Which interests are served by the principle of interest convergence? Whiteness, collective trauma, and the case for anti‐racism

Abstract

A primary principle of critical race theory is ‘interest convergence,’ or the notion that progress toward racial equality will only be made when it converges with the interests of whites. Although I generally concur, I posit that ‘interest’ must be rendered more complex in order to fully understand the pernicious effects of racism on all people, and on whites in particular. While laws, cultural norms, institutional practices, and even the election of Barack Obama indeed serve the material and emotional interests of whites, their psychological and moral interests are simultaneously undermined. I complicate the meaning of ‘interest’ to show that while whites indeed benefit from racial hierarchy in numerous ways, a full deconstruction of racism and the collective trauma it induces must be considered with a more nuanced and disaggregated definition of ‘interest’ in mind. I put forth that while whites are advantaged in real and tangible ways in an endemic system of racial dominance, the psychological and moral costs of racism far outweigh its limited benefits.

Keywords:

• critical race theory
• critical white studies
• race
• whiteness
• anti‐racism
• interest convergence

Notes

1. White resistance to the 1954 Brown decision was so ardent that a second decision handed down in 1955, known as Brown II, had to be implemented. In the latter, the US Supreme Court mandated that desegregation occur ‘with all deliberate speed,’ or at a discernable rate in light of the relative inaction that followed Brown I (Kluger 1975).

2. The term ‘non‐white’ is itself a tool of white dominance given that whites are a global numerical minority. We do not refer to whites as ‘colorless’ or ‘people without color’ (Elliott 2010). ‘Non‐white’ is employed here only to emphasize that all 43 presidents since the inception of this nation have been white.

3. Barack Obama is biracial, but based on the legacy of the law of hypodescent, or the ‘One Drop Rule,’ his half‐African American heritage renders him the nation’s first ‘black’ president regardless of how he wishes to identify himself. Because whiteness is a form of property, only those who can physically pass for white may claim it. Obama does not ‘own’ a white phenotype and therefore can only be known in the United States as ‘black’ (Harris 1995).

4. R. Lee Allen (2004) has employed the Du Boisian concepts of material and psychological benefits as part of the ‘wages of whiteness’ that whites of low socioeconomic class have used historically to gain advantage. He has also put forth that although the benefits of being white are real, opportunities for cross‐racial solidarity that would lead to collective social uplift across races and classes have and will continue to be thwarted in the absence of a critical deconstruction of how the wages of whiteness will never yield a larger sum than the end of racism.

5. While NCLB is not without flaws in its effect or support of white material interests, a progressive tenet of this legislation is its requirement to disaggregate scores based on race, ability, etc. A positive outgrowth of this mandate is that ‘achievement gaps’ between racial/ethnic groups can be rendered explicit for the purposes of garnering more attention and being more fervently addressed (Meier and Wood 2004).

6. Feagin (2010) has argued that racism is irreconcilable with the ‘liberty and justice for all’ framework established by our democratic ideals. Racism directly contradicts fundamental notions of democracy in the United States and cannot coexist alongside it.

7. The research upon which ‘positivity bias’ is supported may well be based on white samples. All too often in the empiricist tradition, the perspectives of racial, gender, or sexual identity minorities are disregarded (Denzin and Lincoln 2005). Positivity bias may be reduced in minorities based on their everyday lived experiences as marginalized individuals. Ayoub’s research, however, is still instructive for describing the wish of many, including whites and minorities, for a default state of societal benevolence and the end of racial injustice

8. Guest speaker Mike Molina contributed this thought to a class discussion in the course, ‘Critical Race Theory and Urban Education’ at Emory University on April 28, 2008.

9. I wish to thank Professor Devon Carbado for lending invaluable insight into the normative nature of my thesis at the 2009 Critical Race Studies in Education Conference in Tucson, AZ. I contend that if whites fully grasped how racism undermines their multiple interests, more of them would be moved to anti‐racist action. Although not all whites will be so moved – for reasons that venture beyond self‐interest, as Bell (1995) originally put forth – I maintain that improved social function and racial progress that drives us closer to optimal human flourishing would still be achieved. A disaggregation of Bell’s ‘interest’ does not require anti‐racist action solely motivated by altruism, selflessness, or self‐disinterest. Rather, this framework simply requires that whites comprehend the panoply of their interests and that, ultimately, racism does not serve the totality of their interests.

10. Prominent white anti‐racists have attested to the ‘joys of unlearning racism’ as liberation, freedom, and personal victory (Jackson 2010; see also Goodman 2001). They view anti‐racist activism as the ultimate alignment of their democratic, moral, or even spiritual beliefs. White anti‐racists also attribute this congruence as a primary motivation for their willingness to engage in what others often perceive as ‘working against’ their own racial interests.

11. One could argue that disparities in the hurricane responses were also based on class. That discourse, however, is beyond the scope of this work. For a full discussion of Katrina and its complexities, please see Buras 2005, 2007; Buras et al. 2010).