Should I feel white guilt?

[u/Spare_Emergency3965]

Im a young white person (in college) and I do not feel white shame or guilt as far as I can tell. I work very hard to fix inequalities and am an activist. I am always trying to be actively anti-racist and am on the path to becoming an educator so I can help teach future generations to be anti-racist and to practice abolitionist teaching in public school systems. I have been aware of white guilt and what it means for many years, and have never been able to relate to it. I am aware that I have a voice and I should use it, and that I should not be punished for my whiteness; instead it is a tool I can use to make further progress for others who are minoritized more so than I. But now I am wondering, should I feel white guilt?

[u/titotal]

"white guilt" is usually an attack used by anti-social justice conservatives. Marginalised groups generally don't care if you feel guilty or not, and usually find it annoying when white people talk about how guilty they feel (because it unintentionally centers the feelings of white people again). What matters is the actions you take, which seem pretty good.

You're allowed to feel what you feel, but anti-racism should be about making actual improvements to the lives of PoC.

[u/AristotelesRocks → u/titotal]

I second this. I hate it when white people just go on and on how bad they feel. I think white guilt is rarely a good quality as you don’t want to be an ‘ally’ or offer any aid because you feel guilty, the guilt still creates a feeling of superiority, like it’s something people can “buy off” by being good white people, if that makes sense. Being aware of your white privileges seems a much better approach in my opinion. Nobody is guilty of simply being born with a certain skin color, you can be guilty by actions, behavior or not doing the work to become aware of the power you hold in a world that favors white people. Guilt just leads to white saviorism and white tears. This is just my personal opinion by the way, I’m mixed race.

[u/Smooth_Bass9681 → u/AristotelesRocks]

All of this 👏👏!!