fascinated by ethnicity, culture, class, religion and personal history: color of skin is not of interest. Again, that confirms me to DiAngelo as a racist.

I am not fragile. Fragile means vulnerable to being damaged or broken; weak, brittle, passive, fraile. It can mean in this context insecure and defensive. I am none of the above. I am serene and confident and assertive that I am not racist.

The opposite of fragile is strong, robust, firm, resilient, supple, steadfast. These are all qualities I receive with my Catholic faith, a faith which bonds me with men and women of all backgrounds, skin colors, cultures and classes.

However, the idea of fragility is a useful one in the current climate. The age of Trump was (I hope past tense is accurate) the time of fragility: the rage at him from the left echoed the anger of the underclass and made almost everyone tense and angry. The emergence of "cancel culture" on the left is a result of interior fragility: the inability to hear opposing opinions; the intolerance of dissonance; the avoidance of vigorous disagreement and respectful conflict. Ironically, I find that those who advocate or even sympathise with Black Lives Matter and Critial Race Theory, who have swallowed whole this idea of white fragility, cannot discuss the issue: they cannot hear my narrative and interpretation, they must construe me as indileberately racist, and cancel me.

At the root of this insecurity is the solipism and individualism of liberalism: it is not rooted in tradition, authority, community; it is an autonomous assertation and therefore itself fragile. By contrast, my Catholic faith and values are perennial, authoritative, communal and stable yet fluid and flexible.

Conservatives, however, are not immune to fragility. On the Right it can take the form of brittleness: insecurity, defensiveness, narrowness. It too is anxious in an entirely different way.

We are in a pandemic of fragility, insecurity, anxiety. It is good for us to be kind to each other and seek, in prayer, inner serentiy, steadiness, patience and strength.