White Women’s Tears and Racist Obstacles to Solidarity

• In Event: Theorizing Structures of Domination, Challenging Modalities of Racial Exclusion

Abstract

This paper theorizes the way in which structures of domination are present in even the most quotidian of expressions, tears. In particular, this paper examines the debate around white women’s tears that took flight on twitter, and argues that this is emblematic of the way the racialized structures of domination permeate all parts of our lives. This paper considers the debate around white women’s tears against the backdrop of the solidaristic modes of crying presented in Toni Morrison’s Beloved. Instead of a step towards solidarity, white women are accused on crying in an effort to foreclose attempts at community-building. In a recent Guardian article, the author writes, “Almost every black woman I know has a story about a time in a professional setting in which she attempted to have a talk with a white woman about her behavior and it ended with a white woman crying. One black woman wrote on twitter: ‘The white woman wasn’t crying because she felt sorry and was deeply remorseful. The white woman was crying because she felt bullied and/or the black woman was being too harsh on her.’” This illustrates the way in which tears can be invoked and interpreted along racial lines in a way that blocks attempts at solidarity. This paper argues that white women’s tears reproduce the racialized structures of domination, rendering black women voiceless and powerless in their wake. It uses the work of Audre Lorde and Brittany Cooper to theorize a response to this predicament.

Author

• Danielle Hanley, Rutgers University, New Brunswick