On November 20th, Jamie, Aastha and I led a
Bonner class discussion around Tim Wise's White
Like Me, and in particular Chapter 6, which deals with the
institutional colorblindness that can be found in the world of non-profits. We
thought it would be both appropriate and necessary to bring this conversation
to Bonners. We spend 8 hours a week in volunteering in communities such as
Norristown and North Philadelphia. This racial divide is quite apparent (for
example, CASA is an after school program for 5th and 6th graders in Norristown,
and all of the children are black with the exception of one Hispanic girl)
However, none of our community partners mention race in their mission
statement-- or seem to address the issue at all. Racial justice cannot be
achieved through service if our service is colorblind.
We opened the class by showing a
10-minute video of Tim Wise speaking; the video is titled The Pathology of White Privilege, and it
pointedly deals with the ways in which privilege can blind us to the realities
that non-whites in the United States face on a daily basis. After the video, we
asked for general reactions. I was surprised that a few people expressed that
they had never before heard the term “white privilege”, and I gathered that
some were still unfamiliar with its true meaning. One student expressed that
she did not feel particularly privileged because she comes from a lower-middle
class household. I emphasized that because she is white, she is afforded
benefits that non-whites are not allowed in our society. The term “privilege”
can be easily confused, especially if one is used to operating from a
colorblind perspective.
One of the discussion questions we
had come up with dealt with the idea of service as an exercise in privilege. I
came up with this question mostly as a though experiment, but some students
seemed almost offended by the idea. This was actually a huge point of
contention and disagreement in our discussion. I had prefaced this question by
reading a passage from White Like Me in
which Wise discusses the school service trips he encountered in New Orleans in
the wake of Hurricane Katrina:
"Occasionally the answers I would receive suggested a very
high level of critical engagement, which was heartening. By this I mean, the
persons who had organized the trip had recognized the importance of preparing
the students for the experience by having pre-arrival conversations regarding
racism, classism, the history of the city, and the political and cultural
context within which the tragedy had occurred. In those cases, the volunteers
were not simply going to New Orleans to "get their help on," or
perform some version of perceived Christian duty; rather they were going to
bear witness to inequality, learn from local leaders about their experiences,
and work in real solidarity with the people struggling to rebuild the
city--working with, not for" (230).
Wise
goes on to note that most of the service trips lacked this sort of preparation.
I wanted to connect this to the idea of us going into communities we know very
little about (e.g. Norristown or North Philly) in order to help and serve. Is this not an exercise in privilege to some
extent? There was disagreement. Here is a section from one student’s
reflection:
I
still don’t see local service as an “exercise” in privilege. An exercise means
that something is being used and the implication is that without the privilege
I cannot possibly perform the action. I certainly concede the point that our
privilege becomes evident when we get out of a school-provided van with
Hollister clothing and an institute of higher education to return to, but to be
an exercise would mean that I am required to use my privilege to perform the
task.
Another student wrote:
Also, i agree with X on her statement as service trips to
Norristown not being considered a service trip. I do agree that our white
privilege is made known in these areas, but i do not believe it is a direct
result of our white privilege.
Another
wrote:
It
is unproductive to be ashamed of the white privilege, instead I feel as though
we should take advantage of the privilege we have and help those who are not
privileged. This sounds idealistic, but it is possible, and that is evident in
the work we do as Bonners. While we are all privileged is some way or another
to be able to go to college and to have to time to devote to volunteer work, we
are at least using this to help others.
And yet another wrote:
With
the very little I understand about the black children at CASA, I am still feel
absolutely horrible leaving those kids to drive home to my wealthy college
knowing they may never even have the chance to live the life that I almost take
for granted. So conversation is an
incredibly insightful task, but it is just a start.
It seemed as though, while Bonners were willing to acknowledge
the disparity between Collegeville/ Ursinus and the communities we serve, many
were reluctant to fully recognize the role that privilege has in our ability to
do service. The conversation went to examining how we were selected for the
Bonner program, which is a highly selective scholarship. Someone made the point
that students whose families were well off would have had the opportunity to do
more volunteer work in high school, as opposed to say, working a part-time job.
This would have increased their chances of being selected for Bonner. This made
another student angry. She said that her family was not well off; they were on
food stamps, but she still made the time to volunteer in her community. This is
where the discussion got a little dicey, in my opinion. I think that some
students felt as though they needed to shout that they were an exception. But
the point was to prove exactly that this was an exception. We weren’t trying to
generalize—but one look around the room and it is evident that white privilege
had to have had some part in being selected for Bonner. There are no black
Bonners this year. Not one.
All in all, I think that the conversation was important
and necessary. People clearly took something away from the discussion, and I
could tell that we laid a foundation for people to interrogate their privilege
as well as personal biases. Wrote one girl:
It
was upsetting to realize that, growing up the way I did, even though I never
thought of myself as racist, there are these really small ways--like locking
the car doors in a black neighborhood-- that I express and continue those
stereotypes. In our small groups, I definitely agreed that education is a
systematic thing that needs to be addressed; both in the way that it needs to be
bettered in poorer areas and that we need to change how racial issues are
taught in schools.
Another wrote:
I have learned an enormous amount
about myself through the presentation. Though the term "white
privilege" has always been somewhat of a buzzword in that it carries
certain negative connotations, I never quite understood what exactly that
meant. The video made me aware of what privilege entails and the extent by
which it applies. Privilege does not just encompass the economic advantage, but
the idea that simply being white carries a privilege of not being discriminated
for being black. White privilege applies to the fact that we can not only
receive an education, have a generous food supply, and have access to all of
the knowledge we want, but to the point of anxiety. We impose our beliefs
because white privilege has told us that we are right. Most importantly, it has
told us that the concept of white privilege often resides exclusively in our
subconscious, which is dangerous considering it takes awareness to realize what
is in our subconscious. You can affect your awareness, so by
ensuring that you maintain conscientiousness, you can start to overcome the
societal influences that affect your subconscious.
One of the questions we addressed in
our small group breakout segment was what we can do to address systemic racism.
A lot of people agreed that being aware of our own privilege is a good place to
start. Our faulty education system was also discussed. Many felt that they had
been robbed, and misinformed—and that schools need to implement a more diverse,
holistic curriculum that does not gloss over racial injustices in history. One student
thought we need to go even bigger—and attempt to affect policy change and
organize communities. He wrote in his reflection:
Unless
work is done to affect the governmental policy, we will continue to live in a
society that is blatantly divided by race.
I may be thinking too straight forward, but I think our action needs to
be directed towards provoking change. I
think that raising awareness, through conversation or events, is awesome
because it grows the number of people behind the cause and ready to act. But I am not sure that I have ever seen an
opportunity, on campus at least, that promoted direct action upon the
government. Why aren't we writing to
representatives? Why aren't we linking
up with people like Tim Wise and picking their brains about the direct action
that could occur? Only then does raising
awareness make sense, because there is a positive and direct outcome coming from
enlightenment. And I think that this lack
of action stems from a lot of things, such as distrust in the government to
listen and act, making the task appear futile.
But for now, it seems like the most effective action we can take.
On
the whole, I’m very glad that Bonners seemed to take the discussion to heart.
Race can be an uncomfortable topic, especially for those who are not accustomed
to discussing it. I’m proud of the Bonners for engaging in such an open dialogue, and I am thankful for Aastha and Jamie for being great
co-teachers/ discussion mediators.
