This week FOX commentator Melissa Francis was brought to tears while trying to defend Trump’s assertion that “many sides” were to blame for the fatal violence in Charlottesville, VA during a white supremacist, anti-Semitic, pro-Confederacy demonstration and counter-demonstration. She was challenged by two of her fellow panelists who argued that Trump was drawing a false equivalence to suggest that each side was responsible. Oddly, Francis took their comments on Trump personally, began to cry, and said this:
I am so uncomfortable having this conversation… because I know what’s in my heart and I know that I don’t think that anyone is different, better, or worse based on the color of their skin. But I feel like there is nothing any of us can say right without without being judged!
At this point, a fellow FOX commentator, Harris Faulkner, who is African American, interrupted to console her:
You know Melissa, there have been a lot of tears… It’s a difficult place where we are… [but] we can do this. We can have this conversation. Oh yes, we can. And it’s okay if we cry having it.
But is it okay for white people to cry in the midst of conversations about racism?
Education scholar Frances V. Rains has argued that it is not okay. In her essay, Is the Benign Really Harmless?, Rains discusses several types of reactions white people frequently have to difficult conversations about race, ones that undermine meaningful progress. In one, she talks about white people’s tears.
When a white person cries in response to frank discussions of racism, Rains explains, it derails the conversation, refocuses the attention on the white person, and holds anti-racist speakers accountable for attending to his or her feelings. The most important thing in the room, in other words, becomes a privileged person’s hurt feelings, not generations of systematic racial oppression, exploitation, and violence.
This is exactly what happened in the clip above.
- The panelists were debating whether Trump’s comments amounted to a false equivalence that was supportive of racism and anti-Semitism.
- A white woman rejects the notion that Trump’s comments endorsed bigotry.
- When some disagree, she cries and begins discussing what it feels like for her personally to be having this conversation.
- The conversation turns away from racism, anti-Semitism, and the possibility that the President of the United States is a Nazi sympathizer, and toward the white woman and her feelings.
- Her discomfort become the problem to be resolved.
- A member of the disadvantaged group steps in to comfort her.
This is just as Rains would have predicted.
Amazingly, an earnest conversation about oppression turns into an opportunity to give solace to the oppressor… and it’s a member of the oppressed who must do the comforting.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 26
Japaniard — August 17, 2017
In short, her emotional reaction was not valid and she should have repressed her experience better...
Seriously?
Lisa — August 17, 2017
Sorry, she needs to grow a spine if she is going to defend Trump.
Robin Pearce — August 17, 2017
I wish I could cry and never have a tear roll. I think she's more upset that no one will let her get away with saying all hail Caesar than racism.
Beth — August 18, 2017
I think that the tears were actually a sign of anger and frustration not sadness. I know that I cry if I am angry and I know a lot of other women who also do that. I assume it is because we have been told as children than girls must not express anger so we suppress it. It comes out as apparent sadness and 'being upset'
( which is an emotion that it is acceptable for women to express).
I hasten to add this does not negate Rains point. If anything it makes it even more salient that an angry white woman forces other women to feel sorry for her.
Carstonio — August 19, 2017
Melissa, stop making racism about you.
kaydenpat — August 19, 2017
Let her cry. Who cares? Keep talking the truth. She'll eventually stop crying, right?
alternatesteve2 — August 19, 2017
Well, okay. Well, I gotta say, speaking as somebody who has *personally* witnessed a *lot* of incidences about "white tears", etc., being thrown around when it wasn't actually warranted.....this particular story actually is a real example of bonafide "white tears" at work; this, right here, truly *is* the real deal.
I mean, for goodness' sakes, is Mrs. Francis truly *that* unaware of Trump's deep-seated bigotry? She may not be personally racist, perhaps, but Trump most definitely is. The bastard has had a *long* history of racism, misogyny, etc., and such is very, very well documented, going back f***ing decades, in fact. Sorry to say, but I don't really sympathize with her that much, under the circumstances. Given that, she's either deeply deluded, dense, or perhaps both.
(Meanwhile, I'd also like to say that Harris Franklin handled her response to this very well.)
nanalyly072 — July 30, 2022
The Trump economy has been a real-life experiment octordle. The president’s vision of massive tax cuts and deregulation, combined with the threat of trade wars and an anti-China stance, has led to soaring stock prices and a surge in business confidence, but also an increase in corporate profits.