Do progressives in higher ed just sit around making up new divisive terms like this so they can write about them?
The College Fix reports:
The latest malady attributed to those of pale hue: ‘deflective whiteness’A professor of interdisciplinary studies at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has a new book out titled “Deflective Whiteness: Co-opting Black & Latinx Identity Politics.”Hannah Noel — or Hannah Haynes according to her Linkedin and college faculty profiles — told The Berkshire Eagle that deflective whiteness is white people claiming “aggrieved social status” and “victimhood” based on things such as worries about demographic displacement.The 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia rally is an example, according to Noel: The protesting white supremacists allegedly “were able to protest, not fear police violence, claim space, and do so in a relatively confrontational way, was demonstrating the privileges of their whiteness.”In her home of Massachusetts, Noel said deflective whiteness can be seen in whites’ refusal to acknowledge their “appropriation of indigenous imagery.” Whites insist that (Native) symbols such as that for the state’s Route 2 are an “honor” regardless of the circumstances.The Route 2 symbol is a tribute to the Mohawk people, but Noel said the route doesn’t even sit on Mohawk territory. Nevertheless, “it’s shown as ‘Look, we want to honor these people.’”Another example, Noel said, is the Massachusetts state flag about which white people say “Oh, this is like paying homage. This is honoring [Natives].”But “to me, [the flag] a symbol of white supremacy,” Noel said. “[People think] it’s like, ‘this is this really great symbol’ and ‘Massachusetts is so liberal they would have an indigenous person be on our flag, this is great.’ When you actually look into the symbology when you look to what it represents, when you look into the history of settler colonialism, it’s a much more complicated story.”
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