Building stamina, fighting fragility: The account of a white settler ‘recovering racist’

Abstract

White fragility, a common response of white people to calls to engage in conversations about racism and address their complicity with it, has received considerable scholarly attention. Much less attention has been given to the antidote: white stamina. This paper explores the development of stamina in the journey of ‘recovery’ from racism of one white settler individual who has become a public figure in Aotearoa New Zealand, in part through his declaration that he is a ‘recovering racist’. Significantly, the racism at the heart of this person’s story was directed towards indigenous, Māori New Zealanders; racism and settler colonialism are intertwined in this case. Consequently, the paper also responds to Lawrence and Dua’s (2005) call to ‘decolonise antiracism’ by foregrounding the indigenous–settler relationship in the analysis of racism within a settler society. The paper teases out overlaps and differences between white racism and settler colonialism, and between white stamina and settler stamina. Finally, I argue that there may be things for antiracists to learn from struggles to decolonise settler colonialism. Most significantly, this analysis points to the importance and power of the existence of an aspirational positive identity and position for ‘recovering racists’.