Challenging Racism and (White) Privilege
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: This website contains a number of resources on racism, antiracism, and Whiteness, but there's lots of room for expansion! SCRAP encourages anyone who would like to explore creative means of communicating about racism to submit to this site. Send us your comics, stories, essays, slogans, posters, web-ready multimedia presentations, etc! Email contributions to Janelle Orsi:
JanOrsi@aol.com.
The Mission of SCRAP:
SCRAP, through various forms of media, seeks to communicate a comprehensive understanding of racism: how it works on many levels (institutionally and individually), how it functions at the level of everyday assumptions, actions, and representations, how White people benefit from the disadvantages of people of color, and how not discussing or confronting racism is the best way to perpetuate it. Instead of taking a colorblind or "multiculturalist" approach to racism, SCRAP would like to promote more awareness of the structures of racism and their relation to power and privilege. Examining and deconstructing Whiteness is a large part of this. SCRAP would also like to empower more people to act against racism and build coalitions to deconstruct systems of oppression. SCRAP encourages White people and other privileged members of society to be honest with themselves about their involvement in systems of oppression, so that we all may confront racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia in every aspect of our lives.
DEFINING RACISM
The following definitions, provided by educator Louise Derman-Sparks, may be helpful in gaining a better understanding of why prejudice and racism are not synonymous:
PREJUDICE: belief in stereotypes
BIGOTRY: belief in White supremacy
RACISM: attitude, action, or way of life whose outcome oppresses people of color and benefits White people, regardless of stated intent.
WHITE PRIVILEGE: the consequences of historical institutionalized racism; the benefits that Whites receive (economic, social, cultural, political).
(Source: Derman-Sparks, Louise, and Carol Brunson Phillips. Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1997, page 74.)
THE MYTH OF REVERSE RACISM
REVERSE RACISM?
"Why is it so difficult for many white folks to understand that racism is oppressive not because white folks have prejudicial feelings about blacks, but because it is a system that promotes domination and subjugation? The prejudicial feelings some blacks may express about whites are in no way linked to a system of domination the affords us any power to coercively control the lives and well-being of white folks. That needs to be understood" (bell hooks 1995: 154).
SEPARATISM?
"Concurrently, all social manifestations of black separatism are often seen by whites as a sign of anti-white racism, when they usually represent an attempt by black people to construct places of political sanctuary where we can escape, if only for a time, white domination" (bell hooks 1995: p155).
BLAMING THE VICTIM
“People who have not thought about or refuse to acknowledge this imbalance of power/privilege often want to talk about the racism of people of color. But then, that is one of the ways racism is able to continue to function. You look for someone to blame and you blame the victim, who will nine times out of ten accept the blame out of habit” (Gloria Yamato 2001: p93).
References:
hooks, bell. Killing Rage: Ending Racism. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1995.
Yamoto, Gloria. "Something About the Subject Makes it Hard to Name" in in Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology, 4th Edition. by Margaret L. Andersen, and Patricia Hill Collins, eds. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001.
Brought to you by Claremont SCRAP – Students Challenging Racism and (White) Privilege.
www.canopyweb.com/racism
THE MYTH OF REVERSE RACISM…AT POMONA?
White Pomona Students Give Examples of “Racism” at Pomona College:*
“I feel like I am left to associate with most by my race because others are more exclusive.”
“Organizations (such as AAMP) that discuss racial issues, but serve to promote uni-racial mingling, don't really help.”
“I have experienced a kind of reverse racism because I am white. It was a surprise that I wasn't racist, that I had dated people of other races, and thought it was ok.”
“The only incidents I have been privy to are from some members of Asian organizations not wanting to interact with outsiders from their class.”
“Lunchroom: entirely white except for one table with only Black kids and scattered Asians in small groups.”
“In my hall, the one Black kid tends to chill with only the other darker-skinned girl.”
“Why do the Black students get together? Why are Asians so annoying in groups?”
Are these students really describing racism….or the effects of it?
*Source of Quotes: Pomona College Students’ Opinions on Race and Racism, 2002.
The Perils of Colorblindness
1. “When whites claim to not notice others’ race, as in ‘I didn’t even notice she was Black,’ there is an implicit ideology of white as the norm” (O’Brien 46).
2. “With [colorblindness], we are told that all people are the same under the skin and that we all have the same equal chances of making it. Therefore, the 'logic' continues, if a minority person fails to achieve, then the blame lies solely with the individual” (Rodriguez 8).
3. “The rhetoric of colorblindness enables Whites to erase from consciousness not only the history of racism and how that history plays itself out economically, politically, socially, and culturally in the present; such an insidious discourse also dissuades both the individual and institutions from engaging in antiracist strategies for dismantling white privilege and for reworking the terrain of whiteness” (Rodriguez 8).
4. “Colorblindness justifies withdrawal from social action by assuming that racism will cease to exist when people stop noticing racial and cultural differences” (Dernman-Sparks and Phillips 52).
5. “Colorblindness obscures the reality of institutional racism by attributing the source of the problem to seeing differences rather than to a system that denies certain racial groups equitable economic and political gain” (Dernman-Sparks and Phillips 52).
References:
Derman-Sparks, Louise, and Carol Brunson Phillips. Teaching/Learning
Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach. New York: Teachers College, Columbia University, 1997.
O'Brien, Eileen. Whites Confront Racism: Antiracists and Their Paths to Action. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2001.
Rodriguez, Nelson M. "Projects of Whiteness in a Critical Pedagogy." in Dismantling White Privilege: Pedagogy, Politics, and Whiteness, by Nelson M. Rodriguez and Leila E. Villaverde, eds., New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
Understanding is Empowering
Talking about racism is often scary, and many people want to avoid such discussions at all costs. However, as some students have discovered, talking about race and racism can be empowering. Gaining the right language and analytical tools for understanding racism is the starting point for honestly confronting and challenging it.
1. “My classes gave me a much fuller and more nuanced view of racism and how it can function within society.”
2. “Uncovered to me the idea of White privilege as the driving force behind racism, not personal prejudice.”
3. “These classes have helped me better understand what difficulties others face and how I may have unconsciously benefited from and contributed to the problem.”
4. “Made me realize maybe "colorblindness" isn't the answer.”
5 “I have learned a lot about my own assumptions and interactions with people of other races. I've also learned about my advantages as a "white" person as well as my disadvantages.”
6 “It really made me reconsider how I viewed racism and helped me see it was something that directly affected me instead of some distant evil.”
7. “I have become much more aware of specific social institutions and history that inhibit minorities and of what can be done to change them.”
*Source of Quotes and Data: Pomona College Students’ Opinions on Race and Racism, 2002. [A total of 257 Pomona College students responded to this survey.]
WHAT IS WHITENESS?
“White in America has always signified who is entitled to privilege. In this sense, the phrase ‘white privilege’ is a redundancy [since] Whiteness has always signified worthiness, inclusion and acceptance” (John A. Powell, quoted in Roediger.)
"The white privilege of universalizing its characteristics as the 'proper ways to be' has continuously undermined the efforts of non-Whites in a variety of spheres. At times such universal norms have produced self-loathing among individual members of minority groups, as they internalize the shibboleths of the white traditions - 'I wish my eyes were blue and my hair were blond and silky'" (Kincheloe and Steinberg 179).
"Whiteness has historically been appropriated in unmarked ways by strategically maintaining as colorless its color (and hence its values, belief systems, privileges, histories, experiences, and modes of operation) behind its constant constructions of otherness" (Rodriguez 1).
“It must be remembered that the white group of laborers, while they received a low wage, were compensated in part by a sort of public and psychological wage. They were given public deference and titles of courtesy because they were white” (W.E.B. Du Bois, quoted in Roediger).
“Whiteness, as a set of normative cultural practices, is visible most clearly to those it definitively excludes and those whom it does violence. Those who are securely housed within its borders usually do not examine it” (Frankenberg 228-229).
WHY SHOULD WE TALK ABOUT WHITENESS?
“Whiteness refers to a set of locations that are historically, socially, politically, and culturally produced and, moreover, are intrinsically linked to unfolding relations of domination. Naming ‘whiteness’ displaces it from the unmarked, unnamed status that is itself an effect of dominance….To look at the social construction of whiteness, then, is to look head-on at a site of dominance. (And it may be more difficult for white people to say ‘Whiteness has nothing to do with me – I’m not white’ than to say ‘Race has nothing to do with me – I’m not racist.’) To speak of whiteness is, I think, to assign everyone a place in the relations of racism. It is to emphasize that dealing with racism is not merely an option for white people – that, rather, racism shapes white people’s lives and identities in a way that is inseperable from other facets of daily life” (Frankenberg 6).
References:
Frankenberg, Ruth. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Kincheloe, Joe L. and Shirley R. Steinberg. "Constructing a Pedagogy of Whiteness for Angry White Students." in Dismantling White Privilege: Pedagogy, Politics, and Whiteness, by Nelson M. Rodriguez and Leila E. Villaverde, eds., New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
Rodriguez, Nelson M. and Leila E. Villaverde, eds. Dismantling White Privilege: Pedagogy, Politics, and Whiteness. New York: Peter Lang, 2000.
Roediger, David R., ed. Black on White: Black Writers on What it Means to Be White. New York: Schocken Books, 1998.
TALKING ABOUT RACE:
Pomona College Students Say:
“The discussions of racism and the power structure that maintains it shouldn't be one day or one event, and can't really be addressed by taking one class that looks at these issues. It should be a daily, ongoing discussion inherent to our classes and our social lives.”
“Pomona College needs to have professors included in the dialogue to educate people on [race and racism] issues. And people of color should not have to shoulder the burden to teach the White people.”
“I feel that White (racially privileged) individuals, myself included, should step up and organize events addressing race issues.”
“I think Pomona should continue race dialogue, but give positive suggestions for things that can be done. Nothing is accomplished when White people just feel guilty. Guilt paralyzes, it doesn't produce action.”
“Many students, especially White ones, don't want to talk about race. If we can't deal with it in the classroom, how can we face it in the ‘Real World’?”
“Day of Dialogue is good in its intention but doesn't usually accomplish anything because people of both sides are too afraid of offending each other.”
Anti-Racism Checklist
Are you ready to start actively challenging racism? Have you already started? Here’s a checklist to keep you on the right track. Check all that apply.*
I have aggressively sought out more information in an effort to enhance my own awareness and understanding of racism (talking with others, reading, listening).
I have spent time recently in looking at my own attitudes and behavior as they contribute to or combat racism around me.
I have reevaluated my use of terms or phrases that may be perceived as degrading or hurtful to others.
I have openly disagreed with a racist comment, joke, or action by someone around me.
I have made a personal contract with myself to take a positive stand, even at some possible risk, when the chance occurs.
I have become aware of racist TV programs, advertising, and news broadcasts, and I have complained to those responsible.
I have taken steps to implement discussions with friends, colleagues, social clubs, or church groups, aimed at understanding racism.
I have been investigating political candidates at all levels in terms of their stance and activity against racist government practices.
I have investigated local school curricula in terms of their treatment of the issue of racism (also textbooks, assemblies, faculty, staff, administration).
I have contributed time and/or money to an agency, fund, or program that actively confronts the problems of racism.
My school or other place of employment is a target for my educational efforts in responding to racism.
I have become seriously dissatisfied with my own level of activity in combating racism.
Additional ideas from Claremont SCRAP:
I have kept a close eye on assumptions I make about other students based on their skin color.
I have asked my professors to address the topics of racism and Whiteness in my classes.
I have made it a point to notice inequalities in society and critically question their origins and underlying causes.
I am cultivating my ability to feel empathy for all people. Racism makes me mad!
I don’t assume that all students at the Claremont Colleges are all middle to upper class, or that they have had all the same opportunities I had growing up.
I have gone to events, lectures, or workshops that address racism.
I read all of SCRAP’s table tents and have visited their website.
I challenge White students to rethink their assumptions when they say things like: “It’s reverse racism when all the students of color hang out together. Why do they have those separatist cultural organizations? There should be a Caucasian American Mentor Program!”
I challenge students who think that the problem of racism will just “go away” if we could all just become “colorblind.”
I have realized that it is not the job of people of color to educate the world about racism.
* Source of checklist:
National Education Association. Education and Racism: An Action Manual.
http://canopyweb.com/racism/
BLESS.
You and colin gonna get cussed out.
