REBOOT: The Foxes and the Henhouse

Hello friends,

It's time for the monthly article surfaced from the archives. This article originally went out to paid subscribers, and was one of the most popular articles the year it was published. I'm re-releasing it for free. Though this referred to an actual incident, I think it's very relevant now, when there are so many examples of people who despise a thing being put in charge of it (say, a department looking after justice, a policy favouring people of limited economic means, an office responsible for health or the environment, to name a few examples off the top of my head).

The Foxes and the Henhouse

If some foxes investigate other foxes who wreaked havoc in the henhouse, what are the chances that they’ll find those foxes guilty? Isn’t it more likely that they’ll try to gaslight the hens into thinking they were squawking about nothing? I think it is. [2025 update: is this a good time to mention 47 "exonerating" the January 6th traitors?] 

Of course, I’m not really talking about foxes and hens, but about white* people with their own agenda investigating other white people, also with their own agenda, in relation to a complaint about racism from a Black* woman. This happened to me, and after a process that lasted a couple of weeks, I was coldly and dismissively gaslit by the human resources company (and therefore indirectly by the main company) about what had happened. [2025 update: I am not the only one this has happened to - there are examples all the time, if you're paying attention.]

As I’ve said many times before, Black people know a hell of a lot about racism, based on decades of experience. White people, not so much. So when white people are in charge of investigating racism, they may not see it due (at best) to lack of experience or knowledge. In this situation as a white person, it’s crucial to know what you don’t know.

What’s potentially worse is that they may be aware of it but want to minimise the harm done because they think we’re “beyond all that” and “living in a post-racial society”, which we most certainly aren’t. [2025 update: there's so much evidence for this I hardly know where to begin, but note, for example, that Project 2025 disproportionately targets Black, Brown and Global Majority people.]

Or they may want to protect the white person involved at the expense of the Black person who was harmed. This last one happens a LOT.