This is exactly what people mean when we talk about white fragility. This is being deeply invested in denying facts and reality when they are right in front of your face. Wallace would in no way be harmed if he simply admitted that, yes, things were bad. That people were very racist. And that brutal suppression of true democracy was really happening.

He wasn't alive then. This isn't about him. But he's making it about his fragile sense of whiteness instead of about facing up to history and learning to do better today.