Pandagon writes about how certain (well meaning) people act as if civil rights struggles are there for their own personal enlightenment.
What I find is that white liberals (and even some conservatives) view historical opression or turmoil through what I call the “PBS lens” – a prepackaged history of struggle that ends on the hopeful message of peace and inclusivity, replete with soundtrack and personable narrator. There’s the idea of “I’m trying, but I’m too embarassed to do my own research, and perhaps too guilty to take responsibility in the same way that I’m asking you to take responsibility for the sum total of your own identity.”
I’m not sure what the solution is, however. I understand and respect the desire to “enlighten” oneself to a socio-cultural problem, however, not all people who experience some sort of opression are Morgan Freeman, ready to be the sagely token of enlightenment for white people who just can’t get the story quite straight.