White privilege and what to do

The discussion Emily, Aastha and I led on race during our Bonner class was basically a synthesis of my previous blog post and Emily's blog post. We began the discussion watching a Tim Wise youtube video about white privilege. We read the passage from White Like Me discussing the issue of service trips to New Orleans after Katrina. We compared service trips like those to New Orleans to the service sites we attend on a regular basis, because our service sites are predominantly in Norristown and Philadelphia, we were trying to point out how we are entering a world very different from that of our Ursinus bubble. The question of whether we truly learn about the places we are serving before we go there came up, what do we really know about Norristown and the issues there? Sure the Bonners go there and tutor or help at an art center, but what do we really know about the way the children we were work with live, or what social justice issues are the greatest there. Surrounding the first quote, we also brought up the idea of white privilege, and whether or not our lives as UC Bonners is itself a white privilege. This got people very annoyed and was undoubtedly the most heated time in class we have had yet this year. Here are some quotes surrounding the issues Bonners had with their service being connected to privilege:

"I would love to have the opportunity to more clearly define white privilege. I still don’t see local service as an “exercise” in privilege. An exercise means that something is being used and the implication is that without the privilege I cannot possibly perform the action. I certainly concede the point that our privilege becomes evident when we get out of a school-provided van with Hollister clothing and an institute of higher education to return to, but to be an exercise would mean that I am required to use my privilege to perform the task."

"In a way, I feel that talking about race in that way is a lose lose situation. Also, i agree with others on the statement as service trips to Norristown not being considered a service trip. I do agree that our white privilege is made known in these areas, but i do not believe it is a direct result of our white privilege."

"Often I don't even realize how many privileges I have just because I am white. I think it is important to acknowledge this privilege, but I do not necessarily think we should be ashamed of it. It is unproductive to be ashamed of the white privilege, instead I feel as though we should take advantage of the privilege we have and help those who are not privileged. This sounds idealistic, but it is possible, and that is evident in the work we do as Bonners. While we are all privileged is some way or another to be able to go to college and to have to time to devote to volunteer work, we are at least using this to help others."

"Does calling individuals privileged perpetuate a problem? And second, if it does perpetuate a problem, is this problem necessary in order to achieve social justice? Despite the fact that individuals may be privileged in a certain extent regarding access to certain things, is having access to things really what life is all about?"

While everyone in Bonner comes from socioeconomic statuses and not everyone is white- all but four of us are. This seems to me that white privilege is manifested enough within the Bonner organization on a whole that it is a topic that should be further understood and discussed.

Another quote from Tim Wise about most nonprofits working in a "colorblind vacuum" instead of referring to issues of class, or income, or urban, rather than being addressed as racial issues. I quickly discovered that quite a few Bonners didn't even really understand what being colorblind truly was, and the discussion turned more into a broad question/awareness of how can institutional racism be fought if we refuse to actually talk about race. People clearly seemed uncomfortable referring to issues such as food deserts or lack of education funding as racist issues. In light of taking Philosophy of Race, I had lost track of how these issues aren't addressed essentially anywhere else.

Finally, we tried to end the class on a more constructive way by breaking up into small groups and discussing what we think people should do and what we should do as Bonners. Each group came up with different responses, but an overarching issue that we agreed needs to be addressed was education.

Here are some quotes that I was impressed with regarding educations roll in addressing these systemic issues:

"One of the most powerful things that struck me was our ignorance. Like when in the video he talked about the thumbs up, which doesn't always mean great work. You need to take into account the culture of those around you and remember that not everyone is the same.

It is upsetting to me that so many people do not see the racism and privilege which exist in our society (myself included before coming to Ursinus). I think that even when we are young, we need to be educated about the history of racism and how it still exists today. If we grow up with these skewed views, we are less likely to be open minded on the subject when we grow older and learn more."

". It was upsetting to realize that, growing up the way I did, even though I never thought of myself as racist, there are these really small ways--like locking the car doors in a black neighborhood-- that I express and continue those stereotypes. In our small groups, I definitely agreed that education is a systematic thing that needs to be addressed; both in the way that it needs to be bettered in poorer areas and that we need to change how racial issues are taught in schools."

"We have so much that we believe we know what is right, and we believe that our way of life is the correct way to live your life. We impose our beliefs because white privilege has told us that we are right. Most importantly, it has told us that the concept of white privilege often resides exclusively in our subconscious, which is dangerous considering it takes awareness to realize what is in our subconscious.

I think that was probably the most powerful and upsetting piece of the discussion. The influence the subconscious has over us. It's upsetting because in a way, we cannot affect what is in our subconscious. There is also no way to know what is in our subconscious until we are made aware of it. Therefore, it's terrifying to think that we may never be made aware of everything that has influenced our subconscious thinking. It is distressing to think that your actions are influenced so heavily by something out of your control. However, in the opposite perspective it is also powerful to know that by being more aware, you can affect how your subconscious influences you. You can affect your awareness, so by ensuring that you maintain conscientiousness, you can start to overcome the societal influences that affect your subconscious. "

While the conversation may have been controversial at time, and Bonners (myself included) still have a lot to learn about racial issues and the best way to address and combat them, I believe the discussion was an effective way to begin to at least raise awareness and encourage questioning of the status quo.

Bonners and Race

For the open medium project I am teaming up with Emily and Aastha to run Bonner class discussion on race. My ideas for the class thus far involve sending a pdf of excerpts from White Like Me, that discuss volunteer work and volunteer organizations (mostly from chapter six). I do not know if this is how the class will actually run but these are the ideas that I am presenting to my group. Some questions that I would like to address are:
What is white privilege?
How is privilege manifested in your life? As a Bonner?
What institutional racism do we witness in our service sites?
          Share my thoughts on UTC (see blog post UC vs. Philly)
Are these issues addressed as racist?
Should they be, why or why not?
If they should be addressed, how can we spark that?
What is our responsibility in everyday life in regards to racism?
What is that you already do
Is there something we can do as Bonners to promote racial justice in the UC community and community partners?
After the discussion I hope to take about ten minutes to have everyone right up a small reflection on what they learned/what was powerful/needs to be addressed further.
We will then compile the responses and find common themes or issues that stick out and create a document including what was actually addressed in the class and the reactions of the other Bonners and ourselves.

Feedback? These are only my ideas and once again may change when Aastha, Emily and I meet up and discuss. The class is happening this Wednesday.

11/10 no blog

I would like to apply my free blog post for attending the lunch discussion on “Dragging the Black Church: Tyler Perry, Steve Harvey, and Rickey Smiley Perform Black Women.” Thanks!

Ursinus vs. Philly

Nearly every Saturday from 9:00-2:00 I volunteer at Urban Tree Connection, a non-profit organization that works in West Philadelphia "to assist urban, low-income communities and revitalize their neighborhoods by transforming abandoned open spaces into safe and functional places that inspire and promote positive human interaction". The full mission statement can be viewed on their website: http://urbantreeconnection.org/about.html. Some brief history that I am aware of is that the organization started to beautify vacant lots and improve neighborhoods since the lots would no longer be available for crime related activities. However, the organization shifted to planting mostly community supported agriculture (CSA) gardens due to the greatly limited access to fresh produce. There may have been a misguided agenda coming in, but I find the easy shift to the communities' agenda, a powerful way for UTC to make a meaningful impact in the communities.

Non-profits are never perfect and while I am in favor of UTCs' work, the racial issues creating the need for such a program are unidentified. The fact that these communities are almost entirely black/racial minorities is overlooked and on the website and in practice "urban" and "low-income" communities are the identifying factor. Even though UTC is a commendable organization, it does seem to be existing in a "colorblind vacuum". When you are in West Philly walking around with our group of almost entirely white UC Bonners it is impossible to ignore that no such vacuum addresses the systemic racial oppression.

Once again, UTC isn't perfect as it is merely treating a symptom of long upheld racial oppression/white supremacy. Still, at least personally, the first hand accounts of such poverty are much more impactful than reading about them alone could ever be. This past Saturday a group of volunteers were starting up a new site, clearing weeds and seemingly ever-growing mounds of garbage. People dump their garbage in these lots because there are no garbage men going around every Tuesday evening, and no dumpsters to be seen or accessed. The side street was also lined with trash. We were also bundling up the trash and debris from the lot and putting it on this side street. Sue, the volunteer coordinator (and one of the sweetest woman on earth) had instructed us to put the waste there as she had spoken with a garbage man the previous week about her predicament of nowhere to put this trash. The garbage man agreed to go that way and clear the bundles on Monday.

On this side street was a small cinderblock house that legitimately appeared to be the size of the double room that I have here at UC to myself. I saw at least three people come out of this house. I got to talking to a  resident of the house named Simon as he stood outside having his morning coffee and cigarette. Simon had recently painted his house and was happy to see projects to restore his neighborhood. We were also planning to clean and weedwhack the area right across from his house, he offered to do the weed whacking if we provided the tool, I inquired but was instructed to decline due to liability limitations. Quite possibly a manifestation of subconscious racial profiling. Simon and I talked about the produce and ways for him to get involved come Spring, he asked what we were going to do with the garbage that we were placing next to his home. I casually replied that someone would come and pick it up on Monday. I got back to work and he thanked me for helping the area. Immediately after it struck me how absurd it is that a white woman was able to get the garbage to be picked up but these residents aren't given the same consideration, when it is where they live. Then I thought of it in terms of my privilege of being at Ursinus and the fact that people come clean and take our garbage on a daily basis. We take for granted so many things that are an unexamined manifestation of white privilege. I think the UC student body should constantly remind themselves of starc differences that occur due to our privilege here and the racial oppression occurring a mere 30 miles away (or closer when thinking of Norristown). Education through this class coupled with real life experiences have a far deeper impact than either alone could fully achieve.

Politics

Our discussions in class have remained remarkably apolitical. Last week I raised the question as to whether or not people thought reactions to The New Jim Crow would be criticized by conservative families and more accepted by liberal families. This discussion was brief but one response was that the racial issues at hand are moral and not political. I am not saying that the issues are as simple as politics, or that every conservative is ignorant and racist and every liberal is open-minded and progressive. However, I absolutely believe that the majority of complaints would come from conservative parents due to the emphasis on "staying with tradition", which happens to be a tradition of white supremacy. As exemplified by republicans today, conservative Americans are generally open critics about affirmative action, immigration, welfare, and crime. Affirmative action is unfair and takes away from white opportunities- but all of the opportunities whites have taken away from minorities is not in question.  Immigration is clearly a racial issue, if more constituents are of the minority, the white "majority" is threatened. Welfare recipients are commonly criticized by the republican party for being lazy and the image of a black welfare mom is commonly evoked. Everyone needs to be "hard on crime" (this is the most bipartisan problematic issue mentioned here), so racial profiling, unjust sentencing, and minority oppression is OK as long as people are safe. I believe these problematic thoughts are predominantly republican rather than democratic, and that they should be addressed as racist issues. Not every republican is an overt bigot like Don Yelton, or David Duke. However, I believe the racist ideologies within the party are made very explicit with the Duke/Buchanan election. Duke and Buchanan shared "anger over affirmative action, crime, immigration, and welfare moms", but because Buchanan was not directly linked to Nazism or Klan membership, the ideologies weren't question as being racist. As Wise brings up in the following chapter, "A Duke victory would have made it more difficult to distance the party from the racism that had animated so much of its previous thirty years of political activity—from Goldwater’s opposition to civil rights legislation to Nixon’s exploitation of “law and order” themes so as to scare whites about big city crime to Reagan’s deft use of stories concerning mythical black “welfare queens” driving Cadillacs to the food stamp office." (166-167). There is a similar trend happening now, where the tea party was first embraced by many republicans, for being able to ignite more radically conservative ideas, they are now being criticized due to their growing disapproval and more overtly racist ideas.

Institutional racism in and out of schools

I attended an event focusing on hunger in Norristown earlier today. While the talk was on hunger- I couldn't help but think about how much it was also about race. There were two black women from the Hunger Memoirs movement- they shared their story with the audience. Race was not addressed once during the presentation which may very well be problematic. However, one particular aspect of Tianna's story stood out to me. She had become homeless because the project she was living in with her husband and two children had lead paint. Her eldest son got lead poisoning from the walls and has subsequent brain damage. Tim Wise discusses how in school the black students were put on a track lower than the white students, while I do not deny that this is true, there are also other racist institutions at play which only make the problems in school worse, and in some cases do make racial minorities less equipped to succeed in school even without biased teachers. In the case of Tianna and her son, multiple forces were at play which will decrease the success of the young boy regardless of how teachers may treat him. Tianna grew up hungry and in poverty, she had her children early on in her life and received little education. Her son was born into the same racially oppressed position as his mother. Had he been attending school at all, he was likely to be behind the curve due to malnutrition and hunger. Now, he is not only hungry and trying to learn, but due to racial zoning and institutional white supremacy, he was put in an unsuitable home and has a mental impairment due to his close proximity to toxins. Now it doesn't even matter if the teacher was biased necessarily, this young boy is not going to be at the same academic level as his well-fed, toxin-free peers. These outside sources were something that was not addressed in the chapters (first 3.5 thus far so maybe they will be) I read in White Like Me but I feel they are important in addressing the systemic racial institutions at play as well as the bigots and racist institutions in the schools themselves.

Ancestors

My parents are divorced and I only really know the history of my mother’s side of the family.  I took pride in the fact that they emigrated from Hungary and lived hard working lives as farmers. They came here around 1912 as outlaws in the Bolshevik Revolution. My maternal ancestors were farmers in a rural area in Northern New Jersey, which is also where I grew up in a very dominantly white middle and working class area. I know my father’s side of the family was much wealthier than my mother’s, and that they also resided in the north, but I have essentially no information on how long they were there and if they had slaves at all. Whenever people would talk how it is white people’s ancestors who were slave owners and the oppressors that created white supremacy, I always took a sort of silent comfort thinking that my Hungarian ancestors were red-neck farmers who became educated teachers whom spoke out against racism (as my grandfather was actively anti-racist in the 1960’s). I complacently accepted a less oppressive story, because I could afford to. However, I never have even bothered to think about (before this reading) that for one, my father’s ancestors could have been slave owners and two, that even though my maternal ancestors were hard working farmers, that they’re ability to move up in society and even be commended as hard workers, is a result of our white privilege. I am part of a race, and for the majority of my life I have been ignorant to the way it has shaped my life- for the better. My initial reaction to this is that I don’t deserve to be where I am not, as it has undeniably been at the expense of non-white counterparts. However, upon further reflection I do not know if deserve is the right word, or at least am uncomfortable with the guilt that it makes me feel when that which I have been born to is so far beyond my control. Should I still be appreciative of the hard-work of my ancestors, even though it stands on the shoulders of white supremacy? Can I accept this and still be proud of my family, and instead be upset with the fact that hard working non-white families did not get what they deserved? 

Acknowledgement and Where To?

I didn't blog last week and would like to use my credit for attending the Michelle Alexander lecture in lieu of that absence. 

I was raised to believe that all people should be treated equally. My mother also has her PhD in sociology and psychology and informed me of the facts that while equality should exist, the reality is not so. Racial, gender, sexual and economic disparities were all among our family dinner discussions. However, I am a white person benefitting from a historical and current racial project. While I was mildly informed, I did not have the experiential background that made me truly aware of the weight that race has in shaping everyone’s life. This book has provided insight that has enabled me to value the current necessity of racial discourse which I did not previously have.

I still believe that all people should be treated equally, but just that we need to talk about, question, and oppose the racist systems in place today to move towards equality. Prior to this book I would have been in favor of an eventual post-race society. If we could do that, would we be in a post-race society? I doubt it, considering the historical significance of race even if those systems could be abolished over time. I have very limited experience with philosophical discourse (this is my first philosophy class), while I am trying to move past my current limitations, there is still something that irks me about readings such as this. The need to acknowledge race has been made clear, but we are left with minimal direction/opinion as to what we do next. I assume we want racial equality (equality of all kinds for that matter), but even though I am correcting some of my racist biases and indirect racist contributions, is that enough to effect any change? I may be improving myself, but what about everyone else? Where do we go from here?

Education

At the end of class on Tuesday we discussed a scenario of a sheltered white person going up to a person of color with the clear intentions of learning more about a member of a different race. The initial response to the scenario was that of perturbation, anger, and the suggestion to “go read a book”. What is this person to do? The direct approach may be troublesome, but those situations were created through a far more troublesome hegemony of white supremacy. This white person may or may not want to become the friend of the colored person; however, there is a clear and important desire to learn. Surely we have all engaged in conversations with people who we have less desire in befriending than in learning about their beliefs whether it is religious, cultural, political, racial, etc. We all need to be willing to engage in conversations of race if we are to awake from, to quote Michelle Alexander, our “colorblind slumber”. Instead of shutting the inquisitive white person out, that moment would be far more productive if it were informative and open to conversations about the realities of race within our society.

On Wednesday night, Michelle Alexander closed her powerful speech calling for a movement based on the injustices done to all people of any color who are impoverished by the hegemony of white supremacy. The path towards rectifying the oppression within our country has to be led chiefly by education. There are a multitude of racist reasons (white flight, exclusionary zoning to name two) why the sheltered white person from the middle of nowhere suburbia has never had an encounter with a person of color. With our current colorblind attitudes, this person is most likely unaware of the unspoken mechanisms that create and perpetuate white supremacy, thus they should be educated on them. While reading books is definitely helpful, human interactions tend to be far more impactful and would result in more education on current issues. We need change, and that change is only going to come from an inclusive movement that can be bred through education and open dialect. 

Post-modern racialism

I do not consider myself to be a post-modern racist, for much of the same logic that I do not consider myself to be an indirect racist. According to Taylor, “Post-modernism here involves flattening difference, insisting on the unity of the human family and the declining significance of race, in ways that obscure the way various stratifying mechanisms continue to do their work” (Taylor Kindle Locations 1984-1986).  Being a biologist, I am in agreement with some of what post-modern racialism involves. Further, I am not sure if all of the aspects of post-modern racialism are bad. Taylor clearly states that the racialism he speaks of is not biological, since there is no biological basis for racialism. I do think that this fact should carry some weight though when it comes to ideologies based on “race”. For this reason when I think of races I may tend to “flatten difference, insisting on the unity of the human family”, because we are biologically one race/species. At the same time, I try my best to understand the significance of race in shaping our current institutions. While I am unaware of the significance of race in its entirety, I have learned/am learning the significance of race in providing people with their social location. Thus I do not decline the significance of race or attempt to obscure the underlying social mechanisms that lead/contribute to social inequalities based on race even though I do believe that we should all be treated equally.

In my opinion, Taylor’s ideas become too convoluted for me to fully assess whether I think he would classify me as a post-modern racist or not, and depending on whether I have interpreted him correctly, whether I agree or disagree with his idea of post-modern racialism. Earlier in the reading Taylor laid out race-thinking as “a way of assigning generic meaning to human bodies and bloodlines” (Kindle Locations 579-580). He then went through chapter two and discussed how race is permeated with different social categories such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity and gender. Now in chapter three, my interpretation of Taylor’s “post-modern race” focuses almost entirely on the “patterns of advantage and disadvantage” (Kindle Locations 2086-2090). Where being a “multiculturalist, eager to celebrate different foods and holidays and dances” (Kindle Locations 2086-2090), makes someone in effect a racist. I may be misinterpreting Taylor’s idea here, and perhaps he only means that being a multiculturalist in congruence with denying the role that race can have in varying social institutions makes one a post-modern racist. However I feel that more of an emphasis on this disregard and less of a condemnation of integrating race-thinking with other social categories would have made his argument more clear. As Taylor eventually says, “race doesn’t do its work alone” (Kindle Locations 2278-2279). Thus, with my current understanding, I accept the main notion of post-modern racialism but only if it is in conjunction with the merger-thesis. 

On the focus of racists

Last week in class someone asked “Who here is a racist?” A few members of the class raised their hand in admittance to viewing themselves as a racist. Their reason for viewing themselves as a racist wasn't due to white supremacist views, but rather by means of being a white individual in a society with racist institutions. I can only speak for myself but using Taylor’s definition of racism as “an unethical disregard for people who belong to a particular race”, I stick with my belief that even if I live in a society with racial injustices, I am not a racist. If I was refusing “refusing to respond to” these institutionalized forms of racism, according to Taylor I would be an “indirect racist”. By this logic I am under the impression that even those who called themselves racist in class are not even indirect racists in this regard. We may not be organizing protests outside of Gratersford (yet), but I think it is safe to conclude that considering we have all signed up for Philosophy of Race we are aware of racial problems within our society and are actively educating ourselves on said issues. Therefore even though I am not affecting meaningful change within our prison system for example, this does not make me an indirect racist because I am still responding to the situation through education and advocacy. 

9/1/13

As a biologist, I nearly always try to understand things through an evolutionary viewpoint. Additionally, I appreciate definitions and empirical evidence. I am working to expand my scientific box way of thinking, but couldn't help looking up a definition for race. Most definitions I came across involved genetic jargon even though there is no biological divergence that actually classifies any human as a race or subspecies as we are all part of the human race.  Thus I am fond of Taylor's emphasis on "race-thinking". In class on Tuesday multiple people said that they don't believe in race, but we are all obviously aware that there is race-thinking and that there are problems within our racialized society that should be addressed, understood, and ultimately looked to be fixed. Being from a predominantly white area and not witnessing much overt racism, I didn't spend a lot of time developing my views on race other than I thought it was wrong and ignorant. I was somewhat aware of white-privilege, but not nearly as aware as I am now. I am still developing my views on race-thinking and am really looking forward to learn about other people's views and how their environments/experiences have shaped said views.