We have previously discussed how many professors seem to compete in finding new forms of racism in every facet of society and education. Astrophysics, math, runoffs, science, statistics, and meritocracy have all been denounced as racist. In this academic cottage industry, professors secure publications and speaking opportunities by identifying racism in expressions, images, or entire fields. Even time itself has been declared racist. Now, however, academics have found another undiscovered continent of white privilege: niceness.
When I saw a story in The College Fix on a study of “niceness as Whiteness,” I was skeptical and decided to take a look. The study by Vanderbilt Postdoctoral Research Fellow Abigail Beneke, Professors Benjamin Fisher (U. Wisconsin-Madison), F. Chris Curran (U. Florida), and Samantha Viano (George Mason) was first flagged by Dr. James Nuzzo.
The paper “Niceness as Whiteness in School Police Officers’ Perceptions of Student Arrest” addresses the “perceptions of arrest” by school resource officers, or SROs) in two school districts.
The officers appear to be precisely what you are looking for in an SRO: empathetic and reluctant to make arrests. The researchers admit that they try to avoid arrests. However, according to the authors, hidden behind those sympathetic approaches was, of course, a boiling caldron of racism in terms of the racial disparity of those arrested.
Indeed, the researchers realized that it was the niceness itself that was the evidence of oppressive “Whiteness.” Indeed, the officers may not want to be engines of racism and use “niceness” as a “coping mechanism,” but do so by deluding themselves and others that they are nice:
“Nice SROs did not want to arrest children. Nice police officers thought of themselves as well-meaning. Yet, they expressed being required to arrest children because of real or imagined mandates. They used niceness as a strategy for upholding a system of Whiteness that systematically privileges White people and excludes those who fall outside of Whiteness. Niceness hinders possibilities for the types of political, communal relationships central to authentic care.”
The paper makes it sound like everyone would be better off, or at least more honest, to return to hostile, racist-spewing officers. The reason is that niceness is an “enduring component of Whiteness” which “allows predominantly White people to elide how their own actions contribute to inequality by maintaining a sense of their own benevolence.”
The evidence of niceness includes such findings as how officers work at “minimiz[ing] the negative impact of arrest by highlighting their own goodness.” (This includes saying things like “You want to listen to the radio? You want the window down? Is there a station you want to listen to?” after an arrest.)
Then there is the fact that these officers have good relationships and perspectives of the students. Again, it is just a shield of “whiteness”:
“SROs used niceness as Whiteness in their recounts of arrest … by highlighting the positive relationships they had with students they arrested…As with highlighting their own goodness, highlighting these positive relationships reframes violence (i.e., arrest) that contributes to racial inequality as a positive, since students still like the SROs. This strategy emphasizes the officer’s ability to retain his niceness—by virtue of the maintained interpersonal relationship—despite having arrested the student.”
The paper is an example of ideological screeds posing as academic research. Based on a few interviews, the researchers simply declare the empathy and relationships to be shields perpetuating “whiteness.” They cite other studies identifying niceness as a whiteness tactic:
“Prior research has demonstrated how primarily White women educators use niceness to uphold Whiteness in their work with children (Bissonnette 2016; Drake & Rodriguez 2022; Gardiner et al., 2023; Vlach et al., 2022; Wiborg, 2022). We found niceness was also present in the work of SROs, suggesting the potential for broader application of niceness to well-intentioned actors working in structurally violent systems. In addition to framing niceness as a means of excusing behavior that upholds Whiteness, we equally center the structural binds that delimit SROs’ capacity for providing care. In doing so, we identify niceness as a coping mechanism for arresting children.”
At these universities (Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, George Mason, and the University of Florida), these faculty members and their obvious agenda are viewed as ideal choices to teach their students.
With four kids, I found the SROs at their schools to be extraordinary and popular figures. They would routinely intervene with kids to see if they were having trouble or try to direct them away from trouble. It turns out that everything that parents valued in their SROs was a perpetuation of privilege, according to these researchers.
While the researchers insist that “we do not intend to demonize individual SROs,” they reward the cooperating officers by twisting their every comment as revealing their deep white privilege. Presumably, they conveyed to the SROs that this would be a fair, unbiased study. It was neither, and, perhaps reaffirming their own triumph over racism, they were not a bit nice about it.
Some attorney should file a class action on behalf of all the while people who haven’t received their “White Privilege” benefits. I imagine there are millions who haven’t received their “white privilege” benefits, whatever they are?
I’m a Christian and think this is one of many worlds. The white people in this world do not have privilege. What they are is unlucky. I’m hoping each is promoted in his or her next life.
This study deserves a thanks for acknowledging white is nice. Btw I don’t need nor want to see Alex Cortez injecting her belly nor Anne Hathaway’s pop out belly button. 😏
The villagers claimed no knowledge of the source of the smoke.
This is a very strange assertion! Obviously, the writer(s) have had little real-life experienced with SROs! We have six adult children & dealt with SROs on a daily basis–not because our kids were in constant trouble, but because I’d chat with them every day while picking up our kids! Our kids attended racially integrated schools. They were integrated because they were Catholic schools in low-income areas of our city! Excellent schools that attracted students & families from many miles away! I’d say that kids & schools do much better in every area when parents are actively involved in schools & care about their kids’ academic life as well as every other part of their lives!
no one is more racists, hate filled , greedy than a Democrat
Although these dolts don’t realize it, what this study (like so many others) exposes is that Christianity (as developed and practiced by white Europeans) is, in fact, a far superior culture to that of most non-white, non-Christian cultures. Although the realization is hitting them by extremely oblique methods that they themselves don’t even understand – such as this “study” – it must be most disconcerting for them. Or would be if they were able to think critically about the stuff they are “studying.”
You must be reading Tom Holland.
“. . . Christianity (as *developed and practiced by white Europeans*) is, in fact, a far superior culture . . .” (emphasis added)
That was the 8th century AD — smack dab in the middle of the Dark/Middle Ages. Care to explain what was so “far superior” about that culture?
If you’re trying to co-opt the Renaissance, that came some 600 years later. And it was *not* a Christian development. If you’re thinking of the Enlightenment, that came some 800 years later — and most definitely was *not* a Christian development.
Yes, I’ll explain. I used the word “developed” because I knew people like you just assume that a European Christian culture sprung up overnight at some specific time in history and remains static to this day. It did not and has not. Christianty was the dominate culture in Europe in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and continued to develp as a culture throughout those periods. If you believe there is a culture any where at any time that you can point to as coming even close to providing individuals with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as well as the Christian culture developed by white Europeans, please do tell us what that is.
Nice dodge.
I’ll repeat the question (which is based on your arbitrary assertion): What was so superior about the Dark/Middle Ages culture? *That* is the culture that Christianity created and dominated.
This claim, on the other hand, reveals a grotesque ignorance about intellectual history:
“Christianty [sic} was the dominate [sic] culture in . . . the Renaissance and the Enlightenment . . .”
“Renaissance” means the “rebirth of reason” — which came from ancient Greece (primarily Aristotle). The Enlightenment is the spread of Reason (and a this-worldly focus) to science and technology.
BTW, just out of morbid curiosity, what is “people like you”?
P.S. Learn how to spell.
You are absolutely correct. I should have said ““people such as you who spend massive amounts of time attempting to advance your political opinions by dissertating at length, from a dissenting position, on subjects about which you have little or no knowledge.” Will that do it for you? I suspect not.
Still dodging the question — which obviously means you have no evidence for your arbitrary assertion.
“. . . on subjects about which you have little or no knowledge.”
I suspected you meant that. Since you obviously know nothing about me, that is yet another arbitrary assertion (and a silly ad hominem).
And you’ve proven yourself to be what you are: A pretentious fool.
As a Ph.D. student I focused on the history of philosophy, with an AOS in ancient Greece, the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Then, over some 25 years, I taught those subjects in academia — 17 at a T1 university.
You, by contrast, are a one-handed keyboard scholar, who evades simple questions, while shilling for religion.
So there is no such thing as racism? It does not exist anywhere at any time?
you are a fool
Why do you say that?
You’re right, it goes without saying!
Yes, there is racism. It’s baked into the cake. Everyone constantly wants more breeding land to expand. Sticker weeds are racist too, choking out everything in its path.
It’s the reason for- I think therefore I am.
Condolences to all white people.
But if a law enforcement officer is not “nice,” especially if the officer is male and White, we get the “police brutality” shtick, and the “racism” shtick anyway.
As for niceness being White privilege and racist, apparently the great majority of people of color I have known, and know, as classmates, colleagues, teachers, neighbors, friends, even just fellow human beings, did not get the proverbial memo: they are quite nice.
White privilege references white people wrote the constitution, the laws. 😂
Thank you
Really. These people make academia, higher education look less and less credible with every one of their papers on “racism” or “white privilege” they . . . find.
Sad part is, they, and likely some of their academia cohorts, are patting themselves on the back like they actually accomplished something of significance.
As hard as I try, I just can’t make myself be an a..hole. There are times when I think it might be advantageous but I just can’t go there. I guess I could take the passive aggressive route and stop picking up my elderly neighbors paper each morning and putting out his trash can. I could cut back on tipping which would save me a lot since I eat out all the time. Those jerks are arguing against civility for God’s sake. I think it would be easy to guess how they vote. There, that feels better.
unadulterated0263034d80,
If you want examples of how to be a world class jerk, or a A–hole, just read the annonys comments here on the good professor’s blog. I guess we could say, annony is the epitome of non-Whiteness. What an accomplishment!
The Caribbean island of Nevis has a slogan, “Nevis Nice” and the people there are nice, about as nice as I have been with. Nevis is 98-99% Black so clearly they see nice as mire than White Privilege. It is civility, a way to help yourself and others.
I looked up the clown car that wrote this dreck. All white PhDs, even the men.
And some other idiots saw fit to peer review and publish it. Mouse utopia has arrived.
Diogenes
Please define Men…
You might have me there. I could have misgendered them 😉
If you want to destroy a nation/culture, you eliminate its founding ethos, one step at a time.
One example was the WPA under the guidance of eleanor and her girl friend where they placed progressive, euro-centered artists in positions to create art that carried their very socialist ideals (it fit in well with the New Deal and the creeping socialism provided during the Great Depression).
Just pre-WWII, these various artists, musicians, writers etc. were positioned in most of our national and prominent institutions and education centers where they began spreading their “message” to generations of young and into our very cultural core.
The next big step was the creation of that “great society” that gave us the welfare state and sapped the very concept of individual responsibility out of generations of young. We now have hordes of useless people who contribute nothing but live as parasites on those who are still clinging to the original American sense of personal responsibility and being taxed (it’s called spreading the wealth) to support growing numbers of human flotsam.
Lately we have the media/education industry (totally loaded with progressive, nihilistic, fanatic apologists) continuing to indoctrinate further generations that the mores and tenets of America were, inherently evil and must be removed and shunned. There is a rejection of the Rule of Law, of scientific data that conflicts with ideology, the march to remove any religion from the public square and replacing that with a “do your own thing” chaos that defies logic.
This is a simple set of examples of how the progressives have altered our culture in slow steps but the goal is to annihilate Western Culture to the point of chaos and provide the answer as democratic socialism/communism.
This Niceness is Whiteness is true, compared to life in much of the world; Western Culture surely provided a safe haven for civilized behavior to flourish.
They truly believe that Western Culture must be brought down in order for progressivism to take over. This is just one more small step towards the elimination of us, but what these fools do not see is that their very existence as free thinkers is only courtesy of the very culture that they wish to destroy and they are willfully blinded to the available data that shows their quest to be in vain. They bring nothing but chaos and destruction to the table, offering up failed ideology hiding under a new name.
So true. Step by step… Never realizing that they are in the process of destroying the goose that laid the golden egg of freedom.
Mama, one thing in your comment does land, whether you meant it this way or not: “Whiteness” in this study isn’t argued for, it’s baked in from the start as a negative, self-evident truth. The moment something gets labeled Whiteness, the verdict’s already been delivered by the word itself.
“. . . it’s baked in . . .”
Yep.
They’re from the SPLC school of racism: Concoct supply to meet their demand.
Let’s say someone is supporting a family and comes down with a cancer that is very expensive to treat. The family is fairly ruined financially. Are you going to say that the govt. providing assistance undermines “the concept of individual responsibility”?…as if every misfortune is that person’s fault?
This is why welfare reform (under Clinton, a Democrat) began imposing work requirements. The BBBill last summer does the same for Medicaid eligibility.
So, your grievance has been redressed by govt. Were you aware, or just cling tenciously to past grievances?
SMDH
One of the challenges of living in a post-racial meritocracy is putting aside the innate, instinctual awareness of racial appearance differences. That’s not going to go away because it comes as a legacy part of the human package. You can’t suppress these instant color perceptions through willpower. Your vision system doesn’t take orders that way. What you can do is ignore them as noise signals.
Someone who attaches significance to superficial color appearances is at risk of “looking for racism” — and if you go around looking for racism, you’re sure to find it — through misperceptions of conflicts.
Unfortunately, we’re living in a media dystopia that supports and encourages “I’ll believe what I want to believe”.
And some Americans have become grievance collectors instead of positive thinkers. This media “negativity echo chamber” is the major nemesis of our times — How can we solve this? Gentle mockery of paranoid thinking is a great starting point…delivered in a nice way.
Let’s all double our niceness when pointing out neurotic ideation.
This blog is an echo chamber containing the contents of wild imaginations.
“if you go around looking for racism, you’re sure to find it — through misperceptions of conflicts.”
The study was a Rorschach test. Look at the data points and tell us what you see; pure confirmation bias.
There’s an old, simple adage for the good professor’s truthful take: “Damned if you do and damned if you don’t.”
That’s assuming the professor’s take is truthful to begin with. Someone already pointed out his take is not truthful.
was that someone you??
All that those idiots are doing is attempting to justify their own vile nastiness and misbehavior. The result is utter FAILURE!
Picture a scientist walking into a lab with a microscope built to detect exactly one thing, “niceness as Whiteness,” and nothing else. That’s not a metaphor, it’s what the paper’s own abstract describes: they went in “using a niceness as Whiteness framework” before a single finding was reported. The lens came first. The conclusion was the lens’s only possible output.
Here’s the honest comparison. If I walked into a conversation already convinced someone was an idiot, and filtered everything they said through that assumption, I’d find plenty of “proof” they were an idiot. Not because it’s true, but because that’s the only thing my lens was built to see. That’s my bias to overcome, not a methodology to publish. When four researchers bring that same kind of pre-loaded lens into a study, and then report back that the data confirmed exactly what the lens was built to find, that’s not a discovery. That’s a closed loop.
And they built that entire loop on two school districts, out of roughly 13,200 in this country. Two anonymous districts stand in for a framework about how American school policing works nationwide. Tainted lens, tiny sample, and a conclusion that was never at risk of coming back any other way. That’s not research. That’s confirmation with a title page.
One more thing worth noticing: four authors, four different universities, four different states. That spread gives the paper the appearance of a broad, multi-institution undertaking. But look closer and all it actually expands is the authorship, not the study. The research itself never leaves two districts. Four names on the cover doesn’t make the evidence underneath it any wider.
Olly,
Did you even read the study? At all?
You are confusing a confirmatory scientific experiment with a qualitative case study, you misunderstand, as you alwasy do, how modern research methodology actually works.The authors did not hide their lens; they stated it upfront because that is how qualitative sociology operates.
You assume that all valid research must start completely blind, like a double-blind medical trial. But in social sciences, researchers routinely use deductive framework analysis.
You do not just stare at 73 interview transcripts (totaling hundreds of hours of audio) and hope a random pattern emerges. You apply a specific, established theoretical framework to see if the data fits or contradicts it.
Applying a framework does not guarantee a match. If the SROs’ interviews had revealed that their interpersonal niceness directly led them to lower arrest rates, refuse structural mandates, or achieve racially equitable discipline, the data would have broken the lens. The lens didn’t force the officers to say they let kids choose the radio station while driving them to jail; the officers said that themselves. The lens was simply used to categorize and make sense of that specific, real-world behavior.
To use your analogy,
If a mechanic uses a specialized diagnostic tool to find out why a specific engine model keeps stalling, you don’t accuse them of bias because they brought the tool into the garage with them. You look at whether the tool accurately explained the stall.
The authors brought a specific framework to explain a documented “stall”—why nice officers still produce unequal arrest numbers. The data fit the framework. Dismissing it as a “closed loop” simply because you dislike the tool they used doesn’t change the reality of the numbers they found.
What is the difference between this type of scholarship and mental illness?
Funding?
Why would a higher arrest rate of black students relative to black students’ share of the total student population indicate racism? Could it not be that more black students get arrested because they commit more crime?
Thats the tirade about defend police etc. We don’t need no stinkin’ laws. It’s lawlessness. Imo . It’s the love of vice.
Defund ^^ word program doesn’t recognize defund as an actual word. De-fund.
My goodness, anthropology is interesting!
From a comment upthread: “There’s a reason why universities are places where the free exchange of ideas occurs..”
Someone’s been asleep for at least 40 or 50 years.
Must be nice.