rivervision - since election day of 2000.

« 1st day of classes | home | intentions »

Monday, 8 January 07 :: on being racist

i posted this response when someone at another blog asked me what does it mean to be racist. i thought it was interesting enough to post here:
I am racist because I notice that someone is black. I am racist because I notice that someone is brown.
I am racist because I notice that I am white.

Race is a part of how we view society. Because I am a highly educated white woman I have advantages that that a highly educated black woman has. Our default in this society is white.

I don’t think its a matter of looking at who has oppressed who in the past, for me it is a matter of acknowledging that racism still exists, and as white person I still get benefits because of the colour of my skin.

To illustrate, from a wonderful book written by a man by the name of Paul Kivel, it is called ‘Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice’, some statements from his White Benefits checklist (and comments about my own experience):

I live in a school district or metropolitan area where more money is spent on schools that white children attend than on those that children of colour attend. (.Yes, this is the case in Eugene, Oregon. I don’t know enough about Logan, UT yet to make a similar statement)
I work in a job, career, or profession or in an agency or organization in which there are few people of colour. (Yes. In my lab there is one person of colour (out of 26 of us), and out of 8 faculty members, there are 2 people of colour)
I can always vote for candidates who represent my race. (YES! YES! YES!)

Yep)
and on and on and on..

The work that I believe we must do is first and foremost on our own hearts. We have got to recognize our own racial biases. We have got to recognize how we benefit, or not, from being the race we are.

Then we have to change things. We have to become aware of our behavior and the behavior of organizations we participate in. When we hear racist comments we have to stand up to them. We have to be willing to be allies. Then we have to be willing to learn how to recognize, and then give up, our own privilege we carry because of our race. And if our race is not a benefit, I believe we still need to stand up to racist comments and do whatever we can to be allies for ourselves.

posted by brooke at January 8, 2007 09:59 AM
comments

about
i'm brooke, born in '73. i am currently a phd student in instructional technology. this is the blog where i capture all the neurotic, and the few non-neurotic, moments that seem to come with being a phd student (if you want to read less neuroses and more professionalism go to: oer's, dl's, reuse and culture: it's about a phd student researching digital resources in a multicultural world). i have been from eugene, oregon for a long time.. 8 years specifically (its my home now, but i grew up in southwestern virginia), but now i'm here in logan, utah at utah state university. after finding my roots in eugene i never could have expected that i would leave that liberal oasis and head to utah. but i did and there are days when its a blessing and days when i'm tempted to go back to oregon and beg the folks at lost valley educational center to let me move in. but i won't leave because there are days when this process is better than any kind of high i could ever imagine. what else? i collect things, i have 2 cats, 2 kayaks, 2 laptops (i'm a geek - one mac, one pc). i can be emailed at brookesblog@rivervision.com.