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I Can Fix It!
Again, moving from comments to post.
The handiest guide I've seen for white people to help fix racism at fixracism.com, compiled by Damali Ayo.
The handiest guide I've seen for white people to help fix racism at fixracism.com, compiled by Damali Ayo.
- Admit It.
- Listen.
- Educate Yourself.
- Broaden Your Experience.
- Take Action.
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Also, what does "white" mean? (Yes, I know I am.) Can you replace racism with religion-driven bias in all this?
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While I do not consider myself, personally, to be racist, I do recognize that there are a lot of benefits I receive, as a white person, without ever asking to receive them, that make my life easier that people of color do not and I do realize that the society in which I live is Racist and, as such, I benefit from that Racism. I may not be able to destroy the Racist foundation of our society, but there's a lot I can do by recognizing that I do reap these benefits and by listening to people of color when they have something to say about it. It's not fair, and it's not right, and it just sucks. And sometimes that's all I can do. Other times, I can do more, and that's what I'm currently going to school for and what I'm planning my career around.
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On the other hand, after working in anti-racist contexts, those differences tend to come out in the wash. And so, because I need to get to sleep, I'm going to offer, for your open-ended meditation, the flip, yet in some ways apt, time-honored ellipsis-preceding conditional clause: "If you have to ask . . ."
Your other questions are, unfortunately, not clear enough at the moment for me to provide any answer to.
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I understand your reaction. Nobody likes being insulted. I felt a pinch when I read "where do I put my foot now that I've taken it out my mouth". I thought, "Hey, my foot is nowhere near my mouth, and as a matter of fact I spend a hell of lot of time taking shit for calling people out on their racist remarks and views, so where do you get off telling me about my mouth because I'm white?"
Contemplate having that reaction hundreds of times a day. Or contemplate becoming numb to the feeling, because you've internalized it, and you've let someone else define who you are, your value to the world, where you can and can't go, what you can and can't be...
The closest I can come to imagining what it would be like to live under racism rather than as its beneficiary is remembering how I felt when I lived with my stepfather, who systematically emotionally and verbally abused me. It was a particular quote from "Dreams of My Father" that caused me to make the connection.
This process of displacement, this means of engaging in self-criticism while removing ourselves from the object of criticism...if it was especially well suited to those at the bottoms rungs of American life, it also spoke to the gold ring yet still experienced the awkward silence when walking into the clubhouse; those young college students who warily measured the distance between them and life on Chicago's mean streets, with the danger that distance implied, all the black people who, it turned out, shared with me a voice that whispered in them--'You don't really belong here'.
"You don't really belong here." That's how I felt about my house, how I felt about Williams, how I felt about anyone's home I was invited into...at times, how I felt about the world at large, because someone had directed a tremendous amount of time and energy making me feel like I was not a whole person at a time when I was vulnerable to believing it.
I've strayed a bit from the point. White children are not born racist. White children in America grow up in a society that makes thousands of distinctions, both grand and subtle, between white and black, between races and ethnicities that we construct, and indeed, between religions, between classes, between the kids who live in one end of town and the kids who live in another...and so do all children, and so are they are imbued with the subconscious conceptual distinctions that, due to the nature of our brains, we cannot help but make. Recognizing how racism works is a process of...perhaps overlearning, learning to compensate for the biases you can't erase, and learning to work against the societal structures you can't destroy.
Everyone is destined to form prejudices. Whites in America are by and large destined to believe a host of things about non-whites, few of which are flattering. It's not so much that whites "unracistify" themselves...I think "educate" is definitely a good choice of word.
I'll take a stab at the other question, "what does white mean in this context?" From a biological standpoint, I don't think a good case for the existence of race can be made. But it is very much a social reality, and in the West, "whiteness" seems to be an issue of purity, insofar as any "colored" ancestors makes one "colored" (I feel like my grandma when I say that). Bi-racial (white and any other race) children don't seem to have the option to self-identify as white, and they certainly aren't treated white (they have a unique set of troubles...). While, for US Census purposes, one can be considered Latino and white, that's not the way most Americans see it. Further, Middle Eastern and North African folk are considered white for census purposes but hardly for "white privilege" purposes. Europeans who are sufficiently "ethnic" (too recently off the boat, if you will), particularly Southern and Eastern Europeans, are (and this is my subjective opinion) considered and treated "less white" than Northern or "well-blended" Europeans who've shed their ethnic identities.
I have further thoughts, but I've probably already exceeded the word limit.
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This is but a series of observations.
When it comes to discussions or actions in the sphere of what I'll call "social power dynamics", whether in the realm of race, sex, religion, class, etc., it is almost always the case that the group currently enjoying the benefit of the power structure gets to set the terms of the discussion or action, however well-intentioned they are. This is only natural, as, at the beginning of any such process, they don't realize that they own the language, don't realize their inheritance of power, and don't realize how little they have to lose in comparison to the outgroup or outrgoups.
And, as is only natural, the outgroup or outgroups, as it/they become(s) empowered, become(s) frustrated with this state of affairs. I would cite Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail as an example of a member (nay, a leader) of the outgroup reclaiming the terms of debate from a members of a well-intentioned, sympathetic ingroup. "You deplore the demonstrations taking place in Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative."
Having endured continous slights, misunderstandings and injustices, the anger and frustration of members of the outgroup and their eagerness to claim the debate are readily understandable. Not having endured continuous slights, misunderstandings, and injustices of the same nature, the bewilderment, bristling and sometime backlash of the ingroup at small slights and meager injustices are readily understandable. If we take the time, and are willing, to understand one another. Impatience, cruelty, and a rush to judgment by anyone is a disservice to the larger cause.
In truth, nobody owns the discussion; it ought to be an exchange, as long as all parties are willing to listen.
As for my opinion on the site, and the document; it is assumption-making, and it will be found offensive by some people. There is an inherent difficulty in drawing up a "guide to racism for white people", as there is in the "guide to racism for people of color". We are all heading to the same destination, albeit from different paths. But those paths are unique to each of us, and I personally think a guide that reminded one how to find the goal and how to move forward in a color-neutral way would be more constructive. And that having separate websites for whites and non-whites is...weird. I'm not denying that a lot of whites live in a state of complete denial, or much worse, about racism. Just that "Hey, racist! Shut up and listen!" usually doesn't work. Trust me, I've tried that one--it comes most naturally to me--and it just doesn't work, regardless of how true it is.
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At times I've gotten the impression that's what certain people want; they'd rather see folks squirm than see them change. Presumably if (generic) you knew someone named Joe who you sincerely wished would undergo some self-improvement, you wouldn't start by saying "Joe, it's time to admit you're a selfish, irritating prick, and do something about it." Telling Joe he's a racist is likely to elicit a similar reaction. It stings. It's not a good conversation starter.
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And even if there was, I'm not sure it would help. Other people have been talking about their experiences in trying to say "I think your actions here are influenced by the the fact that [x] is not white;" the reaction is immediately "Are you calling me a racist??!"
Avalon's Willow's post starting off this whole thing (http://seeking-avalon.blogspot.com/2009/01/open-letter-to-elizabeth-bear.html) explicitly said "I'm not calling you a monster. I'm not calling you a racist."
It didn't help. It doesn't help.