If you click through to the racism_101 discussion, it might make more sense. This is apparently something historically seen in feminist discussions, where some liberal white woman is confronted with her own racism or privilege, and spends time in the group conversation arguing that she's liberal, she can't be racist, or she's a feminist, she can't be racist, or just dealing emotionally with the messages she's hearing from others, only she speaks it and takes the stage with it, and this is time *she* needs, and processing or debating that *she* needs to do, but could possibly do in another space, perhaps with some subset of the group or a separate support system helping her, instead of drawing away from the group, making her reaction to colored women's voices louder and more time-taking than what the voices were starting to express, which is in oblivious disregard of what *they* need.
I think this phenomenon happens partially because the topics being raised are so close in with a person's definition of her self that she really is blinded and confused and stressed to the point where focusing on anything other than resolving or understanding her own cognitive dissonance and upset is really really hard, and plus I think it may also be an educational/cultural point, that those of us who are white and activist are used to questioning things - that is how we understand, that is how we learn - we challenge, we discuss, we reflect someone's words back to them or try to relate it to something else we experienced, and it is hard to realize that to some people when we do those things we have stopped listening. They don't relate to the fact that we think this is active listening, and we can't relate to the fact that they feel silenced by our well-intentioned words.
(and I hope you can see that through this view that it is not "obnoxious nutbar syndrome, it is "ignorant, self-centered human syndrome" and that does not make it any less painful for all involved)
"lly is blinded and confused and stressed to the point where focusing on anything other than resolving or understanding her own cognitive dissonance and upset is really really hard, and plus I think it may also be an educational/cultural point, that those of us who are white and activist are used to questioning things - that is how we understand, that is how we learn - we challenge, we discuss, we reflect someone's words back to them or try to relate it to something else we experienced"
THAT is white woman syndrome as I understand it. The point is that a person is thinking mainly about her own experience, only her own feelings, in a situation where it would be much more appropriate for her to be thinking about the feelings of those around her. Why is she doing this? Because she has been raised to believe she is the most important person in the room, metaphorically speaking.
I don't think all white women do this, nor do I even think most white women do it, but a very high percentage of privileged white women do; and if they are activists, they are more likely to do it, and think they are justified in doing so.
Seems like it needs another descriptor. I'm a white woman myself, and yet the behavior described is totally incomprehensible to me. I've never seen it, and don't understand it. I certainly am willing to believe it's a pattern of behavior that's been observed by others, but from my point of view "white woman syndrome" isn't a very helpful generalization. Clicking through the links provided, it seems that white woman syndrome is: a) intruding into a support group where you're not invited b) overidentifying with and emotionalizing racial issues c)being self centered and unsupportive d) failing to recognize the difference between feminist issues and race issues and e) the media disproportionately reports disappearances of white women over women of color. Quite the laundry list, there! I'm thinking "ignorant, self-centered human syndrome" is probably much more descriptive.
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I think this phenomenon happens partially because the topics being raised are so close in with a person's definition of her self that she really is blinded and confused and stressed to the point where focusing on anything other than resolving or understanding her own cognitive dissonance and upset is really really hard, and plus I think it may also be an educational/cultural point, that those of us who are white and activist are used to questioning things - that is how we understand, that is how we learn - we challenge, we discuss, we reflect someone's words back to them or try to relate it to something else we experienced, and it is hard to realize that to some people when we do those things we have stopped listening. They don't relate to the fact that we think this is active listening, and we can't relate to the fact that they feel silenced by our well-intentioned words.
(and I hope you can see that through this view that it is not "obnoxious nutbar syndrome, it is "ignorant, self-centered human syndrome" and that does not make it any less painful for all involved)
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THAT is white woman syndrome as I understand it. The point is that a person is thinking mainly about her own experience, only her own feelings, in a situation where it would be much more appropriate for her to be thinking about the feelings of those around her. Why is she doing this? Because she has been raised to believe she is the most important person in the room, metaphorically speaking.
I don't think all white women do this, nor do I even think most white women do it, but a very high percentage of privileged white women do; and if they are activists, they are more likely to do it, and think they are justified in doing so.
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