What is "white guilt"

n. A term used by some to describe the vacuum of moral authority surrounding white Europeans on the issues of race, due to their history of race relations.

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 both historically and currently. White guilt has been described as one of the psychosocial costs of racism for white individuals along with empathy (sadness and anger) for victims of racism and fear of non-whites.

It can be characterized as a strong, emotional feeling of direct responsibility for the unequal circumstances of ethnic minorities living in historically and culturally European nations, or the Western world largely due to historical exclusion of non-whites from mainstream white society. Discomfort when talking about issues involving race is also a common characteristic of white guilt.

Judith Katz, the author of the 1978 publication White Awareness: Handbook for Anti-Racism Training, is critical of what she calls self-indulgent white guilt fixations. Her concerns about white guilt led her to move from black-white group encounters to all-white groups in her anti-racism training. She also avoided using non-white people to re-educate whites, she said, because she found that this led whites to focus on getting acceptance and forgiveness rather than changing their own actions or beliefs.

A report in The Washington Post from 1978 describes the exploitation of white guilt by con artists: "Telephone and mail solicitors, trading on 'white guilt' and on government pressure to advertise in minority-oriented publications, are inducing thousands of businessmen to buy ads in phony publications."

Shelby Steele, a conservative black political writer, discussed the concept extensively in his 2006 book White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era. Steele criticizes "white guilt" saying that it is nothing more than an alternative interpretation of the concept of " black power":

Whites (and American institutions) must acknowledge historical racism to show themselves redeemed by it, but once they acknowledge it, they lose moral authority over everything having to do with race, equality, social justice, poverty and so on. [...] The authority they lose transfers to the 'victims' of historical racism and becomes their great power in society. This is why white guilt is quite literally the same thing as Black power.

George F. Will, a conservative American political columnist, wrote: "[White guilt is] a form of self-congratulation, where whites initiate "compassionate policies" toward people of color, to showcase their innocence to racism.

Commentator Sunny Hundal, writing for The Guardian, stated that it is "reductionist" to assign political opinions to a collective guilt such as "white guilt" and that few people on the left actually hold the views being ascribed to them by the conservative writers who expound on the concept of "white guilt" and its implications. Hundal concludes: "Not much annoys me more than the stereotype that to be liberal is to be full of guilt. To be socially liberal, in my view, is to be more mindful of compassion and empathy for others."

One academic paper suggests that in France, white guilt may be a common feature of management of race relations – in contrast to other European countries.

In 2015, when American civil rights activist Rachel Dolezal was revealed to have been passing as African American, Washington Post journalist Krissah Thompson described her as "an archetype of white guilt played to its end". Thompson discussed the issue with psychologist Derald Wing Sue, an expert on racial identity, who suggested that Dolezal had become so fascinated by racism and racial justice issues that she "over-identified" with black people.

White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era is a book by American author Shelby Steele in 2006.

In the book, Steele argues that white guilt is much more than just a race problem.

Steele describes his experience growing up as a young black man in an era of racism and white dominance. From a young age, he dreamed of becoming a batboy for an all-white baseball team. With segregation at large, Steele feared his dream would never become a reality, but he spent many weeks watching and admiring the baseball players.

After catching the coach's attention as someone with immense passion for baseball, he was granted the position of batboy, his dream now becoming a reality. The high of achieving his goal soon became shattered when the baseball team was to play at a whites-only stadium. When reflecting back on this event, Steele states, "I am certain that racist rejections like this do not cause low self-esteem in their victims. They cause disenchantment with the world. My self-esteem was not diminished in the least by what happened to me on that Saturday morning."

Throughout the years, he watched the era of white power transform into an era of white guilt, the underlying theme throughout Steele's book. He believes that the lack of time between transitioning from white supremacy to white guilt is what ultimately led to the destruction]] of the Cvil Rights Era. According to Steele, since the transformation from white power to white guilt was presented to society without a cooling-off period, Americans were not able to feel a sense of neutrality towards racism.

A bargain came about that blacks in the political spotlight appealed to whites to take hold of white guilt and to use it to their advantage. Steele talks about how being black can be an advantage because of heavy white guilt is. Steele says that it happens often: blacks appealing to white guilt to use it to their advantage, which is how blacks and whites together destroyed the promise of the Civil Rights Era.

White guilt may refer to several topics:

• White guilt, a concept of individual or collective guilt often said to be felt by some White people for the racist treatment of people of color by Whites both historically and presently
• White Guilt (book), a book by Shelby Steele
• "White Guilt" (song), a song by The Bronx

"White Guilt" is a song by the Los Angeles-based punk rock band The Bronx, released as the third single from their 2006 album The Bronx. Gilby Clarke played additional guitar on the song, having produced the band's previous album The Bronx (2003).

While the album was released by the Island Def Jam Music Group, the singles for all of their albums have been released exclusively in the United Kingdom, through Wichita Recordings. The single was released on both compact disc and 7-inch vinyl, the latter pressed on red vinyl and limited to 1,500 copies. The B-side song, "Rockers NYC", is an outtake from the album's recording sessions. The cover artwork was designed by guitarist Joby J. Ford.

The music video for "White Guilt" was directed by Mike Piscitelli. It depicts the band as "out-of-work superheroes and fictional characters", with singer Matt Caughthran in costume as the Easter Bunny, guitarist Joby Ford as a genie, drummer Jorma Vik as a vampire, and bassist James Tweedy as Santa Claus. The four are destitute and spend their day among the homeless, with Ford busking near the beach by taking photos with tourists and families. He becomes upset when another Santa Claus and Easter Bunny begin busking in the same spot, and calls the others over to attack them. The fight is broken up by the police and the band members are arrested.