<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD><TITLE></TITLE> <META content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv=Content-Type> <STYLE type=text/css>BODY { PADDING-BOTTOM: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; PADDING-RIGHT: 1ex; FONT-FAMILY: sans-serif; FONT-SIZE: small; PADDING-TOP: 1ex } A[href] { } BLOCKQUOTE { BORDER-LEFT: #144fae 2px solid; MARGIN: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 1em } BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE { BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #006312; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #006312; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #006312; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #006312 } BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE BLOCKQUOTE { BORDER-BOTTOM-COLOR: #540000; BORDER-TOP-COLOR: #540000; BORDER-RIGHT-COLOR: #540000; BORDER-LEFT-COLOR: #540000 } </STYLE> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18865"></HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV><FONT size=2>yes - what I find interesting is the wide range of position within our group - the history and structure of how we became "white" rather than our ethnicity is a powerful part of this issue - assimilation and homogenation has made us different from those who have not been "whitened" - of course it is a construct - just as race is - but it is one that holds enormous power and has many consequences.I wonder if the subtle forms of racism, which feed the institutional and structural discrimination and disparities would be so insidiously unseen by such a large part of our society if parameters of whiteness are either made obvious or if whiteness were to be "magically" eliminated.</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>I will be interested in following continuing back-and-forth dialogue about this. It is obviously an important concern, and if we can get some consensus among ourselves we wil be stronger in addressing our constituents. thanks to those who have spoken up. I think the usforallofus is the closest thing that has emerged that could be a powerful organizing effort - which is desperately needed, and something "moderates" can participate in and perhaps become more interested and aware of the issues. </FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2>And, I think it would be useful to have the unforallofus made aware of this dialogue as well, since others may hesitate in signing. nancy</FONT></DIV> <DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: #000000 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; PADDING-RIGHT: 0px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial; BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=pasoconsulting@fastmail.fm href="mailto:pasoconsulting@fastmail.fm">Dottye Burt-Markowitz</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A title=wasummit@lists.wacan.org href="mailto:wasummit@lists.wacan.org">White Anti-racist Summit</A> </DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Thursday, January 14, 2010 7:28 AM</DIV> <DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> Re: [WAsummit] U.S. For All of Us/beyond whiteness?</DIV> <DIV><BR></DIV> <DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial; FONT-SIZE: medium" dir=ltr> <DIV class=defangedMessage> <DIV id=me37569> <DIV>Ditto to Margery's comments.   </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>On Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:34 -0800, "margery freeman" <margeryfreeman@yahoo.com> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE class=me37569QuoteMessage type="cite"> <TABLE style="BORDER-BOTTOM: 0px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 0px solid; BORDER-TOP: 0px solid; BORDER-RIGHT: 0px solid" border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0> <TBODY> <TR> <TD style="FONT-FAMILY: inherit; VERTICAL-ALIGN: top; font-size-adjust: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; -x-system-font: none" vAlign=top> <DIV>Dear AntiRacist White Friends,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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) <EM>because </EM>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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>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.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>With best New Year wishes to you all,</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Margery</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium">Margery Freeman</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium">The People's Institute for Survival and Beyond</SPAN></DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: medium">718-918-2716; cell: 504-813-2368</SPAN></DIV> <DIV>--- On <B>Wed, 1/13/10, Louisa Davis <I><louisaldavis@verizon.net></I></B> wrote:</DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Louisa Davis <louisaldavis@verizon.net><BR>Subject: Re: [WAsummit] U.S. For All of Us/beyond whiteness?<BR>To: "White Anti-racist Summit" <wasummit@lists.wacan.org><BR>Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 5:57 PM<BR><BR> <DIV id=me37569yiv2107468653><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">Lou and all, Appreciating your call for more careful, inclusive and interruptive language-ing in our work.<BR><BR>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.  <BR><BR>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.  <BR><BR>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?<BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><SPAN><BR><BR><BR>on 1/13/10 4:43 PM, Nancy at narvold@sfo.com wrote:<BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN> <BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><SPAN>Lou - it may be an opportunity to support the group in honing their message to include your critique. I'd say, write to them.<BR></SPAN></SPAN> <BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><SPAN><BR>----- Original Message ----- <BR> <BR><B>From:</B>  louschoen@aol.com <BR> <BR><B>To:</B> email@massslaveryapology.org ;  wasummit@lists.wacan.org ; usforallofus@awarela.org <BR> <BR><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, January 12, 2010 7:36  PM<BR> <BR><B>Subject:</B> Re: [WAsummit] U.S. For All of  Us<BR> <BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN>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..  <BR><BR>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 <BR>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 <BR>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 <I>nothing but </I>oppressive and false."  ("On Being 'White' and Other Lies," <I>Essence</I> Magazine.)<BR><BR>It would be healthy for all  "white" anti-racists to study carefully and discuss the recent book by Zeus  Leonardo, <I>Race, Whiteness and Education.</I>  He builds upon  David Roediger's 1992 work, <I>Towards the Abolition of Whiteness,</I> 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..<BR><BR>Lou  Schoen<BR>Minneapolis<BR><BR>In a message dated 12/26/09 5:16:36 PM,  email@massslaveryapology.org writes:<BR><BR><BR> <BR>Hi Friends,<BR><BR>You might be interested in a statement  from <A href="http://www.usforallofus.org./" target=_blank defang_rel="nofollow">http://www.usforallofus.org.</A><BR>Their website says:<BR><BR>"We long for  a country that lifts all of us up, dares to care, offers<BR>love,  generosity, and justice. We reject the racism that keeps us divided.<BR>We  celebrate our interdependence and our capacity to love our neighbors  as<BR>ourselves...The first step is to say together: "There is no room  for<BR>racism in a U.S. for all of us."<BR><BR>Their statement has been  signed by 65 organizations and almost  600<BR>individuals.<BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><SPAN><BR><BR></SPAN><SPAN><BR><BR> <BR> <HR align=center SIZE=3 width="100%"> <BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>WAsummit mailing  list<BR>WAsummit@lists.wacan.org<BR><A href="http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit" target=_blank defang_rel="nofollow">http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit</A><BR><BR> <HR align=center SIZE=3 width="95%"> </SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small"><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px">_______________________________________________<BR>WAsummit mailing list<BR>WAsummit@lists.wacan.org<BR><A href="http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit" target=_blank defang_rel="nofollow">http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit</A><BR></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN></BLOCKQUOTE><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: small"><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 10px"><BR><BR></SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px">-- <BR></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 11px">Louisa L. Davis, M.Div., PhD<BR>11330 Dockside Circle<BR>Reston, VA 20191<BR>home: (703) 860-1203<BR>cell: (240) 338-5156<BR><BR>“</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: large"><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 13px">Get very clear about the kind of world [you] would like and then start living that way.“<BR>       -- Marshall Rosenberg, Center for Nonviolent Communication</SPAN></SPAN></SPAN><SPAN><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12px"><BR></SPAN></SPAN></DIV><BR>-----Inline Attachment Follows-----<BR><BR> <DIV class=me37569plainMail>_______________________________________________<BR>WAsummit mailing list<BR><A href="http://us.mc1101.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=WAsummit@lists.wacan.org" defang_ymailto="mailto:WAsummit@lists.wacan.org">WAsummit@lists.wacan.org</A><BR><A href="http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit" target=_blank>http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit</A></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><BR></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV></DIV></DIV><PRE>-- Dottye Burt-Markowitz Paso Training and Consulting 425 South Chester St. Baltimore MD 21231 phone: 410-327-0134 pasoconsulting@fastmail.fm </PRE> <P> <HR> <P></P>_______________________________________________<BR>WAsummit mailing list<BR>WAsummit@lists.wacan.org<BR>http://lists.wacan.org/listinfo/wasummit<BR></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>