Former first lady Michelle Obama recently told SXSW London that imposter syndrome is something she sees in women, minorities, and people who don’t think they’re supposed to be in positions of power — but not in white men.
And BlazeTV host Jason Whitlock couldn’t disagree more.
“To have sat at every powerful table there is, I have seen it all. Every table. I’ve been at it … it’s not all that. Because there’s so many people like me, like you, women, minorities, folks who aren’t supposed to be at these tables because they are sitting around thinking that they are imposters,” Obama said.
“You know, imposter syndrome. … I haven’t met one [white man] who has felt it,” she added.
“Obama is describing something real. That ache is real. She just got the diagnosis wrong because imposter syndrome is not a white problem, and it is not a black problem. It’s a God problem,” Whitlock says.
He describes imposter syndrome as the “fear men and women carry when they wear their resume as armor rather than the armor of God.”
“The only people who feel like frauds are the people who forgot whose they are,” he explains.
“The world looks at that feeling and prescribes more affirmation, more representation, more DEI. We’ll fix the fear of not belonging by putting more people in the room. And it never works. The ache gets worse,” he adds.
Unlike Obama, Whitlock believes that imposter syndrome isn’t defined by the color of your skin.
“Only imposters have imposter syndrome. And I’m not saying that about black people. I’m saying it about secular people, about every person, any color, who built their identity on a foundation that can’t hold the weight,” he says.
The fear is that someone will recognize that you don’t belong in the seat you’re in, which comes from “believing your seat was given to you for a reason that has nothing to do with you.”
“And here’s where we have to be honest. We have to be honest about DEI and affirmative action because this is the uncomfortable part. When you tell an entire generation you’re here to fill a quota, you’re here because of your skin, you’re here to make the numbers look right, you have manufactured imposter syndrome on an industrial scale,” Whitlock explains.
“Of course they feel like frauds,” he says, adding, “You told them they were.”
Want more from Jason Whitlock?
To enjoy more fearless conversations at the crossroads of culture, faith, sports, and comedy with Jason Whitlock, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
Read the full article here
