‘White nuclear family’ perpetuates racism, CUNY prof argues
A sociology professor at the City University of New York (CUNY) recently argued in an extensive series of tweets that “the white-nuclear family” perpetuates racism.
Jessie Daniels, a self-described “expert on race,” began her tweetstorm this weekend by declaring that “what I’ve learned is that the white-nuclear family is one of the most powerful forces supporting white supremacy.”
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“I mean, if you’re a white person who says they’re engaged in dismantling white supremacy but…you’re forming a white family [and] reproducing white children that ‘you want the best for’ - how is that helping [and] not part of the problem?”
While she argued that the white nuclear family was a key perpetrator of racism, she also argued that multiracial families can be “part of the problem” too, if the white person in the relationship fails in “dealing [with] your own racism or systemic white supremacy.”
Daniels notes that she’s not alone in her hostility towards the family. Other scholars have a “feminist critique of The Family as an inherently conservative force in society,” she says, citing the work of feminist scholars Peggy McIntosh and Michele Barrett, who argue in their book that the nuclear family structure is a “fact to be lamented.”
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The sacredness of the family also concerns her, Daniels notes, adding that “there’s a whole ideological apparatus to justify how f-cking sacred the family is,” adding that “nothing’s more important” because “Until white people are ready to confront their own family’s racism [and] participation in systemic white supremacy, it’s not getting dismantled.”
Following her tweetstorm, which garnered a great deal of criticism on Twitter, Daniels locked her account down, and her tweets are no longer public.
Campus Reform reached out to Daniels for comment, but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @Toni_Airaksinen
