Typically, critique and confession are very different things. One means speaking truth to power, the other means revealing one’s sins. Yet both are oriented towards transformation: criticism hopes to create social change, and confession intends to reform oneself.
Clearly, antiracism is critical, exposing systemic, institutional and cultural racism and demanding change. However, because our contemporary culture focuses responsibility on individuals, sometimes this political movement is translated into what we call ‘confessional critique’. Such discourses redirect critique to a moralising interrogation of individual opinions and behaviours, remodelling politics as self-purification. There is a whole genre of antiracist books which promote self-examination.
In the two months after the murder of George Floyd in March 2020, the combined sales of Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility and Ibram X. Kendi’s How to be an Antiracist approached one million copies. Both became trendsetters in the genre. Arguably, the isolation of lockdown where most people were spectators to Black Lives Matter protests or could only engage via social media helped spread confessional critique.
YouGov polls consistently report that most people in the UK accept that racial discrimination is prevalent in society, especially around employment, education and the media. Research suggests that race and ethnicity are highly associated with the ‘culture wars’, and the term ‘white privilege’ is one of the critical terms most widely recognised. This is not to suggest that most people would accept the suggestion from DiAngelo, Kendi and others that they themselves are racist simply because they are part of a racist society – rather that the structural issue of racism is widely recognised.
***
How did criticism of racism become translated into confession?
While religion is often considered as old-fashioned and even obsolete, its cultural reach is still very strong. Weber’s Protestant ethic thesis still helps us understand capitalism, and in The Reformation of Welfare the continued influence of ideas of purgatory in welfare, pilgrimage in seeking work and confession in self-improvement are made clear. Tracking the persistence of religious ideas and practices can help us to understand modern society.
Indeed, while often considered quite dogmatic, religion has a long history of critique – from Moses demanding ‘Pharoah, let my people free’ which has inspired postcolonial movements, to Old Testament prophets railing against inequity and ideology who influenced revolutionaries from the English Civil War to Karl Marx. Iconoclasm – the breaking of idols – was originally a religious practice.
The history of confession is quite opposed to critique, generally used to subdue and discipline congregations and converts. Early Christians confessed their sins publicly with sackcloth and ashes, while monks confessed privately to their abbot. In 1215 confession was made a general sacrament, but Protestantism rejected priestly absolution a few centuries later. Arguably, Protestantism made each person internalise confession, as each sinner had to judge themselves and achieve salvation individually. Despite secularisation, confession persists in therapy and self-help and proliferates through social media.
***
In a 2018 New York Times article Kendi proclaimed: ‘The heartbeat of racism is denial, the heartbeat of antiracism is confession.’ Similarly, in White Fragility, Robin DiAngelo states: ‘The only option is to remain in the state of mea culpa.’ They insist their readers have internalised racist impulses and opinions – obviously white readers, but implicitly everyone. Instructing the reader in how to examine themselves, DiAngelo and Kendi’s books translate antiracist social criticism into personal confession.
The reader is placed in a predicament: They must be sufficiently antiracist to read the book and accept its critique of systemic and institutional racism. But they must also ‘call out’ their own racist deeds, words and thoughts, and confess their racism. All denials are taken as signs of guilt. Rather than specifying areas of society which are acutely racist and prioritising political action or policy reform, racism is addressed through self-purification.
Kendi uses the metaphor of cancer to describe racism as something malignant within, fought by painful chemotherapy, and always capable of recurring. DiAngelo describes her ‘missionary zeal’ for antiracism: ‘It is a messy, lifelong process … deeply compelling and transformative.’ Examining every aspect of one’s life is required, even unconscious impulses.
Just as Augustine considered every moment a possible occasion for sin, for these authors, every moment lived within a racist society risks culpability. Strikingly, the difficulty of recognising the fault is considered a sign of its severity, so there is always something else hidden to be confessed.
In What is AntiRacism? Arun Kundnani suggests that this liberal, individually focused confessional critique rarely translates into antiracist political action, such as opposing deportations, demilitarising policing or opening borders. Indeed, extensive research on ‘diversity training’ within companies demonstrates that similar ‘consciousness raising’ and ‘antibias’ training in the workplace has negligible effects. Perhaps these books are ‘preaching to the choir’: DiAngelo’s recent book, Nice Racism: How Progressive White People Perpetuate Racial Harm evidently targets an audience most likely to both feel guilt and have disposable income.
The diffusion of critiques of specific racist policies or institutions into blanket critiques wherein ‘everyone’s racist’ may be not just ineffective but counterproductive. Antiracist critique largely centred on America is inaccurate when transposed to other situations, which may alienate or mislead readers. If critique appears as a wild accusation or guilt-trip it can entrench people in their positions or even provoke counter-critique. If critique presents racism as an inescapable, indelible stain which must be confessed interminably, then politics is short-circuited.
Perhaps some self-examination is needed as a spur to political action, but continuous confession is no substitute for getting involved. Rather than cycles of guilt and accusation, it is more effective to engage with inclusive community organisations, welcoming and supporting migrants, lobbying politicians, voting and supporting antiracist policies. Beyond this there are critical antiracist politics, like tackling racist policing, holding companies and employers to account, cancelling international debt and abolishing borders. All of these are important steps towards creating a more equal and ecologically sustainable world for everyone.
Tom Boland is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Sociology and Criminology at University College Cork.
Jody Moore-Ponce is a PhD researcher in the Sociology Department in University College Cork.
The Reformation of Welfare: The New Faith of the Labour Market by Tom Boland and Ray Griffin is available to order on the Bristol University Press website. Order here for £22.
Bristol University Press/Policy Press newsletter subscribers receive a 25% discount – sign up here.
Follow Transforming Society so we can let you know when new articles publish.
The views and opinions expressed on this blog site are solely those of the original blog post authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of the Bristol University Press and/or any/all contributors to this site.
Image credit: Pawel Czerwinski on Unsplash