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I..I...I am out of words

(Following article has been translated-Sine I could not find any English version of this Danish version)

I'm white and in therapy for it
The idea that all white people are racists is spreading in the United States. So Americans are using anti-racist training and therapy against their whiteness.

From his chair across from me, Kusum Crimmel looks at me with a calm smile and a slight tilt of his head.

- 'I think whiteness is the belief in white supremacy, dominance and control, and looking down on other people,' she says.

Kusum Crimmel is white and a former civil rights activist. Today, she has taken the fight against racism into the therapy room

She lives in a quiet neighborhood of cacti and oak trees in Oakland, California. In her home, she has decorated a room with scented candles and pictures of dark bodies on the walls.

Here she treats white people for their whiteness.

- In America, everyone has a degree of white supremacy in them, she says, and asks me to get up to do an exercise with her.

I've told her I don't feel racist, and now she wants to know if she agrees.

All whites are racists
The idea that all white people are somehow racist has been on the rise in the US since the killing of George Floyd in 2020.

Video footage of a white cop kneeing Floyd in the neck sparked the largest race protest movement in US history and new heightened focus on systemic racism.

In the US, blacks are more likely than whites to end up in prison, in poverty, without an education or as victims of police violence.

Some of the best-selling books in the US after the killing of George Floyd place the blame on white America.

In bestsellers like 'White Fragility' and 'Nice Racism', author Robin Diangelo argues that white people unconsciously show they are racists precisely when they reject accusations of racism. All white people should work on their personal racism, she argues.

Diangelo's books are used as a basis for anti-racist training, therapy and healing in public institutions, businesses and universities across the US.

'We are not safe with a white man'
- 'We don't feel safe with a white man here,' Kusum Crimmel says, grabbing my arm.

With the exercise, she wants to show how I, as a white man, react to the suspicion that black people are often subjected to.

When I turn to her and answer "why not?" she is ready with an analysis.

- America was founded on slavery, colonization and racism, and that's why a large group of people don't trust you, says Kusum Crimmel.

- When a white man takes a defensive stance and confronts, white masculinity is reinforced. It doesn't make me want to get to know you.

The idea that all whites are racists and that whiteness should be treated is generating strong reactions from the right in the American racial debate.

In September 2020, then-President Donald Trump stopped the use of taxpayer money for anti-racism training in public institutions.

- We pay people hundreds of thousands of dollars to teach very bad and - frankly - very sick ideas. They teach people to hate our country, Trump said at the time.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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