[WAsummit] U.S. For All of Us/beyond whiteness?
Pam Nath
nathpam at gmail.com
Fri Jan 15 07:45:22 CST 2010
Hi All:
I have also appreciated this discussion and a lot of things that have been
said. But it is this latest email from Russ that makes me weigh in just to
say YES!
On Fri, Jan 15, 2010 at 6:18 AM, Russ Vernon-Jones <russvj at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear All,
>
> I value this discussion about the use of the term “white” and
> how those of us who might be given, or take, that label can best identify
> ourselves. I think it is important to own the category of “white” as a
> description of our position in the system of racism. As some others have
> pointed out, we also need to own the label because that is how we are seen
> by others in this racist system.
>
> Even while we identify as white and acknowledge our whiteness,
> I think it is useful to remember that there is nothing inherently “white”
> about us as human beings. It's good to keep in the back of our minds that
> "whiteness" is a socially constructed category, not one that describes
> our inherent nature. White is a category that was created solely for the
> purposes of exploitation and oppression. However, we can’t eliminate the
> oppression by no longer using the term or by not acknowledging the identity.
> It seems to me that once we have dismantled racism, we’ll be able to
> abandon the identity and abolish the category.
>
> That said, let's try to be a community that includes multiple
> viewpoints.
>
> Yours,
>
> Russ Vernon-Jones, Amherst, MA
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 14, 2010 at 11:12 PM, Frances Kendall <
> francie at franceskendall.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Mary. Good thoughts and specifics.
>> Francie
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/14/10 7:16 PM, "Mary Capps" <marycapps at earthlink.net> wrote:
>>
>> I agree with the responses to Lou which emphasize the reality of our
>> white-ness & its power & privilege in our everyday lives.
>>
>> I moved from New Orleans to Mississippi a few years ago. Everyday black
>> women, men & children call me "Miss Mary". I'll say "Please just call me
>> "Mary". The response usually is "Yes, Ma'am".
>>
>> This is not a small interpersonal matter. It represents the historical
>> power relationship established under white supremacy. I might wish for a
>> different relationship, & over time might develop genuine friendships with
>> some black people, but the reality is my whiteness is a very real factor in
>> my daily life, interactions, opportunities, etc.
>>
>> Also, as I try to do anti-racist work with other white people I need to
>> meet them at our common point - that is, at our common whiteness. Many of
>> them have very different "takes" on race, racial oppression & injustice than
>> I do, but it is important that I talk with them as another white person.
>> Isn't this the point of white anti-racist activism? Isn't it our whiteness
>> that gives us the opportunity and, hopefully, some effectiveness, in
>> challenging other whites on racism, white supremacy?
>>
>> Of course, as whites we need to be accountable to people of color. We need
>> to recognize the leadership of people of color.
>> One piece of that, in my experience so far, is to acknowledge my/our
>> whiteness, the power & privilege it confers, and to work to challenge that
>> in/with other whites.
>>
>> respectfully
>> Mary Capps
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Jan 14, 2010, at 12:28 PM, Frances Kendall wrote:
>>
>> Dear All,
>> I am troubled by this conversation. Like Dottie and Margery I feel that
>> it is essential for those of us who are white (and receive unearned
>> opportunities and access to power and resources because of our skin color)
>> to become comfortable with that moniker. As I know you all know, so much of
>> our history, our laws, and our racialized systems are based on that very
>> concept.
>>
>> Very regularly, participants in my sessions say, “I don’t see myself as
>> ‘white,’ I see myself as just a human being.” And, in my mind, I think,
>> “That’s interesting and not particularly relevant.” I then talk about Allan
>> Johnson’s comment in his book, *Power, Privilege, and Difference*:
>>
>> “When it comes to privilege…it doesn’t really matter who we really are.
>> What matters is who other people think we are, which is to say, the social
>> categories they put us in.”
>>
>> So, for now and in the foreseeable future, I believe it’s critical that
>> those of us who are white embody that as part of who we are, comfortable or
>> not. I definitely believe language is important. AND, for us to choose to
>> “abolish whiteness” seems to me to be a mindset that only the extremely
>> privileged could explore.
>>
>> Thanks for the opportunity to talk about this.
>>
>> Francie
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/14/10 7:28 AM, "Dottye Burt-Markowitz" <pasoconsulting at fastmail.fm>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Ditto to Margery's comments.
>>
>> I found myself having a very emotional reaction to Lou's message.
>> Examining the reasons for that, I realize it is tied to the twenty-plus
>> years that I have now been doing anti-racism training and consulting and the
>> many conversations I have had during that work on this very topic. One of
>> the things we always share at the beginning of our workshops when we put on
>> the table the assumptions we are making about racism and white privilege is
>> about the importance of looking at results rather than intentions. So many
>> racist statements and behaviors by white people are rationalized by the
>> statement "I didn't intend it that way." I try to apply looking at
>> intention vs. results in assessing what works and what doesn't work in
>> helping people understand and become effective anti-racist activists. What
>> works consistently is bringing people to an understanding of the historical
>> roots of whiteness, what whiteness means in our culture, why we who benefit
>> from white privilege cannot distance ourselves from being white, and how we
>> can use the privilege we do carry to act against racism. Maybe others are
>> finding results (I mean real concrete actions for institutional change
>> results) by using a different kind of language. For me, I don't see how we
>> leap over defining and understanding a problem to speaking a language that
>> implies the problem does not exist.
>>
>> I do understand the longing for a less "tainted" terminology. I often
>> say in workshops when we ask everyone to state their racial identity that I
>> identify as white and European American, and that I would really like to be
>> able to just say European American, but cannot do that as long as my
>> whiteness gives me privileges and benefits denied to people of color.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:34 -0800, "margery freeman" <
>> margeryfreeman at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Dear AntiRacist White Friends,
>>
>> I appreciate the discussion/debate over what language best communicates
>> our values and vision. Those of us who use the term "antiracist" as a
>> positive short-hand expression of what we are often find ourselves
>> challenged by other white progressives who think the term is "too negative."
>> I often respond to that criticism by noting that "anti-slavery" was not
>> considered negative in its day by abolitionists. I also have never heard a
>> person of color criticize the phrase "antiracist" as negative.
>>
>> When it comes to the term white, there is a similar discussion: This
>> country set up "white" by law and structured all our systems on the
>> supremacist value system of white being the model of humanity. Despite it
>> being illegal for 40 years, the ideology of white supremacy still undergirds
>> all our institutions and results in the massively disproportionate number of
>> People of Color who are in prison, failed by schools, jobless, poor, in ill
>> health.
>>
>> As we create an antiracist white response to this white supremacist
>> structure, I think we need to hold on to white (as we also must to black and
>> hispanic) *because *it is socio-political: It defines our collective
>> status. If we let go of being "white" we may slip down that slope of
>> individualism that diverts our attention from the results of white supremacy
>> and lulls by our good intentions.
>>
>> I say kudos to the white antiracists who have begun U.S. For All Of US!
>> It's a great movement-starter in a time when even the President is not
>> permitted to talk about race. I will publicize it as far and wide as I can.
>>
>> With best New Year wishes to you all,
>>
>> Margery
>>
>> Margery Freeman
>> The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond
>> 718-918-2716; cell: 504-813-2368
>> --- On *Wed, 1/13/10, Louisa Davis <louisaldavis at verizon.net>* wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> From: Louisa Davis <louisaldavis at verizon.net>
>> Subject: Re: [WAsummit] U.S. For All of Us/beyond whiteness?
>> To: "White Anti-racist Summit" <wasummit at lists.wacan.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 5:57 PM
>>
>> Lou and all, Appreciating your call for more careful, inclusive and
>> interruptive language-ing in our work.
>>
>> Of course, I’ve known there was something really weird about the term
>> “white” for my Euro-american ancestry...but for years I have made myself
>> name “whiteness” in as many contexts as I could as a way of both respecting
>> my “black” colleagues use of the terms “black and white” with the growth of
>> black pride and also wanting to somehow rebalance the lenses of race, as
>> when quoting the white, Prussian theologian Karl Barth in a sermon.
>>
>> But, wow, when I read “ the great lie that we are forced to live as the
>> price for the racially shaped privileges we enjoy” I’m feel shock and
>> recognition and yes, awe—wanting to base my work on common ground- building
>> observables and liking the energy of “creative interruption” of habits of
>> domination, even verbal habits.
>>
>> However, I’m guessing people who identify as “of color” are in as many
>> different places on this as “we” are...so I’m wanting to honor your passion
>> for inclusion but also hold a space for a more humble “interim ethic” of
>> “making whiteness visible”. Does this make sense?
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> on 1/13/10 4:43 PM, Nancy at narvold at sfo.com wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Lou - it may be an opportunity to support the group in honing their
>> message to include your critique. I'd say, write to them.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>>
>> *From:* louschoen at aol.com
>>
>> *To:* email at massslaveryapology.org ; wasummit at lists.wacan.org ;
>> usforallofus at awarela.org
>>
>> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 12, 2010 7:36 PM
>>
>> *Subject:* Re: [WAsummit] U.S. For All of Us
>>
>>
>> I want very much to sign this statement but, in the "usforallofus" web
>> site, the preface to the words quoted include, twice, a limiting phrase,
>> which contradicts the broad invitation to signatures at the end of the web
>> site. It asserts, "We are white people..." That affirmation would make it
>> difficult to sign, with conviction, for anyone not defined as white..
>>
>> It's also a challenge for those of us who are asked by US culture to
>> accept "White or Caucasian" identity but who understand that the very
>> concept of "white," as a racial definition, is at the root of
>> our continuing racial crisis and divisions. Europeans and
>> Euroamericans claimed that shade for its relative value supremacy among
>> color definitions, in spite of their own pinkish, yellowish and tannish
>> hues, contrasting it deliberately with the blackness of those they
>> enslaved. It was a strategy to justify their oppression of others, and was
>> reinforced by promoting cultural, legal and scientific belief in the
>> mythological concept of "race." As James Baldwin wrote in 1984, "It is not
>> merely that whiteness is oppressive and false; it is that whiteness is *nothing
>> but *oppressive and false." ("On Being 'White' and Other Lies," *Essence
>> * Magazine.)
>>
>> It would be healthy for all "white" anti-racists to study carefully
>> and discuss the recent book by Zeus Leonardo, *Race, Whiteness and
>> Education.* He builds upon David Roediger's 1992 work, *Towards the
>> Abolition of Whiteness,* exploring the process of transformation and
>> ultimately abolition of the great lie that we are forced to live as the
>> price for the racially shaped privileges we enjoy. Our struggle for
>> transformation demands more from us than collective statements of principle
>> decrying the bigotry around us..
>>
>> Lou Schoen
>> Minneapolis
>>
>> In a message dated 12/26/09 5:16:36 PM, email at massslaveryapology.orgwrites:
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi Friends,
>>
>> You might be interested in a statement from
>> http://www.usforallofus.org. <http://www.usforallofus.org./>
>> Their website says:
>>
>> "We long for a country that lifts all of us up, dares to care, offers
>> love, generosity, and justice. We reject the racism that keeps us
>> divided.
>> We celebrate our interdependence and our capacity to love our neighbors
>> as
>> ourselves...The first step is to say together: "There is no room for
>> racism in a U.S. for all of us."
>>
>> Their statement has been signed by 65 organizations and almost 600
>> individuals.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Louisa L. Davis, M.Div., PhD
>> 11330 Dockside Circle
>> Reston, VA 20191
>> home: (703) 860-1203
>> cell: (240) 338-5156
>>
>> “Get very clear about the kind of world [you] would like and then start
>> living that way.“
>> -- Marshall Rosenberg, Center for Nonviolent Communication
>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Check out "Youth Helping to End Racism" at www.anti-racismonline.org
>
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--
"Human solidarity is not the product of being human; being human is the
product of human solidarity....The degree to which one is sensitive to other
people's suffering, to another's humanity, is the index of one's own
humanity." ---Abraham Heschel
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