From: "DAVI JOSEPH" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 1:07 AM Subject: Re: [camnetwork] Fw: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
Edward,
Here is another European man trying to spread some truth in our confused world.
ZNet Commentary March 23, 1999 "White America's Dirty Little Secrets" By Tim Wise
Sometimes it's best to just tell the truth. Even when
it makes folks angry. In fact, particularly then,
because it's at precisely those times that the truth
is obviously most in need of being spoken-otherwise
resistance to it probably wouldn't be so strident.
Such has always been my feeling when it comes to
discussions of race and racism, where too often we
skirt the real issues. So, for example, well-meaning
mostly white liberals praise "diversity," without
addressing the institutional injustices which caused
and continue to cause a lack of diversity-in schools,
businesses, or certain neighborhoods-in the first
place. Likewise, so-called defenders of affirmative
action who wanted to talk about anything but ongoing
racism in their tepid and ineffective opposition to
Initiative 200 in Washington recently. So too, those
in the "tolerance training" business who treat racism
as little more than a personality flaw in need of
adjustment, instead of a carefully cultivated system
of oppression to which good people often acquiesce. These are folks who think it brave to condemn the
lynching in Jasper, or to ridicule the Klan, but think
little of mortgage discrimination, racially-unequal
healthcare access, race and class tracking in public
schools, or racially-biased police practices across
America-all of which exact a greater collective price
on communities of color than the Aryan Nations or a
pack of skinheads ever have. This is not to say that
the organized white supremacist movement isn't
dangerous, just that real people are being locked up
now, shot at now, denied adequate schooling now, and
"ghettoized" now because of racism, by guys in suits
and uniforms rather than sheets, and yet the dear
souls at the Southern Poverty Law Center among others
say nothing-they're too busy keeping track of hate
groups on the internet.
The importance of telling the truth about race issues
was demonstrated yet again to me last week, when I had
the chance to sit on a panel in Knoxville, Tennessee
to discuss the question: "Is White America Responsible
for Combating Racial Inequity?"
There was one moment where telling the truth became
particularly important during the evening's
discussion. Only a few minutes into the event, one of
the moderators asked whether white America "has any
secrets that we should know about?" In particular, he
wanted to know if there were certain rules of the
club, so to speak, about which people of color are
unaware, but about which they should know, in order to
more effectively organize against racism.
At first I thought about discussing the process of
"white bonding" that goes on when white folks who
don't know each other that well are in an all-white
setting, and issues of race come up. Whether it's in a
cab, a bar, a park, a restaurant, or a college dorm
room, whites almost instinctively assume every other
white person in the room thinks just the way they do,
and proceed to cut loose with any number of racial
diatribes: about "those people" on welfare (CEO's I
ask?); "those people" coming across the border
(Canadians, I presume?); "those people" who will shoot
you at the drop of a hat (white schoolchildren in
Arkansas, or Oregon, I inquire?).
But I decided to share something else: a secret so
deep that even most whites don't realize it to be
true. A secret which has major implications for our
organizing efforts, but which is never discussed, and
would be denied by most: namely, that by and large
white America doesn't really want racial equity. Although such a statement may not seem outlandish to Z
readers, to most it's downright heresy. After all,
think about how many times you've heard someone say
something like, "we all want the same thing, we just
have different beliefs about how to get there." Or, "I
want everyone to have an equal opportunity, I just
don't want government to force it," or to "confiscate
my wealth" to make more opportunity for others.
Self-help, after all, is something they insist they do
support, and would love to see in communities of
color, even if it resulted in significantly greater
equity in terms of good jobs, educations and homes in
"better" neighborhoods. "Lift yourselves up" they
proclaim, and we'll be there to greet you.
But it's a lie, and I felt it necessary to say so. And
to demonstrate just how fraudulent are the claims
whites make about supporting equality so long as it
stems from self-help and not redistribution, I offered
the following hypothetical:
Imagine that next week a group of twenty black
families call a press conference at the National Press
Club to announce that for six generations since
emancipation, their families have been stashing away
money, investing it and letting it collect interest in
banks around the country. And now, after all that
scrimping and saving they have decided to distribute
the savings throughout the black community. As
believers in self-help and enterprise, they wish to
"liberate" every African-American from the "bonds" of
government largesse and so they have saved and saved,
and now have enough to give to every black family
approximately $40,000 free and clear. With that money,
they declare, the black community can get the job
training and education it needs, the health care it
deserves, and buy a home in most any neighborhood.
There are no strings attached, no government matching
funds expected-just black folks helping black folks,
without a dime of the white man's money or one iota of
government intervention.
How do you think, I asked the audience, most of white
America would respond to this announcement? With
praise? Joy at the thought of blacks having roughly
the same accumulated wealth as whites (the average gap
is about $40,000)? Would we have a parade to honor the
modern-day Booker T's for their magnanimity and
refusal to ask for a handout for their people? Or
would we react by and large in horror? Would we scream
"reverse racism," "discrimination," and accuse the
benefactors of fomenting "separatism?" If any of you
honestly believe we would celebrate, I then proceeded,
let me suggest that you seek out professional help,
and quickly.
Silence. Absolute silence. And then smiles crept
across the faces of the persons of color in
attendance. They knew that perhaps the biggest secret
of all in the white community had just been shared,
and for that matter made visible not just to
themselves, but to other whites who probably had never
really contemplated just how shallow white America's
commitment to racial equity really was. What was most
amazing was that simply stating this truth, clearly
and without equivocation seemed to have a deep impact
on the whites in the audience. Had I been a person of
color, I'm sure they would have ignored me, or become
hostile. But they didn't. Instead, after the event
many approached me to say how much they appreciated
hearing this perspective. Although they found it
troubling and more than a little pessimistic, they
agreed that it was true-even for themselves in many
instances-and realized that they needed to get more
involved than ever talking with other whites,
challenging our perceived racial interests, and
building a movement for social and economic justice.
In many ways, they said, their lethargy in this area
had previously been the result of thinking there
wasn't that much to do. They were no longer so sure.
Make no mistake, if it's true that whites aren't
really committed to racial equity then we obviously
have a lot farther to travel than many Americans
currently believe. But even this fairly pessimistic
reality can inspire us to redouble our efforts: at
least we can proceed without being blinded by those
who say they support our ends (equity) but not our
means (affirmative action, living wage legislation,
workplace democracy, redistribution, etc.). If we are
honest, and realize that an entirely new and
compelling vision has to be offered which can trump
that offered by racial privilege, then progress can be
made. But that can never happen if we're not willing
to tell the truth about racism, and certainly not if
we run away from the discussion altogether, or limit
it to a discussion of "extremists" and Nazis. And that
can never happen until we-particularly whites-show
other whites exactly what they stand to gain from
equity (and what they lose from racism) as workers,
parents, neighbors, and even taxpayers. For there is a
flipside to racial privilege, and it's none too
pretty: a growing gap between rich and poor which
threatens all but a few; a crumbling educational
infrastructure; the expenditure of billions of dollars
to incarcerate those whom we deemed "throwaways" many
years before; and the beggaring of millions of white
working people, willing to sacrifice material and
communal interests for the sake of staying ahead of
people of color.
The bad news is still the bad news: institutional and
attitudinal barriers to true racial equity are
everpresent and formidable. But there is good news:
when whites confront other whites about their fears,
and are willing to challenge what other whites say,
think, and how they act when it comes to racial
equity, movement is possible. It won't be easy, but
then, nothing worth having is anyway. Tim Wise is the Director of the newly-formed
Association for White Anti-Racist Education (AWARE),
in Nashville, Tennessee. For more information, please
contact him at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--- Edward Mulindwa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
From: "Vukoni Lupa-Lasaga" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 9:50 PM Subject: [Ugnet] White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
>
>
> *White Privilege Shapes The U.S.
> by Robert Jensen*
>
>
> Here's what white privilege sounds like:
>
> I am sitting in my University of Texas office,
talking to a very bright > and very conservative white student about
affirmative action in college > admissions, which he opposes and I support.
>
> The student says he wants a level playing field
with no unearned > advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks
that in the United > States being white has advantages. Have either of
us, I ask, ever > benefited from being white in a world run mostly
by white people? Yes, he > concedes, there is something real and tangible we
could call white > privilege.
>
> So, if we live in a world of white
privilege--unearned white > privilege--how does that affect your notion of a
level playing field? I > ask.
>
> He paused for a moment and said, "That really
doesn't matter."
>
> That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the
ultimate white privilege: > the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned
privilege but ignore what > it means.
>
> That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk
about race and racism with > students. It drove home to me the importance of
confronting the dirty > secret that we white people carry around with us
everyday: In a world of > white privilege, some of what we have is unearned.
I think much of both > the fear and anger that comes up around
discussions of affirmative action > has its roots in that secret. So these days, my
goal is to talk openly and > honestly about white supremacy and white
privilege.
>
> White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is
complex. In a white > supremacist culture, all white people have
privilege, whether or not they > are overtly racist themselves. There are general
patterns, but such > privilege plays out differently depending on
context and other aspects of > one's identity (in my case, being male gives me
other kinds of privilege). > Rather than try to tell others how white privilege
has played out in their > lives, I talk about how it has affected me.
>
> I am as white as white gets in this country. I am
of northern European > heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of
the whitest states in > the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white
world surrounded by > racism, both personal and institutional. Because I
didn't live near a > reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the
state's only numerically > significant non-white population, American
Indians.
>
> I have struggled to resist that racist training
and the ongoing racism of > my culture. I like to think I have changed, even
though I routinely trip > over the lingering effects of that internalized
racism and the > institutional racism around me. But no matter how
much I "fix" myself, one > thing never changes--I walk through the world with
white privilege.
>
> What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly,
when I seek admission to a > university, apply for a job, or hunt for an
apartment, I don't look > threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating
me for those things look > like me--they are white. They see in me a
reflection of themselves, and in > a racist world that is an advantage. I smile. I am
white. I am one of them > I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical
opinions, I am cut some > slack. After all, I'm white.
>
> My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I
am white. Some complain > that affirmative action has meant the university
is saddled with mediocre > minority professors. I have no doubt there are
minority faculty who are > mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry
Louis Gates Jr. once > pointed out, if affirmative action policies were
in place for the next > hundred years, it's possible that at the end of
that time the university > could have as many mediocre minority professors as
it has mediocre white > professors. That isn't meant as an insult to
anyone, but is a simple > observation that white privilege has meant that
scores of second-rate > white professors have slid through the system
because their flaws were > overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as
well as on gender, class > and ideology.
>
> Some people resist the assertions that the United
States is still a > bitterly racist society and that the racism has
real effects on real > people. But white folks have long cut other white
folks a break. I know, > because I am one of them.
>
> I am not a genius--as I like to say, I'm not the
sharpest knife in the > drawer. I have been teaching full-time for six
years, and I've published a > reasonable amount of scholarship. Some of it is
the unexceptional stuff > one churns out to get tenure, and some of it, I
would argue, actually is > worth reading. I work hard, and I like to think
that I'm a fairly decent > teacher. Every once in awhile, I leave my office
at the end of the day > feeling like I really accomplished something. When
I cash my paycheck, I > don't feel guilty.
>
> But, all that said, I know I did not get where I
am by merit alone. I > benefited from, among other things, white
privilege. That doesn't mean > that I don't deserve my job, or that if I weren't
white I would never have > gotten the job. It means simply that all through
my life, I have soaked up > benefits for being white. I grew up in fertile
farm country taken by force > from non-white indigenous people. I was educated
in a well-funded, > virtually all-white public school system in which
I learned that white > people like me made this country great. There I
also was taught a variety > of skills, including how to take standardized
tests written by and for > white people.
>
> All my life I have been hired for jobs by white
people. I was accepted for > graduate school by white people. And I was hired
for a teaching position > at the predominantly white University of Texas,
which had a white > president, in a college headed by a white dean and
in a department with a > white chairman that at the time had one non-white
tenured professor.
>
> There certainly is individual variation in
experience. Some white people > have had it easier than me, probably because they
came from wealthy > families that gave them even more privilege. Some
white people have had it > tougher than me because they came from poorer
families. White women face
=== message truncated ===
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