May 15th, 2007
books and randomness
Some books in a pile on the floor next to my desk which I keep stubbing my toe on (way to remind myself of white privilege, eh?):
Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide by Andrea Smith
color of violence: the incite! anthology
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex (Incite! Women of Color Against Violence, eds.)
Beyond Borders: Thinking Critically About Global Issues (Paula Rothenberg, ed.)
Worthy quotes du jour:
Hate is the first word I grab to describe the feeling [of recognizing racism in oneself and others]. Maybe it isn’t exactly the right word, but I use it because it conveys the intensity that I think is appropriate. Maybe I should think of it as another kind of love, just a love particularly harsh and dreadful. Maybe there is no word that can convey what I feel. If hate isn’t it, I know that platitudes about love don’t capture what I feel. Why should I love such ugly flaws and failings? I agree that love matters in this world, but I don’t think white people should love their whiteness. Better for everyone, I think, that we take a shot first at hating it.
I don’t mean white people should hate themselves for having pale skin, for something we were born with. I think we white people should sometimes hate ourselves for what we do, or don’t do, in the world, for the choices we make about that white skin. In other words, we should hate whiteness and be accountable for our own complicity with whiteness. We live in a white-supremacist society and benefit from white privilege. We should hate that fact, and if we haven’t done enough to change that world, well…And that’s the rub: Whatever we have done, it’s not enough. It’s not enough because the white-supremacist society still exists. The fact that it still exists should cause us discomfort every day…
I am a white person living in a white-supremacist society. I am surrounded by, enveloped in, trapped by–I am forced to live in–a depraved and degraded whiteness. I want to escape this trap. I want to live in a world in which I can at least imagine that someday I will be able to stop being white. I want to be able to dream of being a human being instead of a white person. That’s where this book starts, with an acknowledgement that this writing is born of selfishness. I want to find a way out of whiteness so that I can claim my own humanity…
In the arena of racial justice in the contemporary United States, this means articulating the painful truth that whiteness is depraved and degraded. To accept whiteness, to truly believe in it, is to deform oneself. The privileges and material benefits that come from being white in a white-supremacist society come at a cost to us white people. Whiteness is based on lies not only about others but lies about ourselves, and we can’t lay claim to our full humanity until we find our way out of the web of denial…
Somewhere down in our guts we understand that in an oppressive system such as white supremacy, the unearned privileges with which we live are based on the suffering of others. We know that we have things because others don’t. We may not want to give voice to that feeling, but it is impossible to ignore completely. And it doesn’t feel good, in part because to be fully human is to seek communion with others, not separation from them, and one cannot find that connection under conditions in which unjust power brings unearned privilege. To be fully human is to reject a system that conditions your pleasure on someone else’s pain.
– The Heart of Whiteness by Robert Jensen
One way out of [the oppression olympics] is to realize that male privilege isn’t problematic just because it emphasizes male dominance but because it values and promotes dominance and control as ends in themselves. In that sense, all forms of oppression draw support from common roots, and whatever we do that calls attention to those roots undermines all forms of privilege. If working against male privilege is seen simply as enabling some women to get a bigger piece of the pie, then some women probably will “succeed” at the expense of others who are disadvantaged by race, class, sexual orientation, and disability status. One could make the same arguments about movements for racial justice. If it just means enabling well-placed people of color to get ahead, then it won’t end racial oppression for the vast majority. But if we identify the core problem as any society organized around principles of dominance and privilege, then changing that requires us to pay attention to all the forms of privilege those principles promote. Whether we begin with race or gender or disability or class or the capitalist system, if we name the problem correctly we’ll wind up going in the same general direction.
– Privilege, Power and Difference by Allan Johnson (pp. 149-150)
If you’re white, read these books. You’ll be glad you did.
So where have I been, besides reading? Here’s one place:
Funky scarf w/diagonal end, in “gelato” bouclé (sorry Michelle)
Other places I’ve been:
- sitting in the emergency vet waiting room for hours to find out that my poor kitty, who couldn’t walk and kept falling over backwards, most likely had a stroke (almost back to normal now, no worries, but that was a hairy evening)
- the depths of hell represented by a classroom presided over by a self-described “creative” (ahhtiste-diva would be a better characterization IMHO) who spent her time talking about her (20-year-old) accomplishments (”Have you heard of Communication Arts magazine? That’s very hard to get into. I’ve been in it twice.”) and running down each student’s efforts while redrawing their designs in her own image
- dealing with the classism and snobbery of my landlady (more on this to follow perhaps) resulting in the probability that I’ll be moving within the next month
Is that enough to excuse a week-long blogging absence? I hope so. Regular service may resume soon, or it may not, I just don’t know.
