In this study, the author, a teacher educator of color, explores her inability to successfully navigate a tension-filled moment in a teacher education diversity course while discussing ethnic and racial stereotypes. More specifically, using "inquiry as stance" and relocating personal pedagogical practice to social and critical practices through the conceptual lenses of "white racial supremacy" and "double consciousness", she investigates her dilemma that she uncomfortably confronts when a student of color speaks up against the majority of students in class who are white. In working through and theorizing the author's inner conflict, as she feels the commitment to support the student of color while also seeking validation by the majority students, she concludes that teacher educators of color committed to social justice work can unwittingly alienate the very students of color they are committed to inspire as an effect of internalized white supremacy. In the final section, the author argues that internalized white racial supremacy is an inevitable condition of structures of racial oppression, and a failure to recognize and study internalized white racial supremacy can hamper diversity and multicultural education that are meant to combat racism and further perpetuate existing racial hierarchies.