God save us from well-intentioned white people.”

[trumad]

My new hobby of smacking around whiny white guy has turned into a continuing education for me regarding racism and gender discrimination in this country. Today I bring you a piece by Journalism Professor Robert Jensen of the University of Texas at Austin. Professor Jensen is a white dude who seems to understand that being white indeed has it's privileges. Take note whiny white guy.

Being colorblind does not offset innate advantages
of white privilege

In an attempt to appear anti-racist, it is common for well-intentioned white folks to say something like, “I don’t think of John as black. I just think of him as a person.”

As a Latina colleague once told me, “God save us from well-intentioned white people.”

In a thoroughly racialized and racist society such as the United States, attempting to endorse the humanity of non-white people by pretending they have no color is not a sign that one has moved beyond race. Rather, it indicates that one is stuck knee-deep in the culture’s deeply embedded racism. Why?

Who makes such statements? I have never had a non-white person say to me, “When I look at you, Bob, I don’t see a white person. I just see a person.” That’s because being white historically has not been associated with degradation, dehumanization, and denigration; being white does not make my humanity problematic. To see me as fully human, non-white people don’t have to strip away my whiteness, because whiteness is not assumed to be less-than-anything.

<snip>
When an African-American man is stopped on the street, he has to be conscious of what his color means to white police officers who may associate blackness with criminality.

When a Latina interviews for a job, she has to be aware of how racialized stereotypes about her sexuality might affect what the white man behind the desk is thinking about her.

And when Asian-American students are in classrooms, they have to understand how a white professor’s notion that Asians are all “good at math” will affect perceptions of them. <end snip>

Please read on:
http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~rjensen/freelance/justseeaperson.htm

[NewHampshireDem]

1. You've probably seen this, but I'll post for those who haven't

http://www.augustana.ca/rdx/eng/activism/backpack.htm

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack by Peggy MacIntosh

<snip>

I usually think of privilege as being a favored state, whether earned or conferred by birth or luck. Yet some of the conditions I have described here work to systematically overempower certain groups. Such privilege simply confers dominance because of one's race or sex.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.
2. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

3. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

4. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

5. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

6. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

7. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

8. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

9. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

10. Whether I use checks, credit cards, or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

11. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

12. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals,the poverty, or the illiteracy of my race.
<more>

[itzamirakul]

2. Great links and info

Thanks to both you and the original poster

[trumad]

3. You know

when I read pieces like that I get somewhat emotional. To have human beings jump through hoops just to live free bugs the shit out of me.

[iconoclastic cat]

12. Again, another great article for classroom discussion!

Hey, DU is doing my lesson planning for me! Cool!

[Mikimouse]

4. If you want more...

you should also look at the theories promoted by Eduardo Bonilla-silva. He has a number of publications about what he has termed color-blind racism. Interesting stuff.

[iconoclastic cat]

13. Do you recommend any specific articles?

I'd like to have some of that on hand for my class on Monday. Any personal fav's?

[Mikimouse]

40. Rats! I do not have his list with me here, but...

If you do a search for The Touchstone Magazine (Left/Progressive newspaper), and search for his name, you should find some information about him and perhaps some listings as well. He and I have had some rather animated discussions about racism and its attendant mechanisms at times, and I know that Touchstone definitely archived those and later reprinted them. Good luck.

[Athame]

41. Rev. Thandeka is another voice to hear

I don’t have any time right now to engage in this very important conversation, but I want to post a snippet of an address by Unitarian Universalist minister and professor of theology at Meadville Lombard Theological Union, the Reverend Thandeka. As a black theologian among the largely white UUs, she has been challenging (and I do mean CHALLENGING) Unitarian Universalists to address the issues of race within our congregations honestly, not allowing ourselves to become complacent by such self-congratulatory labels as “color-blind or anti-racist.” This piece is perhaps a little too much dirty laundry about Unitarian Universalists, but I think many here at DU can relate to the intentions of grappling with racism, as this thread prooves. I am snipping in at the end of the article for the conclusions, but read the whole article for some excellent perspectives on this thread. Google Thandeka for more of her work.

Athame

http://www.meadville.edu/thandeka_1_1.html

Enough. This anti-racist rhetoric and its fall out must be stopped. I have three suggestions.

First, read. Start reading groups in your local congregations that will help you figure out how to talk sensibly about the link between race and class in America. Learn how the creation of the so- called "white" in this country was a means to exploit this person's labor. Discover what white Americans have in common with other people of color and work on a language that takes into account the fact that the racial socialization process in this country makes racial victims of us all.

Second, empathize. Learn to replace moral judgment with loving compassion. All of us have made decisions and acted in ways that compromise our moral integrity. Use our collective power as a religious movement to help each of us heal our crippled ability to relate with the full integrity of our humanity. Create new rituals in your Sunday services that allow persons to feel the healing power of a beloved community.

Third, organize. Build coalitions using your new vocabulary and your new commitment to empathize and work with other UU congregations and other liberal religious groups who are also tired of race-talk separated from talk about class issues. I believe that we have the power to transform America because of who we are: We are Middle-America. Transform this group and you transform the country because we are the majority. All we need is the moral courage to practice what we preach. And we will generate this moral courage through love.

[JanMichael]

5. I think I know a good group for you to join!

http://www.thepeoplesinstitute.org/

I've been to their events, it's right along where you're going with the White Priviledge threads.

Of course Classism is a monster issue too but Racism is the biggest tool in the US that's used to keep all non-ruling Classes down via "Divide and Conquer".

Most White folks can't seem to grasp the fact that no matter how badly they get screwed economically they're STILL not Black; especially in the Aggregate.

[trumad]

7. Thanks Jan..BTW: How ya been?

[retread]

6. Years ago I worked for a company that had "sensitivity" training

classes. A young African-American women told a story of looking for a day care center for her son. She said she called one close to where we worked and asked if they had African-American children. The woman who ran the place said they didn't pay any attention to race. The woman telling the story said she would never let her child attend a school with a horrible attitude like that.

The ensuing conversation pretty much divided up along racial lines. The white people could not understand why a school that claimed not to pay attention to race could be any thing but good for African-American children.

I understand that white people and minorities have vastly different experiences in day-to-day live. What I did not and still do not understand is why white people have such a difficult time with the idea.

[trumad]

8. That's easy

It's a combination of guilt and built in racism. Oil and water

[iconoclastic cat]

15. Yes! While everyone has some sort of bias, how one responds to it

determines one's efficacy in eliminating it.

[retread]

24. I wouldn't use the word easy. All white people, especially those of us

born and raised here in the south, have built in racism. The trick is to accept that fact and recognize that demon in your closet. When he tries to escape, because you know he is there, it becomes easier to slam the door on him. However, it is a never-ending battle and he turns up at surprising and inopportune times.

Guilt can be a double-edged sword. I lost a treasured friend in my youth because she did not want to be "the instrument I used to assuage my white guilt." That stung even more because of the underlying truth in it.

[Karenina]

29. Worse than being attacked

by the lurking racist demon is the DENIAL of its existence.

[retread]

31. Then he controls you ! n/t

[Karenina]

32. I don't get your point.

Please say more.

[retread]

35. Speaking for myself, born and raised in the south and having racist

parents, I have been conditioned in many ways from infancy. By denying the existence of the "demon" I give it power to act without my knowledge. When I recognized his existence, I became more and more aware of his presence. At times it still takes effort to push him back into his closet. It becomes easier with practice and you learn to recognize situations when he will show up.
Sorry if this is unclear. I can be very inarticulate.

[Karenina]

39. What I was refering to

is that hot feeling of a handprint on one's face when a white friend "comes out of his/her bag" then does the cover-up routine...

[Yuugal]

16. So explain it to me

"The white people could not understand why a school that claimed not to pay attention to race could be any thing but good for African-American children. "

I would imagine someone in her position is very used to racists of all colors calling her to ask how many black or white kids are in the school and I don't blame her a bit for not going there. To me, it seems very racist to call up a school and ask how many black kids there are. I would be happy they refused to answer that question. Where did the school go wrong?

[gollygee]

20. I have a friend who was just going through this

She's black and has been a stay-at-home mom but doesn't want to be away from her profession too long or she'll have a very hard time getting back in. So she was looking into day care. She doesn't want her kids being "different" - she wants there to be more than just her two black children at the daycare.

It's a fair question and a fair concern for a parent.

[retread]

21. I'm not sure I can "explain" it to you. You use the term "racists of all

colors." Alarm bells are going off! Did you read the original post?

[gollygee]

22. How did I miss that?

"racists of all colors" ???

I *think* he meant that white people might call and ask if there are any black kids there because they don't want their kids going to daycare with black kids, but using that phrase is troubling.

But if a black person is calling a daycare and asks if any black children already attend, it would be asked like, "I don't want my kids being the only black kids there - do you have any other black children in attendance." I can't imagine someone just calling and asking if there are any black kids - it would be part of a conversation about the daycare.

[Yuugal]

36. Racists of all colors

From post #20: """She doesn't want her kids being "different" - she wants there to be more than just her two black children at the daycare."""

I see this as the same kind of racism shown in White Flight. If we are all going to be equal then we shouldn't care what color anyone is right? The person in the article is saying that anyone who doesn't consider color is still a racist. So if I try to view everyone as equal human beings I'm a racist because """White people don’t have to worry about how their race affects the way most people in power treat them."""" But if you treat one race differently than others you are a racist. How can he have it both ways?

When I look at the mess America is in I don't see race as much as I see class warfare. I'm a white male but that wouldn't stop me from being arrested for sneaking into Bill Cosby's rich neighborhood. They don't want poor people around and I'm one of them. :) If everyone had the right to a job that paid a living wage, health care, food, a place to live, and college...... the problems of racism would evaporate in a generation or two. As long as people go on and on about race issues and not confront the real problem, which is the rich, we will all continue to fight over scraps left over from the hogs banquet.

[gollygee]

37. She wants her kids to be in a multi-ethnic environment

That isn't racism. She wants her kids to associate with kids of all different colors, including with other black kids. How can you consider that to be racist?

And of course money is an issue in this country as well, but I disagree that it is the *real* problem - they are BOTH real problems. Just different problems.

All people are equal in value. We are not, however, equal in priviledge. We have to see the reality of the situation in order to be able to change it.

Two articles if you're interested:

http://www.tolerance.org/news/article_tol.jsp?id=687
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DXK/is_19_20/ai_111112046

[dandrhesse]

9. This is so true

My two kids have been taught to be "multi-cultural" which translated means: "we are all the same" race, doesn't matter.

As a volunteer leader for a reading group I saw a story about a woman and young man set in the deep south as a great opportunity to discuss cultural differences.

The subject was never broached. The kids discussed the story for a full 45 minutes and race never entered the discussion. I was stunned.

Later I asked my daughter why no one had brought up such an integral part of the story, her answer "We don't talk about that in school."

Martin Luther King wanted us to be colorblind, not covertly racist.

It seems that today silence has been mistakenly labeled multiculturalism. Wrong.

As long as the feelings that foster racism exist, racism is there, to silence the discourse about the topic only makes the problem worse.

[trof]

10. In the 50s and 60s, "tolerance" was preached by liberals/progressives.

In that time it was thought to be a fine thing and well meant by civil rights proponents.

As thinking and understanding progressed, somewhat, over the next two or three decades many of us (whites) began to realize that "tolerance" wasn't what we really desired. Semantics comes into play. You generally tolerate unpleasant/undesirable situations that you really wish would just go away.

If you move beyond tolerance, you eventually get to acceptance.
But that's still not quite it. I can accept the fact that I have cancer (I don't), but I still would rather not have it.

What I hope for eventually is just neutrality. Maybe there's a better word, but I think you get my meaning. When you see a person who doesn't have your skin color, or facial features, you might subconsciously note it, but no preconceived judgments spring to mind.

We've come a little way baby, but we have a long way to go.
Several generations, I think.

[trumad]

14. I agree a thousand percent.

It's not going to happen in my generation and maybe not in my kids.. It's getting better because guys like me and others are fighting to rid themselves of the infection caused by our racists ancestors. AND believe me, I'm infected.

I think one of the ways to beat the infection is to first acknowledge that you have it. Once you acknowledge it you can begin to treat it and educate people (IE: my kids) on how to keep it from entering that little round thing that sits on our shoulders.

[BiggJawn]

25. "Neutrality" works for me.

But how does that align with the statement "I don't think of Bob as Black, I think of Bob as a person...", since that has been presented as being some kind of Racist "code word", even though on its face, it's neutral.

So much easier to be a bitter old Misanthrope like Twain or H L Mencken. I'm an equal-opportunity hater.People are foolish and dullards, and skin colour doesn't matter, even though Whites seem to be more inclined to embrace mass-media comsumption stupidity...

Oh, that's right, they called both those men "Racist", too...

[gollygee]

26. Does that sound neutral to you?

"I don't think of Bob as Black, I think of Bob as a person..."

To me that doesn't sound neutral. It sounds like if you think of
Bob as black, you think of Bob as less than a person. That being black is negative.

[retread]

27. No such thing as "neutrality." At best you are lying to yourself. At

worst ...!

[iconoclastic cat]

11. Thanks! This fits right into a unit I'm teaching in my American Lit class.

This is very weird--it's almost as if you were in my classroom yesterday! I'll hand this one out on Monday.

[TreasonousBastard]

17. As a middle-aged, lily white, straight guy...

I've been asking for a long time-- just what the hell do we do about this?

We're a tribal species. We're not that far removed from the ants who will smell an interloper and kill it. Or chimpanzees who will drive out, perhaps kill, nonmembers of the troop who stray in.

Intellectually, I don't believe in race. It is an artificial construct coming from our constant need to list and classify things, including ourselves. But, there's that latent lizard inside that looks at everyone different from me and can't help noticing the obvious. Don't deny the problems within the black and hispanic communities when they look at themselves and judge on skin color.

The US is unique with South Africa in having apartheid laws lasting into the late 20th Century, and that does put us in a special place with special problems. But these are still rooted in our tribalism, and won't be eliminated easily, or simply by passing laws.

How does it work with the Irish and German communities in Argentina? Would anyone be surprised if some Hispanics said "Oh, they're Anglos, but we think of them as just people."

Or the Japanese, who refuse citizenship to their own aboriginal people, and keep the resident Koreans as far from them as they can. Do progressive Japanese who try to get around their feelings of superiority sometimes say "I don't think of them as roundeyes."

Racism, like every other -ism, is fundamental to all of us, and it's not a matter of covering it up or eliminating it, but recognizing it for what it is, and dealing with it to everyone's advantage.

We can't eliminate the -ism's until we evolve some more, but we can reduce the pain that comes from them. If we decide to learn how.

[cvoogt]

18. return us to our childhood

I don't know about other people, but when I was a kid, skin color was something I saw but did not realize was so uber-important to adults. I was in school with mostly white kids and one kid from Suriname, and I thought of him as "that kid from Suriname." Only years leater when I moved to Atlanta and learned about the civil rights movement and participated in Martin Luther King marches did I realize how skin color was such a divisive thing, and just being made aware of it on such a daily basis was painful.

Still, I think children - if they're not indoctrinated about there being such a thing as race - will tend to view others as "that dark girl" or "the guy from Suriname" but without any negative associations, without attaching racial stereotypes to that physical appearance. To ignore that a person has a certain cultural background would be tragic, as we'd end up with only a gray unity without any of the diversity. Imagine a melting pot where all the ingredients have the same appearance or taste, or a gardens where all flowers are a medium gray tone. Respecting culture and heritage is crucial to diversity - ignoring it gets us nowhere. Ignoring unpleasant parts of those heritages is also not productive.

There really is only one race, the human race, with many different people, some of whom are more genetically related than others and are more prone to similar diseases. Very few people are purely one "race" only. My own ancestry includes all of western Europe but also Cherokee.

I think children have to be raised prejudice-free but not colorblind.

[Kingshakabobo]

19. Great thread. I must admit, when I saw the title, my

"oppressed white male" side was rearing it's head and thinking "oh a white bashing thread" but this is very interesting and enlightening.

[Stop_the_War]

23. I agree with you trumad..n/t

[retread]

28. Along these same lines, this is an interesting test that while

flawed, can be revealing. https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/measureyourattitudes.html

[gollygee]

30. I think the word "colorblind" is used as a racism loophole

I think people have figured out that they can't talk about racism in as "out there" way as they used to so they've found a loophole - they can say they're colorblind and it's a way to say they're opposed to affirmative action and try to not sound racist.

[Misunderestimator]

33. I love your new hobby, trumad...

Seriously... this is a very good article... straightforward and right on the mark.

"A first step is to be honest about how deeply woven into the material and ideological fabric of our society racism is. Just as important, I think, is challenging the pathological individualism of this culture so that we can see how our successes and our failures are always partly social, not strictly individual. That means letting go of the collective fantasy that the United States is a meritocracy with a level playing field.

If anyone still clings to that mythology, I have two words in response: George W.

Whatever one thinks of our new president, it is impossible not to see in his life how race, gender and class privilege work. A mediocre student with a string of failures in the oil business, Bush has traded all his life on privileges that come with being a white man with family connections. Agree or disagree with his politics, it is undeniable that George W. Bush did not rise to one of the most powerful positions in the world on merit. Can anyone imagine a black man with Bush’s record making it to such a position? Or a woman of any color? Or a kid starting out in a poor family?"

[GOPisEvil]

34. Dr. Jensen flat-out rules!

I've heard him speak here in town and read his work when it's published. He tends to piss off the local freeptards, too. :7

[Hoping4Change]

38. I think you and the professor are going down the wrong road.

IMO the crux of the problem is one that no one wants to talk about, namely, that hate is a kind of a drug; and, that every person on gods green Earth has a personal relationship to it and would be hard-pressed to give it up.


No matter how you slice it, hate is a unbelievably powerful bonding agent. For instance what defines and empowers any kind or size of group more than a common enemy on which to shower hate? If a group doesn't have a common enemy to hate, the bonds holding individuals together start to strain and it becomes a less cohesive unit.

It is a sad irony that having an enemy frees up a lot of goodwill within a group which then adds to its cohesiveness - give hatred a hook and members in the group shower love galore on each other.

The operative word is "group". The evil of racism stems directly from the propensity of humans to form groups. Stable groups have tried and true ways of displacing negative emotions IE a despised enemy.

Racism is simply one way a specific GROUP OF PEOPLE have harnessed hate to their own advantage. Societies which do not have race differences to exploit have never let that stop them from dehumanizing a certain portion of their populace e.g. the Untouchables in India, the Tutsi in Rwanda, the Irish in Britain to name but a few.

People pay lip service to the importance of the individual, no society more so than America but everywhere you see people downplay the importance of the individual and fall over each other in the rush to put themselves and everyone else into groups if they are not there already.

My suggestion is to stop framing the issue as whites versus non-whites and start framing it as individuals versus groups.

[infusionman]

42. I am tired of this kind of talk...

It is not my fault what happened to the black man a long time ago. It is not my fault what happens to them today. I am respectful of all people and would not tolerate any kind of racial slurs in my home or with anyone else.

The problem is, you have a chip on your shoulder for something that happened a long time ago that you just cant get rid of.

Perhaps you need to concentrate on the manner in which you speak and act among yourselves before you try to create discourse among others.

[Lars39]

43. Projecting much?

Opening conversations on these issues broadens people's perspectives.
Personal growth should be encouraged. We're such an immature society in so many ways.
Letting people explore their thoughts and prejudices, hopefully with people letting those
prejudices go, but if not, at least helping them understand that they have a prejudice
and possibly why they have that particular prejudice,
can only further personal and societal growth and understanding.