White guilt is "the individual or collective guilt felt by some white people for harm resulting from racist treatment of ethnic minorities by other white people." White guilt is not something you hear about often because white guilt is rare. White guilt will never be more prevalent than white privilege. White guilt is not Black people's problem. And yet Lee Daniels, a gay Black man, has taken it upon himself to help alleviate that esoteric burden by way of his new show, <em>Star</em>. That's right if you thought the new Fox series was just about a white girl trying to make it in the music business you were wrong. It's a show created with the intent of making white people feel good about being white. Because apparently that's a problem.
[caption id="attachment_745704" align="alignnone" width="1068"]<a href="http://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/lee-daniels.jpg"><img src="http://madamenoire.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/lee-daniels.jpg" alt="" width="1068" height="600" class="size-full wp-image-745704" /></a> FOX Summer TCA Press Tour<br />Featuring: Lee Daniels<br />Where: Los Angeles, California, United States<br />When: 09 Aug 2016<br />Credit: FayesVision/WENN.com[/caption]
<blockquote>“We are in a very dangerous state right now in our country," Lee Daniels explained to <a href="http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/lee-daniels-star-premiere#axzz4UpjBlTm8"><em>Ebony</em> magazine</a> about his decision to "explore race in a way that we haven’t seen it before on a network series." And, he added, "I wanted white people to feel good about being white because right now, there’s a lot of hatred going on."</blockquote>
Raise your hand if in the past year you've heard a white person say "It's really hard being white in America right now."
Raise your hand if in the past year you've heard a white person say, "I hate my white skin. I wish I was Black."
Raise your hand if in the past year you've seen a hashtag circulated by white people in response to a white man or woman being gunned down by police.
When has a white person in the history of the world ever had to make him or herself feel good about their whiteness? Never. Because the very concept of white privilege that was set in motion in this country and several others by white people dictates that they never have to.
Sure, there are white sympathizers, supporters, those who show solidarity with the plight of Black Americans -- and we appreciate them -- however, the idea that there are some white people who find it hard to face another day because of the hatred directed at them is hysterical, and furthermore, not my problem.
See what separates the activism of the Black community from the outrage of the privileged is we've made a concerted effort not to paint all white people (police officers included) with the same brush. We carefully craft statements with qualifiers that explicitly state we don't believe all white people are bad, or, racist or murderers. Quite frankly, we've protected white people's feelings far more than should be asked of a people being attacked front, left, right, and center by members of said race who want to classify the Black Lives Matter movement as a hate group when we're the ones dodging the most hate. And on top of this, there are some among us who want to make white people feel good about their whiteness? Of all the causes that need attention in this country right now, upholding the beauty of whiteness certainly isn't one. Unless, of course, no one ever explained to you the concept of internalized racism and the way in which it can impact one's view of the world and their place in it. Perhaps Daniels should spend more time feeling good about being Black and let white people tend to their own nonexistent emotional wounds.
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