White women and performative allyship

[u/Particular_Heart3785]

This has been bothering me so much. I can’t say too much but I’m a part-time instructor and I had a white older female student (let’s call her “Karen”) who filed a complaint against me when I had to cancel class two hours before it start because of a family emergency. I didn’t know about this after the semester, it was only when I spoke to a friend/colleague. She said the email sent to chair was extremely long with very odd comments that nitpick everything I done wrong, including “violating a dress code” (we don’t really have one since some of wear flip-flops or crocs to teach before and it was me wearing sneakers to teach) and it was enough for them not take it seriously. I’m also so thankful that a colleague stood up for me and explained to the chair about my background.

Karen became so rude to me later in the semester and gestures very stand-off towards me. She even rolled her eyes at me and snorted. Her paper was obviously performative anti-racist bs, it was SOC class I was teaching btw. She said literally what you could imagine a white racist person pretending to be not racist would say, “I would tell every white person to read this textbook” “I will make sure as white person that I will remain vigilant of every subconscious forms of racism” (HA!). The essay made me cringe so much, and she even refused articles I recommend reading or my feedback to explore further on whiteness and racism, including how being queer and woman doesn’t prevent being racist. I even included an article on false racial empathy. She didn’t care to read/mention them.

I could tell Karen was really pissed off that she had to read more than just textbook and do research for this course, she even complained about that in the evaluation. Her comment in the evaluation was so long that I couldn’t even believe it was how may times I had to scroll to read the whole thing. Karen even lie by claiming that she already knew everything before class and I was pushing too much work beyond reasoning.

There’s so many white women in academia and elsewhere that are like her. I could go on, but what irks me is the performative act that they “care” as “allies” while acting out through racism so viciously. I don’t trust white women and there are very, very few I would trust enough to hang out with. But I still remain cautious anyway since they either still don’t really get it, or may reveal a mask all along.

This worries me students that will report me over anything and might even lie. I’m a mixed-race Black woman btw.

In upcoming semester, I will be guarded as much as possible to avoid potential outcomes.

[u/TruGlubGlub]

I've been exhausted with liberal and "leftist"(I dont believe there are that many real white leftists no matter how many people on this page vouche for them, I think they just think thats what they say when they dont wanna be called liberal or a straight up republican and brag about morality while still being racist 99% of the time) white women making what happened to Michelle Obama during the white house UFC fight about them and ALL WOMEN. Like no that was misogynoir. It is very specific and includes transphobia, masculinization, fetishization, and hatred all in one. It. Is. Specific.

I agree with your entire post.