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>I'm going to start with the
>real inspiration for this post:
>
>
>"The first thing I tell them
>is that at least where
>my own particular Black Nationalist
>organization, the Organization of Afro-American
>Unity, is converned, the can't
>join us. I have these
>very deep feelings that white
>people who want to join
>black organizations are really just
>taking the escapist way to
>salve their consciences. By visibly
>hovering near us, they are
>"proving" that they are "with
>us." But the hard truth
>is this isn't helping to
>solve America's racist problem. The
>Negroes aren't the racists. Where
>the really sincere white people
>have got to do their
>"proving" of themselves is not
>among the black victims, but
>out on the battle lines
>of where America's racism really
>is - and that's in
>their own home communities; America's
>racism is among their own
>fellow whites. That's where sincere
>whites who really mean to
>accomplish something have got to
>work....
>"I tell sincere white people, 'Work
>in conjunction with us- each
>of us working among our
>own kind.' Let sincere white
>individuals find all other white
>people they can who feel
>as they do - and
>let them form their own
>all-white groups, to work trying
>to convert other white people
>who are thinking and acting
>so racist. Let sincere whites
>go and teach non-violence to
>white people!"
>-The Autobiography of Malcolm X
>
>My name is Kenny, I'm 18,
>white, attending SFSU next year,
>and have been hovering around
>these boards taking in everything
>for the past year. To
>be honest, I'm suffering from
>two things, one of which
>is the ever infamous "white
>man's guilt" and the other
>(I dunno if it has
>ever been given a formal
>name) that I call "white
>apprehension", which simply encompasses a
>feeling of helplessness that I'm
>grouped among a culture of
>people so hypocritical and historically
>cruel, yet redeeming ourselves is
>nearly impossible.
>
>The question I pose is this:
>What can we really do?
>
>
>Malcolm X said that whites need
>to form all-white groups in
>order to improve themselves and
>their collective communities in order
>to better society for everyone.
>
>
>I want to find out how
>everyone thinks these groups should
>or could function in order
>to better society. I'm not
>talking idealistically, but realistically. Meeting
>agendas, etc.
>
>My thought was a 3 -
>piece process:
>1. Destroy "white psyche."
> -Alert them of historical and
>current racist occurances, white priviledge,
>etc. to the point where
>they are ashamed to be
>white.
>2. Rebuild confidence in their race.
>
> -(the hard part) Find a
>way to make them feel
>confident that they can be
>good and make a difference,
>what they can do, etc.
>
>3. Teach understanding and colorblindness on
>an everyday level.
> - I think we would
>have to have other all
>black or all Latino groups
>work cohesively in order to
>produce some sort of effect
>on the third part. Truthfully,
>this is that part I
>am totally lost on how
>to do.
>
>Someone help me out here.
>I need some of your
>thoughts on if this is
>even potentially helpful and what
>can realistically be done. Looking
>forward to constructive responses.
>
>
Start with this article below then go to this website http://www.fiskrri.org/articles-essays/wise/index.htm read it and spread the info.
Acknowledging and Challenging Whiteness
Tim Wise, AlterNet
July 3, 2000
Being white means never having to think about it. James Baldwin said that many years ago, and it's perhaps the truest thing ever said about race in America. That's why I get looks of bewilderment whenever I ask, as I do when lecturing to a mostly white audience: "what do you like about being white?"
Never having contemplated the question, folks take a while to come up with anything.
We're used to talking about race as a Black issue, or Latino, Asian, or Indian problem. We're used to books written about "them," but few analyze what it means to be white in this culture. Statistics tell of the disadvantages of "blackness" or "brownness" but few examine the flipside: namely, the advantages whites receive as a result.
When whites hear about things like racial profiling, we think of it in terms of what people of color go through, never contemplating what it means for us, and what we don't have to put up with. We might know that a book like The Bell Curve denigrates the intellect of blacks, but we ignore the fact that in so doing, it elevates the same in whites, much to our advantage in the job market and schools, where those in authority will likely view us as more competent than persons of color.
That which keeps people of color off-balance in a racist society is that which keeps whites in control: a truism that must be discussed if whites are to understand our responsibility to work for change. Each thing with which "they" have to contend as they navigate the waters of American life, is one less thing whites have to sweat: and that makes everything easier, from finding jobs, to getting loans, to attending college. Even those whites who would never support, let alone join a hate group -- and indeed condemn the actions of such characters -- ultimately are "steadied" by their existence, since they are an everpresent concern and damaging distraction for people of color just trying to live their lives. For most blacks, hate groups are one more thing with which to contend, things whites (unless they are gay or Jewish) view mostly as oddities or talk show entertainment, rather than a true source of pain, fear and anxiety.
On a personal level, this issue of the immensity of racial privilege has been made clear to me repeatedly: Like the time I attended a party in a white suburb and one of the few black men there announced he had to leave before midnight, because he was afraid his trip home -- which required that he travel through all-white neighborhoods -- would likely result in being pulled over by police, who would wonder what he was doing out so late in the "wrong" part of town.
He would have to be cognizant -- in a way I would not -- of every lane change, every blinker he did or didn't remember to use, whether his lights were too bright, or too dim, and whether he was going even 5 miles an hour over the limit: as any of those could serve as pretexts for pulling one over, pretexts that are used regularly against certain folks, but not others.
The virtual invisibility that whiteness affords those of us who have it is like psychological money in the bank, the proceeds of which we cash in every day while others are in a state of perpetual overdraft.
Yet, it's not enough to see these things, or think about them, or come to appreciate what whiteness means. Though important, this kind of enlightenment is no end in itself. Rather, it is what we do with the knowledge and understanding that matters.
If we recognize our privileges, yet fail to challenge them, what good is our insight? If we intuit discrimination, yet fail to speak against it, what have we done to rectify the injustice?
And that's the hard part: because privilege tastes good and we're loath to relinquish it. Or even if willing, we often wonder how to resist: how to attack unfairness and make a difference.
As to why we should want to end racial privilege -- aside from the moral argument- -the answer is straightforward: The price we pay to stay one step ahead of others is enormous. In the labor market, we benefit from racial discrimination in the relative sense, but in absolute terms this discrimination holds down most of our wages and living standards by keeping working people divided and creating a surplus labor pool of "others" to whom employers can turn when the labor market gets tight or workers demand too much in wages or benefits.
Furthermore, economist Andrew Brimmer notes that discrimination against African Americans alone siphons off about $240 billion annually from the economy in terms of lost productivity since it artificially restricts talent, ability, and black output. That is a siphoning with consequences for everyone, as it approaches the same amount as that which our nation spent on defense at the height of the cold war, and is far more than the amount spent on all social programs for working-class and poor folks combined.
Whites benefit in relative terms from discrimination against people of color in education, by receiving, on average, better resources and class offerings. But in absolute terms, can anyone deny with a straight face that the creation and perpetuation of under- and mis-educated persons of color harms us all?
And even disparate treatment in the justice system has its blowback on the white community. We may think little of the racist growth of the prison-industrial complex, as it snares far fewer of our children. But considering that the prisons warehousing black and brown bodies compete for the same dollars needed to build colleges for everyone, the impact is far from negligible.
In California, since 1980, nearly 30 new prisons have opened, compared to two four-year colleges, with the effect that the space available for people of color and whites to receive a good education has been curtailed. So folks fight over the pieces of a diminishing pie -- as with Proposition 209 which ended affirmative action -- instead of uniting against their common problem: the mostly white lawmakers who prioritize jails and slash taxes on the wealthy, rather than meeting the needs of most people.
As for how whites can challenge the system -- other than by joining the occasional demonstration or voting for candidates with a decent record on race issues -- this is where we'll need creativity.
Imagine, for example, that groups of whites and people of color started going to department stores as discrimination "tester" teams, and that the whites spent a few hours, in shifts, observing how they were treated relative to the black and brown folks who came with them. And imagine what would happen if every white person on the team approached a different white clerk and returned just-purchased merchandise, when they observed disparate treatment, explaining they weren't going to shop in a store that profiled or otherwise racially discriminated. Imagine the faces of the clerks, confronted by other whites demanding equal treatment for persons of color.
Far from insignificant, if this happened often enough, it could have a serious effect on behavior, and the institutional mistreatment of people of color in at least this one setting: after all, white clerks could no longer be sure if the white shopper in lady's lingerie was an ally who would wink at unequal treatment, or whether they might be one of "those" whites: the kind that would call them out for doing what they always assumed was acceptable.
Or what about setting up "cop watch" programs like those already in place in a few cities? White folks, following police, filming officer's interactions with people of color, and making their presence known, when and if they observe officers engaged in abusive behavior.
Or contingents of white parents, speaking out in a school board meeting against racial tracking in class assignments: a process through which kids of color are much more likely to be placed in basic classes, while whites are elevated to honors and advanced placement, irrespective of ability. Protesting this kind of privilege -- especially when it might be working to the advantage of one's own children -- is the sort of thing we'll need to do if we hope to alter the system we swear we're against.
We'll have to stop moving from neighborhoods when "too many" people of color move in.
We'll have to stop running to private schools, or suburban public ones, and instead fight to make the schools serving all children in our community better.
We'll need to consider taking advantage of the push for publicly funded "charter schools" by joining with parents of color to start institutions of our own, (preferably led by those same people of color) like the "Freedom Schools" established in Mississippi by the Student Non- Violent Coordinating Committee in 1964. Such charter schools could teach not only traditional subject matter, but also the importance of critical thinking, anti-racist commitment, and social and economic justice. If these are things we say we care about, yet we haven't at present the outlets to demonstrate our commitment, we'll have to create those institutions ourselves.
And we must protest the privileging of elite, white male perspectives in school textbooks. We have to demand that the stories of all who have struggled to radically transform society be told: and if the existing texts don't do that, we must dip into our own pockets and pay for supplemental materials that teachers could use to make the classes they teach meaningful.
And if we're in a position to make a hiring decision, we should go out of our way to recruit, identify and hire a person of color.
What these suggestions have in common -- and they're hardly an exhaustive list -- is that they require whites to leave the comfort zone to which we have grown accustomed. They require time, perhaps money, and above all else, courage; and they ask us to focus a little less on the safer, though important goal of "fixing" racism's victims (with a bit more money for this or that, or a little more affirmative action), and instead to pay attention to the need to challenge and change the perpetrators of and collaborators with the system of racial privilege. And those are the people we work with, live with, and wake up to every day.
It's time to revoke the privileges of whiteness.
Tim Wise is an antiracist educator, organizer and writer based in Nashville, Tennessee.
"I must warn you, ma'am, that people invariably flee the room when I walk in because I'm from Levittown"
"And what a spectacular act of noblesse oblige on her part to escort the lowly Levittowner around Washington on Inauguration Day!"
"If one were sufficiently paranoid, one might easily misinterpret a decision to go get seconds on that chicken hash as a deliberate insult to the municipality of Levittown."
"Close examination of the guest list reveals many other guests with backgrounds more humble than Bill O'Reilly's. Yes, even more humble than an accountant's son from Levittown. We can only hope that they didn't take offense when O'Reilly himself departed."
I'm working-class Irish American Bill O'Reilly … pretty far down the social totem pole," he says. Growing up in the 1960s, he watched his father "exhausting himself commuting from Levittown" to work as an accountant for an oil company. Dad "never made more than $35,000"—which would be $100,000 or more in today's money
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