Race2Dinner founders Regina Jackson and Saira Rao have created a Dinner for Schmucks–like party to shed light on white women’s explicit roles in the continuation of white supremacy. A new documentary Deconstructing Karen puts white women and their fragility front and center at the dinner table.
The documentary’s website states “The crystal is polished. The china is pristine. The candles are lit. And – the nice white lady guests are about to be served some cold, hard truths.”
On September 28, Race2Dinner’s Instagram page posted a snippet of the uncomfortable conversation from Deconstructing Karen, and sh*t got real at the dinner table after Jackson posed a direct and poignant question to the group of white women.
“How many of you would trade places with a Black person in this society? Raise your hand,” Jackson, who’s Black, asked.
The question was initially met with an awkward silence, then one blonde woman gaslit Jackson, as Rao looked on, by mentioning that she once dated a “dark” Hispanic man and was willing to have dark children. The Race2Dinner founder wasn’t having it. She asked the burning question again. The group fidgeted, and the same obtuse woman raised her hand.
The attendee answered, “I don’t know the answer to that.”
Jackson replied, “Well, it’s yes or no. How many of you would do it?”
“I had a relationship with a dark skin Hispanic. For many years, I thought about having children with really dark skin.”
Another white woman sheepishly said, “I’m not saying there isn’t racism. I just don’t see it.”
Another guest admitted that racism exists, and she doesn’t experience it in the same way. Jackson flatly responded, “And you never will.”
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Rao, who’s Indian American, admitted to The Guardian in 2020 that the method may be unorthodox, but it’s the only way that white women would fully engage.
“If you did this in a conference room, they’d leave,” she told the publication. “But wealthy white women have been taught never to leave the dinner table.
Jackson expressed in the same interview, “White men are never going to change anything. If they were, they would have done it by now.”
The two women revealed that wealthy, liberal white women are preferred for the dinner because they can take their influence back to their friends.
Before attending the dinner, the women are required to read White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo.
The “About” section of Race2Dinner clearly states Jackson and Rao’s agenda.
“Dear white women:
You cause immeasurable pain and damage to Black, Indigenous and brown women. We are here to sit down with you to candidly discuss how *exactly* you cause this pain and damage. The dinners are a starting point. A place to start thinking through how you actively uphold white supremacy every minute of every day.
What you do after you leave the dinner is up to you.
Sincerely,
Regina Jackson & Saira Rao”
The dinner hosts eight white women during an intense two-hour session.
