Being White, Being Good: White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, And Social Justice Pedagogy

Being White, Being Good Being White, Being Good White Complicity, White Moral Responsibility, and Social Justice Pedagogy BARBARA APPLEBAUM LEXINGTON BOOKS A Di vi si on of R O WMAN & LITTLEFIELD PU BLIS HE R S , INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Published by Lexington Books A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 http://www.lexingtonbooks.com Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom Copyright © 2010 by Lexington Books Applebaum, Barbara. “White Privilege/White Complicity: Connecting ‘Benefiting From’ to ‘Contributing To’” in Philosophy of Education, ed. Ronald David Glass, 292–300. Urbana, Illinois: Philosophy of Education Society, 2008. Applebaum, Barbara. “White Ignorance and Denials of Complicity: On the Possibility of Doing Philosophy in Good Faith” in The Center Must Not Hold: White Women and the Whiteness of Philosophy, ed. George Yancey. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, forthcoming. Applebaum, Barbara. “Engaging Student Disengagement: Resistance or Disagreement?” in Philosophy of Education Society, ed. Barbara Stengel, 335–345. Urbana, IL: Philosophy of Education Society, 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Applebaum, Barbara, 1953– Being white, being good : white complicity, white moral responsibility, and social justice pedagogy / Barbara Applebaum. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-4491-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-4493-0 (electronic) 1. Racism. 2. Whites. 3. Responsibility. I. Title. HT1521.A67 2010 305.8—dc22 2009054094 ⬁ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. TM Printed in the United States of America Contents Acknowledgments vii 1 Introduction 2 White Ignorance and Denials of Complicity: Linking “Benefiting From” to “Contributing To” 27 3 The Subject of White Complicity 53 4 The Epistemology of Complicity: The Discourse of Not Knowing and Refusing to Know 91 Moral Responsibility and Complicity in Philosophical Scholarship 119 6 Rearticulating White Moral Responsibility 155 7 White Complicity Pedagogy 179 5 1 Bibliography 203 Index 219 About the Author 221 v Acknowledgments THE HEBREW WORD FOR GRATITUDE IS “HAKARAT HATOV” WHOSE LITERAL MEANING is “recognizing the good.” Although used in many ways, it can refer to the acknowledgment of the good another has done for you. Hakarat hatov is not merely an expression of thanks but also a demonstration of respect and value of the person from whom one has received something important. It is to show appreciation for being inspired, for being supported, for being helped. If I were able to show my appreciation for al