Trying to decide on a topic this week was
tough. Jackson Katz video, Anderson
Cooper video “Black or White: Kids on Race”, Dr. Crafton’s discussion on bias,
stereotypes and racism, and Gee’s work on the Nature Identity perspective was
cause for introspection. However, it was
classmate Jehona’s comment that I kept mulling over and over during my plane
ride on Friday, “The ones that have the privilege are blind to their own
privilege.”
I thought long and hard about what this meant to me as I don’t
consider myself privileged. In fact,
there were many times in my life that I fought to break through walls on stereotypes
and prejudice – not feeling in the least bit privileged – as it related to a
working woman in a man’s industry, and then a working woman in management in
the same industry now in charge of men, men who had NO need or respect for
female management. YET, being born white, I never had to fight the fight of
racism – I had no idea what that felt like.
I WAS privileged and I was blind to it!
This epiphany led me to do some “mild” research on when racism really
started to be addressed. My results (not
my words, but people MUCH more scholarly than I) are below:
“If
you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, "You shall
love your neighbor as yourself," you do well; but if you show partiality,
you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors" - James 2:1-9, King
James Bible (circa 45 A.D.)
We hold
these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of
Independence (1776)
"Fourscore
and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created
equal” – Abraham Lincoln, Gettysburg Address (1863)
Everyone is
entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without
distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion,
political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other
status… - Article 2-Universal Declaration of Human
Rights (1948)
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the
true meaning of its creed: - 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal.” – Martin Luther King Jr, I Have A Dream
(1963)
If racism is a form of
ignorance (as called by some) and ignorance can be replaced by enlightenment
(which comes through education) which then leads to acceptance, maybe we should
be focusing on education instead of declarations, constitutions, bills, laws
and speeches? Could we start mandatory “enlightenment”
classes in grade school, carried through all 12 years? Require a high-school certificate of
completion for graduation? So many community enlightenment hours required?
For OVER 1,900 years the world
has addressed racism - MANY documents, rules, declarations and laws have been
written, historical speeches have been delivered, and yet, here we are – 2013,
still trying to figure out how to deliver on the scripture statement of “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I close with Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 quote, “The year was 2081, and everyone was finally
equal.”
Robin,
ReplyDeleteI always look forward to reading you posts -- I know they will be personal inquiries that are important to you but ultimately important to others as well.
First, You had a great list to choose from, huh? :) I didn't realize there had been so much complex stuff in such a short period of time -- do you feel like I'm giving enough breathing space for people to process the information -- or, maybe, having the choice and space to do it here in the blogs away from the "noise" provides that?
In the end, you chose you a crucial exploration; because of my own feminist struggles, I did not delve deeply into my own inner racism for a long time -- and I know I still have work to do, as everyone in America does. Like your male dominated industry, higher education is quite patriarchal -- many men would rather pat me on the head and send me away to shop for the clothes I obviously like to wear. In fact, early in my PhD program, one of my advisors, a big man with a hooked nose of international reputation in the field, told me he could not take me seriously because I was too pretty -- "all of that blonde hair and those blue eyes just get in the way". I could strangled him but, I'm sure, like you, that just made me dig in harder to prove my intellectual worth. However, all of this is to say I didn't think about the plight of my Black colleague who eventually left the program -- what insidious racism was at play in her lack of success? How did my Whiteness help to keep me going past the sexist barriers that were definitely in play?
How would you frame your own questions now regarding the intersectionality of sex and race?
Please don't get me started on the stories regarding "pats on the head" (really did happen in Utah) or because I look the way I do, I must be as interested in "them" as they were in me...or having to entertain my male clients in New Orleans - there's a story! And yes, I think you are correct - we dug in and we just tried harder to beat the stereotype, BUT, we didn't have to beat the race card as well. Quite frankly, I wish there were not an intersectionality of sex and race - I wish (in business) that it was just looked upon as the best person for the role. Yet, every time one of my business girlfriends "tee-hee's" at a less than appropriate comment or backs off of a subject where they are completely correct, I can actually hear all of the women that have gone before me actually groan! And every time each one of us does not step up & speak out when we see racism in action, our silence roars out our acceptance of those actions.
ReplyDeleteThere's enough breathing space for all of the information coming in - it's a lot - but these blogs are a great way for everyone to find the item of the week that they want to focus more attention on.