Considering that the white race is the oppressor, there is an effort to disassociate oneself from it. At the same time, one cannot disassociate by denying the importance of race, which is inviolable. In order to be able to say anything about race, one has to adopt the appearance of a neutral position in a conflict model of race relations, without ever actually claiming to be able to speak from a neutral position. This is accomplished through criticism of white people and a penance of irony. All reference to one's own experience as a white person must be about the complete and unrelenting lack of perspective and understanding which one's white privilege creates, but not in any way that might suggest self-pity to the casual audience, nor that the lack of perspective derived from one's whiteness is in any way interesting in itself.