A lot of white men are marching in Charlottesville, Virginia, this weekend, chanting slogans like “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us.” The rally suggests that white men are the real victims of the American political climate, due to plans to tear down Confederate monuments — symbols of white supremacy and racism — in the Southern city.

The reality, of course, is white men have dominated America throughout its history. White Americans beat their black and Latino counterparts in terms of wealth, income, and educational attainment. All US presidents but one have been white men, and the current Congress — supposedly the most diverse in history — remains dominated by white and male legislators.

So what’s going on here?

One concept to explain this is “white fragility.” Robin DiAngelo, who studies race at Westfield State University, described this phenomenon in a groundbreaking 2011 paper:

White people in North America live in a social environment that protects and insulates them from race-based stress. This insulated environment of racial protection builds white expectations for racial comfort while at the same time lowering the ability to tolerate racial stress, leading to what I refer to as White Fragility. White Fragility is a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and behaviors such as argumentation, silence, and leaving the stress-inducing situation. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium.