I need to write a much more thought-out post on this. Or possibly organize these into a series. But I also need to get this out there.
Last night, in a moderated debate among nearly a hundred students, I witnessed no fewer than 8 temper tantrums thrown by 3 white men. They were perhaps, not quite yelling, but they had unquestionable aggression in their voices and their gestures. There were also at least a dozen times when one of them interrupted someone else who was speaking, and was then given a “chance to respond”. This was after the fact that their perspective in the argument was very much white-dominated, with primarily men speaking, while the other side had no such skewed ethnic makeup, had been pointed out, after the dynamics of white supremacy had been named.
It did not matter. What mattered was the unconscious sense of authority that person after person ceded to these white men, as well as to the white men on our side though none were so full of temper. I do not mean to say that all white men who get angry will be granted that authority: a visible disability will drastically change that privilege. But very many will. I do not mean to imply that men of color may not be aggressive, loud, obnoxious and take up space, but I cannot recall the last time I saw a man of color show that level of anger in public (outside of a ritualized, spoken-word-poetry context).
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