The Dissonance of Whiteness: The Contradiction That Stops Liberation
"Hi, I'm Desireé B. Stephens, and I Pathologize Whiteness"
“The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor.”
— Malcolm X
Meet Jane
Jane opposes Trump.
Jane protests tyranny.
Jane supports birthright citizenship.
Jane appears willing to vote for people of color.
Jane rescues animals.
Jane likely considers herself progressive.
And yet when Black people discuss racism, Jane reaches for one of the oldest racial talking points in America:
“Young Black males have more to fear from other young Black males.”
Jane said this publicly, under her own name, on a public post. So we will discuss it publicly.
If you’ve spent any time doing anti-racism work, you’ve heard some version of this before.
What fascinated me wasn’t the comment itself.
It was who said it.
Because what I found wasn’t what many people imagine when they imagine racism.
Jane wasn’t wearing a hood.
Jane wasn’t posting slurs.
Jane wasn’t MAGA.
Jane wasn’t attending white nationalist rallies.
By all accounts, Jane would most likely consider herself a progressive liberal.
Jane was posting about democracy.
About authoritarianism.
About protecting vulnerable communities.
About resisting oppression.
And yet the moment the conversation became Black people, the analysis changed.
Suddenly systems disappeared.
History disappeared.
Context disappeared.
And what remained were stereotypes.
That contradiction is the story.
Not Jane.
Jane is simply the latest example.
Years ago, long before this interaction, I wrote a series on Medium called Dissonance.
At the time, I was trying to name something I kept witnessing but couldn’t fully explain.
People who opposed oppression while participating in it.
People who advocated for justice while defending injustice.
People who understood systems everywhere except where those systems implicated them.
I thought I was writing about contradiction.
I was actually writing about whiteness.
I just didn’t have the language for it yet.
Paid Subscriber Section
The rest of this article is for paid subscribers.
In the next section, I explore:
Why I used to say, “Hi, I’m Desireé B. Stephens, and I pathologize whiteness.”
The difference between pathologizing white people and examining whiteness as a system
Why dissonance is not a side effect of whiteness but one of its primary mechanisms
What the FBI’s own data says about the “Black-on-Black crime” deflection
How racism survives inside otherwise progressive politics
Why Malcolm X’s critique of white liberals remains relevant today
A Liberation Lens and Practice Your Praxis for examining the contradictions that survive our politics
Paid subscriptions allow me to continue creating rigorous, accessible liberation education while building the frameworks, resources, and communal practices that move us beyond performance and toward embodied transformation.
This is the reciprocity that keeps Liberation Education sustainable.
$10 a month. $100 a year. $150 a year as an Equity Partner — which helps sustain access by funding scholarships for community members who need them.
And if cost is the barrier, you are not excluded here. Scholarships are available at scholarships@desireebstephens.com. No questions asked.
Become a paid subscriber to continue reading and support independent liberation education.
