whitesplain
English edit
Etymology edit
white + -splain, after mansplain.
Verb edit
whitesplain (third-person singular simple present whitesplains, present participle whitesplaining, simple past and past participle whitesplained)
- (colloquial, derogatory, chiefly Internet) To explain (something) condescendingly to one who is not white, especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener's inferior understanding because of their race.
- 2013, Clarence Page (quoting Urban Dictionary), "Rand Paul ‘whitesplaining’ for Howard students", New Haven Register, 16 April 2013:
- Rand Paul whitesplained to students at Howard University that a black Republican founded the NAACP.
- 2014 February 17, Michelle Goldberg, “Feminism's Toxic Twitter Wars”, in The Nation:
- One self-described white feminist tweeted at her to explain that no women of color had been at the Barnard meeting "and that I needed to be educated about that," Wilson recalls. Somehow, activists who prided themselves on their racial enlightenment "were whitesplaining me about racism," she adds, laughing.
- 2014, Justin Baragona, "Paul Ryan claims Black men are lazy and cause of poverty", New York Beacon, Volume 21, Number 12, 20 March 2014 - 26 March 2014, page 4:
- Obviously, the answer for those living in abject poverty in a jobless environment is to have someone come down from their lofty perch and whitesplain about how to lift yourself up by your bootstraps.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:whitesplain.
- 2013, Clarence Page (quoting Urban Dictionary), "Rand Paul ‘whitesplaining’ for Howard students", New Haven Register, 16 April 2013: