THE BEST OF MOYO AFLAME 2011: Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part III, Finale

This piece originally appeared on Moyo Aflame on October 25, 2011

People get tired of racism. People get tired of talking about racism. People get tired of listening to other people talk about racism. It is not only people who are somewhat or largely racist who tire of these discourses. Many people get tired of this topic. I am strongly pushing the bounds of tolerance simply by composing a three part series on this blog about it. Even some of my most loyal fans will likely roll their eyes and shake their heads in disbelief and exasperation when they discover I have written yet another installment on the subject. That's just how averse we are in America to talking about racism. 

I have learned that virtually everyone (who is not black or brown) or who is not very seriously engaged in and committed to some form of active anti-racist work, eventually gets tired of talking about racism and wants to move on to another topic of discussion. Racism is not a sustainable conversation with a very large cross section of American citizens. And if racism is not a sustainable topic, the topics of white privilege and white supremacy, both being realities that are required for racism to even exist, don't really even stand a chance of making it out of the birth canal. It is very much like we as a people are engaged in a type of stealth like behavior, when it comes to discussions around race and white supremacy. We are lying in wait for any random cataclysmic, newsworthy or even pop confection of a story to break so that we can exhale a huge sigh of relief and completely pounce on this new thing, full force, whatever it is, and give energy to it instead of to the ongoing and always relevant discussion of racism.

The problem of course, is that so many of these new things especially the big ones also have very clear racialized or race related and white privilege/supremacy aspects, energies or undertones to them that are so powerful they often simply cannot be ignored---Hurricane Katrina, the signs present at early and ongoing Tea Party rallies, the rhetoric that emerged from those early and ongoing Tea Party rallies, bitherism, the passage of California's proposition 8, the American recession, the passage of Arizona's SB 1070, the ongoing , persistent and unprecedented disrespect and racialized name calling and lampooning aimed at President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, the passage of Alabama's HB 56, the execution of Troy Davis, etc. America is anything but a post racial society yet so many of us so desperately want it to be. This desire is so deep and so insidious it has become as ingrained in the American ethos as racism itself.

Its easy to understand why Americans are so eager to move past racism. It is a very ugly yet integral part of our past history and current reality. It is a national embarrassment. And most people don't enjoy being embarrassed. We tend to want to move past embarrassing episodes in our personal lives as quickly as humanly possible. The same is true for our national lives as well. And it is not just African Americans who have been subjected to the American brand of ethnic based bias, of course. This is a country of the occupied, the enslaved and of immigrants. Every single occupied indigenous nation, family with enslaved ancestors and every immigrant group who has found themselves within the borders of the sea to shining sea-ness known as America has experienced some form of horrifying legacy of ethnicity based bias within these borders. There are the Native people's whose land was initially appropriated, The Jews, The Irish, The Italians, The Germans, The Japanese, The Chinese, The Vietnamese, The Mexicans, The Nicaraguans, The El Salvadorans, etc. One could write a very good and very compelling history of America simply by writing it through the prism of our history of racism and the stain of ethnicity based bias.

Many people also have a very poor level of competency when it comes to discussions around racism. There are voluminous misconceptions. There is a lot of disinformation. People are uneducated or under educated about the subject. People have been told lies that they believe even if covertly so. Some people with media power deliberately repeat these lies. People get very defensive. Some people get seriously irrational. People feel guilty. People feel shamed. Some people experience it as the ultimate "gotcha" conversation. Some are competitive enough to never want to engage in a discourse where they are on the wrong side of that gotcha. People feel buzz killed. I have compassion for all of that. I honestly do. And you know what? Get over it. Because the result of not getting over it, as whomever the genius was in early AIDS activism so solemnly bemoaned, silence = death. It really is as simple as that for me when it comes to my lack of tolerance for people's desire to avoid conversations about race. Silence equals death.

There was a video that circulated around the internet a while ago. It was Morgan Freeman talking to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes about race. Freeman's antidote on the topic was to simply cease and desist when it came to discussions about racism. Morgan Freeman is an imposing and convincing person. Many of my white facebook friends tagged me on their sharing of the video. They praised it endlessly. I was captivated by the video. The teacher of conscious living part of me who understands that one gives power to that which one speaks about, knew exactly what Morgan Freeman was talking about and was drawn in almost completely...but not quite. As more and more of my white friends engaged in deeper and deeper and more enthusiastic praise for Freeman's perspective, I began to notice that none of my black friends were responding to it similarly. And I have many black friends with very strong opinions. Many white Americans desperately want to move past Americas racist history. Black folks response to that is more often along the lines of, "Uh, hold on Sally." Morgan Freeman, I believe, is in an interesting minority in his perspective as far as black Americans go. Lets explore this deeper, shall we.

I went back and watched the Morgan Freeman 60 Minutes interview video again, and again, and again and a few things began to pop out at me. First, there is the undeniable fact that Morgan Freeman has far more class and other forms of privilege than the vast majority of other African Descended men and women in America do. This is important. Its difficult to imagine this having no bearing at all on his philosophy whatsoever. I believe it is largely his privilege speaking when he adopts his colorblind philosophy. Second, in the interview, in defense of his essentially colorblind philosophy, Freeman says to Mike Wallace, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." Seems simple enough, right? For me however, there is one glaring problem with this approach being taken up specifically by Morgan Freeman. 

Here it is:

I very recently watched the video of this exchange yet again. In the meantime, since recording the original program with Wallace, Morgan Freeman has been featured on one of the installments of Professor Louis Henry "Skip" Gates Jr's PBS genealogy program, African American Lives. On this program it is revealed that, like many blacks from The South with the same last name, Freeman's name was taken when his ancestor became free from slavery, as a direct and unmistakable nod to that momentous event. Hence, Free Man. So every single time he is referred to as a black man and especially when he is addressed with the inclusion of his last name or whenever his last name appears in print, Freeman's connection to America's slavery/racist past is being conjured up...literally. And he wants to try to forget that? Move past that? Well, sorry, he can't no matter how hard he tries. It is literally a part of him.

The other big problem with Freeman's approach is that colorblindness usually equals some form of active denial or complicity when the issue is America's relationship to its own racial history and contemporary reality. There is no better place to observe this than in liberal, progressive white America that often believes colorblindness is a very good thing. It isn't. I do believe in the spiritual understanding that we give power to what we speak about. I have discovered however, that there are clear limitations to the application of this. When it comes to social justice advancements in the recorded history of humankind, such advancements have never, ever been achieved through silence. They've never ever been achieved simply through osmosis. They have been achieved through acknowledgment and then the long, hard work that follows and always with the ongoing acknowledgement just a half step behind whatever the current hard work calls for. Morgan Freeman's solution may be an appropriate one at some point in America's future. It is not a solution for the current American ethos around the issues of race, white supremacy, white privilege and black oppression and genocide.

On-site links:
Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part I

Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part II, OCCUPIED Edition

Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part III, Finale

People get tired of racism. People get tired of talking about racism. People get tired of listening to other people talk about racism. It is not only people who are somewhat or largely racist who tire of these discourses. Many people get tired of this topic. I am strongly pushing the bounds of tolerance simply by composing a three part series on this blog about it. Even some of my most loyal fans will likely roll their eyes and shake their heads in disbelief and exasperation when they discover I have written yet another installment on the subject. That's just how averse we are in America to talking about racism.

I have learned that virtually everyone (who is not black or brown) or who is not very seriously engaged in and committed to some form of active anti-racist work, eventually gets tired of talking about racism and wants to move on to another topic of discussion. Racism is not a sustainable conversation with a very large cross section of American citizens. It is very much like we as a people are engaged in a type of stealth like behavior, when it comes to discussions around race. We are lying in wait for any random cataclysmic, newsworthy or even pop confection of a story to break so that we can exhale a huge sigh of relief and completely pounce on this new thing, full force, whatever it is, and give energy to it instead of to the ongoing and always relevant discussion of racism.

The problem of course, is that so many of these new things especially the big ones also have a very clear racialized or race related aspect, energy or undertone to them that is so powerful it often simply cannot be ignored---Hurricane Katrina, the signs present at early and ongoing Tea Party rallies, the rhetoric that emerged from early and ongoing Tea Party rallies, bitherism, the passage of California's proposition 8, the American recession, the passage of Arizona's SB 1070, the passage of Alabama's HB 56, the execution of Troy Davis, etc. America is anything but a post racial society yet so many of us so desperately want it to be. This desire is so deep and so insidious that it has become as ingrained in the American ethos as racism itself.

Its easy to understand why Americans are so eager to move past racism. It is a very ugly yet integral part of our past history and current reality. It is a national embarrassment. And most people don't enjoy being embarrassed. We tend to want to move past embarrassing episodes in our personal lives as quickly as humanly possible. The same is true for our national lives as well. And it is not just African Americans who have been subjected to the American brand of ethnic based bias, of course. This is a country of the occupied, the enslaved and of immigrants. Every single occupied indigenous nation, family with enslaved ancestors and every immigrant group who has found themselves within the borders of the sea to shining sea-ness known as America has experienced some form of horrifying legacy of ethnicity based bias within these borders. There are the Native people's whose land was initially appropriated, The Jews, The Irish, The Italians, The Germans, The Japanese, The Chinese, The Mexicans, The Nicaraguans, The Salvadoreans, etc. One could write a very good and very compelling history of America simply by writing it through the prism of our history of racism and the stain of ethnicity based bias.

Many people also have a very poor level of competency when it comes to discussions around racism. There are voluminous misconceptions. There is a lot of disinformation. People are uneducated or under educated about the subject. People have been told lies that they believe even if covertly so. Some people with media power deliberately repeat these lies. People get very defensive. Some people get crazy. People feel guilty. People feel shamed. Some people experience it as the ultimate "gotcha" conversation. Some are competitive enough to never want to engage in a discourse where they are on the wrong side of that gotcha. People feel buzz killed. I have compassion for all of that. I honestly do. And you know what? Get over it. Because the result of not getting over it, as whomever the genius was in early AIDS activism so solemnly bemoaned, silence = death. It really is as simple as that for me when it comes to my lack of tolerance for people's desire to avoid conversations about race.

There was a video that circulated around the internet a while ago. It was Morgan Freeman talking to Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes about race. Freeman's antidote on the topic was to simply cease and desist when it came to discussions about racism. Morgan Freeman is an imposing and convincing person. Many of my white facebook friends tagged me on their sharing of the video. They praised it endlessly. I was captivated by the video. The teacher of conscious living part of me who understands that one gives power to that which one speaks about, knew exactly what Morgan Freeman was talking about and was drawn in almost completely...but not quite. As more and more of my white friends engaged in deeper and deeper and more enthusiastic praise for Freeman's perspective, I began to notice that none of my black friends were responding to it similarly. And I have many black friends with very strong opinions. Many white Americans desperately want to move past Americas racist history. Black folks response to that is more often along the lines of, "uh, hold on Sally." Morgan Freeman, I believe, is in an interesting minority in his perspective as far as black Americans go. Lets explore deeper.

I went back and watched the Morgan Freeman 60 Minutes interview video again, and again, and again and a few things began to pop out at me. First, there is the undeniable fact that Morgan Freeman has far more class and other forms of privilege than the vast majority of other African Descended men and women in America do. This is important. Its difficult to imagine this having no bearing at all on his philosophy whatsoever. I believe it is largely his privilege speaking when he adopts his colorblind philosophy. Second, in the interview, in defense of his essentially colorblind philosophy, Freeman says to Mike Wallace, "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." Seems simple enough, right? For me however, there is one glaring problem with this approach. Here it is:

I very recently watched the video of this exchange again. In the meantime, since recording the original program with Wallace, Morgan Freeman has been featured on one of the installments of Professor Louis Henry "Skip" Gates Jr's PBS genealogy program African American Lives. On this program it is revealed that, like many blacks from the south with the same last name, Freeman's name was taken when his ancestor became free from slavery as a direct nod to that momentous event. Hence, Free Man. So every single time he is referred to as a black man and especially when he is addressed with the inclusion of his last name or whenever his last name appears in print, Freeman's connection to America's slavery/racist past is being conjured up...literally. And he wants to try to forget that? Move past that? Well, sorry, he can't no matter how hard he tries. It is literally a part of him.

The other big problem with Freeman's approach is that colorblindness usually equals some form of active denial or complicity when the issue is America's relationship to its own racial history and contemporary reality. There is no better place to observe this than in liberal progressive white America that often believes colorblindness is a very good thing. It isn't. I do believe in the spiritual understanding that we give power to what we speak about. I have discovered however, that there are clear limitations to the application of this. When it comes to social justice advancements in the recorded history of humankind, such advancements have never, ever been achieved through silence. They've never ever been achieved simply through osmosis. They have been achieved through acknowledgment and then the long, hard work that follows and always with the ongoing acknowledgement just a half step behind whatever the current hard work calls for. Morgan Freeman's solution may be an appropriate one at some point in America's future. It is not a solution for the current American ethos around the issues of race, white supremacy, white privilege and black oppression and genocide.

On-site links:
Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part I

Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part II, OCCUPIED Edition

Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part II, OCCUPIED Edition

Sgt. Shamar Thomas/NYC, Occupy Wall Street confrontation with NYPD

I have been let down so many times as an activist, as a person of African Descent who came of age in the post Black Power heyday, as an LGBT and AIDS activist, as an extreme left wing liberal progressive who is also a person of African Descent and who has had to deal with left colorblindness [1] every step of the way.

I'm old enough to vividly remember the WTO in Seattle of 1999 and the over-the-top enthusiasm we all had then and the ultimate disappointment that followed. I was living in California when proposition 8 passed and in Oakland when Oscar Grant was murdered. I was living in Arizona when SB 1070 was passed. I've been pulled over for bogus reasons when driving while back by white police officers both male and female, especially female, so many times and in so many states I have completely lost count of the exact number of times at this juncture. And still I rise up. And still I resist. And Still I OCCUPY!

I can remember a time in my life, not so long ago, when I literally woke up almost every single day absolutely shocked that while I lay sleeping, people in later time zones in America had not risen up in mouth foaming disgust and taken to the streets by the millions, in massive protests about all the many wrong headed things that were taking place in this capitalist/ rich get richer/poop get poorer American dialectic. Now, we are more than a month into The Occupied Movement and maybe, just maybe, this is it. Do I dare get my hopes up once more? Time of course will tell. I have a long activism history. At this point in my activism career I am likely considered somewhat old guard. I am not in the powerful Rep. John Lewis/Joan Baez/John Lennon generation. My birth date places me right after that illustrious time that brought us so many luminaries in activism, many of whom are still with us and still active, still teaching, still witnessing and bearing witness. I am in the famous/infamous "baby boomer" generation. We too have made significant contributions to activism in America.

Then there is the black people/people of color "problem" that always seems to rear its ugly head in activist circles. Like in almost every other reflection of political life in America, activism here is largely influenced by white people. Because of this, I always hold my breath whenever a new progressive movement pops up. That's because there are almost always sensitivity/visibility/participation issues that invariably enters the scene and that directly impacts the people of color in these movements. These lapses almost always have the effect of delegitimizing us in some significant way or another. Worse still is when they end up blaming us, in some race based finger pointing, for some real or imagined failure the movement experiences. It came up in a huge way in the second wave feminist movement. It was so strong in that movement that African Descended and people of color feminists felt a need to come up with their own separate name for their own separate feminist movement. It came up in a big way again in the aftermath of the fight against proposition 8 in California in 2008.

So how is The Occupy Movement scoring so far on this front?

Well, it's already been pointed out by some of the more astute people out there (here) that the name of the movement itself, right out of the gate, is problematic for large segments of the Native American/American Indian/Indigenous activist communities. To a lesser extent it is also problematic for various members of the black, Central American and South American activists here in America. I agree with Tim Wise when he says white activists need to be mindful of such things when"trying to build a cross racial movement for social and economic justice." So naming the movement The Occupied Movement in a country that was stolen from its original inhabitants and then occupied and where shortly after this occupation, black people from Africa were imported to the newly occupied "nation" in order to provide free labor for the occupiers, is indeed problematic. Further, this is a country where many people and several states currently officially demonize Central American and South America people who immigrate to this country without the proper papers; many of whom had ancestors who were the original inhabitants of this land. Some have ancestors who originally stole the land. America is a complex mix of realities and ironies if its anything.

I however, am far from giving up on the movement for this faux paus and insensitivity. More are likely to follow. I am training my very highly developed eyesight and consciousness on The Occupied Movement looking for all hints, grand and small, of other insensitivities as well as other visibility and participation issues where blacks and other people of color are concerned. So far, there seem to be some encouraging signs (here, here and here). So I am encouraged. I am on high alert. And...I am encouraged.

On-site link:

http://ravenanda.blogspot.com/2011/12/best-of-moyo-aflame-2011-why.html

References
1.  Olson, Joel (October 20, 2011). Whiteness and the 99%. Bring the Ruckus

Why The Eradication of Both White Privilege and Racism Have To Be a Part of the Progressive/Liberal Agenda, Part I

And there's the rub.

In America, at least, in terms of political strategy, we have left wing politics and we have right wing politics. That, of course, is overly simplistic. It however, is not so overly simplistic as to significantly obscure the fundamental reality of current American political structure. There are what are observed by many as extremes on each of those poles, naturally. Yet even these extremes are not so dissimilar from the less extreme nor moderate expressions from which they are a part, to necessitate a completely different rubric being used or proposed.

Race is a completely made up construct, of course. There is no proven biologically based feasibility to the construct whatsoever. Many have attempted to discover such feasibility. Each, to date, has failed miserably. So why is there such cachet, so much gnashing of teeth, such vitriol and so much power attached to this construct if it is completely made up? The answer: The two principal artifacts of the invention of the construct of race are white privilege (or white supremacy to be more accurate) and racism. In stark and revealing contrast to the construct of race itself, these two artifacts are very real indeed. There is not one single person on the entire planet earth who has not been dramatically impacted and affected by both of these artifacts in some way, I don't believe. And every single one of the people with the greatest wealth and power on the planet has benefited enormously from them both. This is true even if they sincerely did not want to benefit from them and even if they are a person of color; which the vast majority clearly are not (see this). These people have simply achieved their accomplishments in spite of white privilege and racism, in such cases. You cannot ever convince me that there are not many blacks who have worked just as hard as Oprah Winfrey has. You just can't (if you take the time to meticulously peruse that list of the 400 richest people in America, you will notice Oprah is the only African American on the list. There are exactly zero African American men on it. That is not a coincidence. That is not an accident. It is by design!)

One thing that also needs to be kept in mind here is that there is no such thing as a truly self made man or woman on the face of the planet either. Every single person who has accomplished whatever has been accomplished in his or her life regardless of discipline or scope or arena has been achieved with the assistance of a virtual army of other largely unseen and unknown people.

The right wing in America, for the most part, makes little pretense about their engagement in cashing in on and exploiting the construct of race. The reigning poster child for this cashing in on and exploitation has to be none other than Herman Cain, Republican candidate for president in these United States of America. I see no irony in the fact that he is African American and has undoubtedly been on the receiving end of racism and that his "successes" have most certainly been curtailed by white privilege as well. Naturally, he seems to be very averse to admitting this, publicly at least. The only thing that is potentially tragic about Herman Cain would be some revelation that he sincerely believes he will get the Republican nomination. It would be very sad indeed if he ever believed such a thing. It would however provide quite a bit of fodder to those in America who deeply believe in the concept of karma. Lest there be any uncertainty, let me clear it up once and for all, Herman Cain is not going to be the Republican nominee for president in 2012 in these United (divided) States of America.

On the left, particularly in the so called progressive left, we have what appears at first glance to be a more complex and complicated situation. Don't be fooled. It is a ruse. True, many who are a part of the ruse may not really consciously know they are part of a ruse. Still, they are part of a ruse nonetheless. There are also people on the left who are actively not a part of the ruse. They are primarily certain breeds of anarchists and revolutionaries. The easiest way to expose those who participate in the ruse, consciously or otherwise, and who are white, is to gather a bunch of white progressive liberals in a room and present a proposition to them. It begins with a question: "How many of you are willing to completely dismantle your white privilege by surrendering and liquidating all of your financial assets, giving up your American way of life and going and living the rest of your lives in Liberia, West Africa?" Followed by the dissemination of the following additional information: "One way tickets have already been purchased for you. All you need to do is go to the back of the room where you will find lawyers and financial consultants who will assist you in the liquidation of all of your assets. When that process is completed, then you just need to come to front of the room and collect your one way plane tickets. Planes will be leaving in exactly two weeks. At that time you will need to do whatever is necessary in your personal lives to allow you to leave at the appointed time. Spouses, significant others and family members are of course welcome to join you. We have made provisions for that. Everything is being underwritten by a personal contribution by George Soros. In Liberia, of course, only people of Black African descent can become citizens and therefore own land. We have arranged with Liberian officials for you to live there indefinitely but without the benefit of citizenship." 

There would be people of African Descent and other people of color in the room whose role would be to simply sit back and see how many people make their way to the back of the room and then to the front. This ladies and gentlemen is an experiment that would likely end up significantly deconstructing the supposed deep differences between the American left wing and the American right wing when it comes to the artifacts of white privilege and racism and the role they play in each groups real lives.

Most white people are not willing to give up their white privilege even if they are very well educated about race theory, white privilege, the tyranny of left wing color blindness and such. I understand that. I get it. At the same time however, it is this reality which all non whites spend our entire lives intimately dealing with every single day. The hypothetical I presented above, is pointing that and a number of other things out. And it all still reflects a real problem for white progressive liberals in America because it is literally the big white elephant in the room for such progressive liberals in this country. Most have not discovered ways to put their money where their mouths are when it comes to being, in a very deep way, allies to people of color while simultaneously confronting their own white privilege and in some cases the addition of what we know as class privilege. I know many white progressive liberals who are smart, active, dedicated to change and with all kinds of other positive attributes who ultimately still get caught up in the white privilege web. All white people benefit from both white privilege and racism including white progressive liberals. At some point this has to be more than simply acknowledged though sincere acknowledgement is a very good starting point.

While doing research for this essay I inadvertently came across a blog by a Russian American young woman who is a self identified progressive liberal living in the USA. She is smart, highly educated, dedicated to social change, compassionate and a social justice activist. I landed on a post where she was discussing a piece by renowned anti-racist writer and lecturer, Tim Wise. The quote I will provide below illustrates very clearly to me and hopefully to you, the problem of the white progressive liberal in America today with regard to white privilege and race.

"I recently read an article by Tim Wise, who according to himself is “among the nation’s most prominent anti-racist educators.” 

The article starts with an assumption: “Whites generally have…white privilege” and that this privilege is “unearned.” 

He speaks of white people as if we all share the same culture, ignoring the differences of experience among immigrants and others who are white skinned but do not belong to the “dominant culture”. To make an example of myself: I felt alienated a lot in my young years as a result of having parents who did not partake in the american (especially materialistic) lifestyle. No, I wasn’t discriminated against for being from Russia per say, but (for years) my clothes did not fit in and the things the other kids did (go to the movies, mc’donalds, eating chinese food) I could not do and so those “dominant culture” kids kept away from me (resulting in perhaps depressed self esteem and poorer performance in school) It wasn’t an issue of poverty because we weren’t that poor. Doing these things was simply not a part of my parents culture. But Wise disregards such experiences or demotes them and I take issue with that. In any society where people of diverse backgrounds integrate, there will be a tug-of-war between this need to fit in and maintaining your own culture. This is normal and inevitable. It’s not a bad idea to mitigate the rifts somehow – but how?

So white children and wealthy children should be punished because of attributes they were born into/with? It reminds me of this moral dilemma story about the doctor with 5 sick patients who need different organs to survive, and one healthy man who comes to his office. Is killing this man and taking his organs to save the other patients justifiable? In the white/non-white student situation the consequences are even more muddy. Sacrificing one child for the sake of another doesn’t result in a 4x benefit...

...The reason that the presence of a non-white person in certain schools may be questioned is because affirmative action DOES rig the system! Very often standards WERE lowered to foster diversity." (emphasis is the original writers, not mine).

We have a lot of work to do. Please leave me a comment if you are unable to see the many problems with that quote. I will not take a condescending tone with you. On the contrary, I will compassionately and pain stakingly point out in very clear detail all its very problematic elements.

Spiritual Practice, Racism, White Privilege and the Spiritual Concept of Liberation (Part I)

I belong to many spiritually oriented groups. I have for a very long time. I know an exceptionally large number of people who consider themselves to be anywhere from moderately to significantly “spiritual.” Many of these people do not talk about or even acknowledge racism in their everyday and and in some cases voluminous writings, discourses and “satsangas.” Even fewer talk about or even acknowledge white privilege. Why is this? I believe a large part of the answer lies in the concept of liberation as defined and employed by a large and diverse cross section of spiritual seekers.

More specifically, many so called spiritual seekers have a concept of liberation that is heavily weighted toward personal liberation. In other words it is a liberation that places emphasis on individual enlightenment and achievement. Meaning it de-emphasizes, de-legitimizes and in its more extreme cases effectively disappears the understanding of liberation as a direct result of the combination of spiritual practice and social justice action. Though many who view themselves as “highly spiritual” will also often give superficial and for them, adequate lip service to some of the more basic ideas that find a much more distilled and developed expression in such teachings as Engaged Buddhism as taught by spiritual masters such as Thich Nhat Hanh and others.

Second, being a spiritual seeker/person does not unfortunately automatically exempt one from being a human being. And we human beings notoriously avoid things that make us uncomfortable. Racism and white privilege are exceedingly uncomfortable conversations in this culture. This is why Tim Wise, antiracism and white privilege teacher and essayist extraordinaire, receives so many death threats and on a very regular basis. Oddly, it is this very type of avoidance that many spiritual practices and teachings would have us deeply explore, investigate and come to terms with. Habit energy however, is oftentimes stronger and more influential than even the most sublime and beautiful spiritual teachings. So when habit energy, especially when enhanced with a certain type of abstract intellectualism, exist in a spiritual seeker, denial and avoidance are often the result.

So, for those keeping score, we so far have concern with and the primacy of personal liberation and habit energy as reasons why more spiritual people do not talk about and try to actively impact social understanding and social change around the issues of racism and white privilege. To these we can now add what I like to call “above the fray-ism.” Above the fray-ism is when so called spiritual or religious people make a distinction and draw lines of demarcation between their psycho-emotional lives, their social observation and participation and their spiritual aspirations. The so called spiritual aspirations become the locus of focus while psycho-emotional and social observation and participation become the frays one must effectively rise above. Certain strains of neo-advitin (with an ostensibly Hindu foundation) philosophy but also numerous strains of fundamental Christianity and other fundamental religious/spiritual expressions are good examples of systems that employ above the fray-ism an an integral aspect of their belief systems. Above the fray-ism of course does not just nullify discussions of racism and white privilege it nullifies pretty much all discussions of anything that could be considered a social ill, problem or concern. Another, more basic understanding of above the fray-ism is to simply call it denial. Though it is a type of denial that includes some elements that are not necessarily found in plain ole, run of the mill denial. There are expressions of self righteousness and bullying here that don't always show up in plain ole, run of the mill denial. One can, for example, believe global warming simply does not exist with no other energy maintaining that belief other than ignorance, environmental blindness and perhaps a certain level of naiveté. The type of denial I am speaking of here has all the elements of run of the mill denial with the additional strong belief that others simply are not as smart, evolved, aware or conscious with the added strong need to convince those others of all of that.

Finally, there is probably privilege and perhaps even racism experienced by some of the spiritual people in question here and that prevents such spiritual people from speaking out against and about white privilege and racism. Aside from politicians and the CEOs of many large corporations and certain large non-profits, I have not observed too many people who are able to expertly talk out of both sides of their mouths with extreme and pathological proficiency while simultaneously convincing the masses (or their constituency) of their sincerity. In other words, some spiritual people probably don't speak out too much about racism and white privilege because they are consciously or unconsciously, actively or passively--psychologically, emotionally, financially and/or in other ways, participants in and beneficiaries of both.

Racism and Other Related Topics 101: Broken Down and Made Simple

Racism

Racism is the belief in inherent racial differences amongst and between different sets of people's. This belief is then used as a justification for non-equal treatment of the entire population of members of a certain race (sic). The important knockout punch here and that is packed with racism is provided by this—a group possessing the belief in these inherent differences also possessing the social capitol and “power” to enforce their racist views and beliefs within a cultural, governmental and/or global context. This understanding is also one of the core elements behind the term “institutionalized” or “structural" racism.

Most post modern biologists, anthropologists and sociologists reject the idea of “race” that is an important aspect of the concept of racism, preferring to rely on more empirically verifiable concepts such as ethnicity. These truths however, have not found their way into the common understanding of the average person nor has the power of racism been significantly reduced and certainly not nullified as a result of this fact.

Institutionalized Racism (aka: Structural Racism)

Institutionalized racism occurs when racist ideas, philosophies, attitudes and enforcement become enshrined in a culture’s fundamental and important institutions such as a cultures governmental institutions, financial institutions, educational institutions, political institutions, judicial institutions, law enforcement institutions, etc. It is racial discrimination by these and other large and powerful institutions that have the power to influence the lives of a very large cross section of people. Stokely Carmichael is credited with inventing the term in the late 1960s.

With these understandings it becomes clear that one and only one socio-political cultural group on the planet has the inherent and demonstrated power to universally translate the racism that exists in the hearts, souls and minds of some of its members, into a powerful channel of enforcement—white people.

Prejudice

Prejudice is simply a pre-judgment or assumptions made about someone or a group of people without the requisite or corresponding knowledge or information to substantiate such a judgment.

Discrimination

Discrimination is prejudicial treatment of an individual or an entire group of people based solely on their membership in a certain group.

“Reverse Racism”

Other ethnic groups such as African American's, Arabs, Latinos, Ethnic Chinese, various Indigenous Peoples, American Indians, Jews (who do not assimilate as whites) and others may have members who hold extremely biased and prejudiced attitudes and beliefs against other races (sic) and ethnic groups. None of these groups however, have historically nor in current times had the same degree of social power to enforce their views in the same ways that white people have. Such people and groups may have the power to enforce such views regionally but certainly not globally. The sheer overarching power of white people on a global and social scale is simply too massive for that.

Such ethnic groups may also have members who believe their racial (sic) or ethnic group is superior to white people. In a practical sense, this does not matter because there is no corresponding social power to enforce such a stance on global cultural reality. The most such an ethnic group member can engage in is hate speech and/or ethnically based terrorism and/or ethnic cleansing. These are terrible and horrifying sure enough. This however, is not the same as having the global power and all the systems thereof to back up ones actions with. And in any case hate speech, terrorism, and genocide/ethnic cleansing are also the evidential purview of white racists/supremacists as well, as history has well taught us and continues to teach us. 

Whatever non white racial (sic) or ethnic group such a person is a member of will be one that does not ultimately possess the overarching social power to enforce such beliefs in anywhere near the degree a white person/group would be able to.

Given this understanding, a term such a “reverse racism” is essentially a red herring/straw man of a term primarily used to confuse, manipulate and alter the truth/discourse in conversations around race, ethnicity, power, white privilege, etc. The phrase has no real meaning except in the minds of those who choose to use or believe in the legitimacy of such a term. In reality this term is a made up term with no real practical or legitimate social meaning whatsoever.

“Playing the Race Card”

Similarly, the phrase “playing the race card” is also a red herring/straw man of a phrase. This term is often used as an indication that a member of any racial (sic) or ethnic group other than white people has the power in fact to use their very real societal and cultural victimization in a way to gain some kind of real demonstrable power in a specific situation. For example, it is often used in legal/courtroom proceedings as a way to present the theory that a real or imagined crime committed by a member of a non-dominant racial or ethnic group such as African Americans, can be minimized, justified or erased because the person belongs to a group that has historically been victimized in one or more ways. This is what people who believe in the concept of reverse racism would like us all to believe. It is essentially a very well constructed wool such people attempt to use to pull over the eyes of unsuspecting naive people and people who don't really have a firm grasp on how white privilege and racism intercept in the world.

Here is what people who believe in reverse racism don't want you to know: In reality, it is only white people who can consistently and successfully use the so called race card against members of other racial (sic) and ethnic groups because only white people, in most situations, have the social capitol and power to do so. An example of this can be seen in the 2008 general election in California specifically regarding the ballot initiative known as Proposition 8. Here was an initiative that set out to define marriage as something that could only legitimately exist between one man and one woman. In essence it was an attempt to even further marginalize non-heterosexual or same gender loving/LGBT relationships. Proposition 8 passed in the state of California. After the polls closed, a theory was put forth that the proposition passed as the direct result of a high number of African American and Latin voters in California voting in favor of the discriminatory proposition. In this instance, the playing of the race card was successfully used primarily by members of the white, gay male communities of California. African American and Latin LGBT people in California (and beyond) suffered a tangible and in some cases, a physically violent backlash from this that would not have been suffered by white LGBT people to the same extent if the tables had been turned. This is because African American and Latin LGBT people do not have anywhere near the social capitol nor political power within either the larger United States cultural milieu nor the mainstream LGBT communities within America that their white especially male counterparts possess.

Other historical examples of this same applied principal/understanding are:

A. The way Japanese Americans were treated and perceived by the general American populous, at the time, in America, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

B. The way Muslim and Arab Americans have been treated and perceived by the general American populous since 9/11

C. The way Native Americans/American Indians/First Nation Peoples have been treated and perceived in America and Canada since their lands were invaded and stolen by European colonists and invaders for the last several hundred years in North and South America.

D. The type, breadth and scope of disrespect, name calling and vitriol shown to President Barack H. Obama by members of the media, political pundits and and those who make their living through political commentary and that is unprecedented in modern American politics, including during the 2 presidential terms of George W. Bush.

White Privilege

White privilege is the belief that whites hold a large number of advantages in the world that are implicit and explicit and granted to them in society simply for being white. It is similar to The Fundamental Attribution Error found in the field of psychology.

Some people who dispute the existence of white privilege often like to site the fact that whites also suffer death, hardship, unemployment, homelessness, poverty, illness and all manner of social ills just like everyone else as proof that white privilege does not exist. This is essentially an ad hominen argument because the critical race theory by which the concept of white privilege came about never purported an understanding of white privilege as being akin to a comic book like super power that white people supposedly possess. Quite the contrary. White privilege is the expression of a normative structure in society that explicitly and implicitly both simultaneously provides societaladvantage to whites and societal disadvantage to non-whites. It has to do with the normalization of part of one's identity (whiteness) in a way that is so congruent with being a member of the dominant culture for there to be little or no distinction between the two.

May 2011 Marks The 50th Anniversary of the Freedom Rides Through the American South. May We Never Forget

Ku Klux Klan Distances Selves From Westboro Baptist Church, Tea Party

As my friend Monica Roberts over at the TransGriot blog says..."You know you've gone over the top in terms of your bigotry, homophobia and racism when even the original Boys In The Hoods don't want to be associated with you."

Read the story here

Still the Best 2.5 Minute Introductory Primer on White Privilege and Institutional Racism I've Come Across: (WARNING: Language and Ideas Some May Find Offensive)