Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e95ILi909429; Thu, 5 Oct 2000 14:21:44 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 14:21:44 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <LAW2-F44ZXjBM302vDr0000716f@hotmail.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: "Eileen Eckert" <eileeneckert@hotmail.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:148] Re: Defining Our Own Racism--Individual X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 6772 Lines: 124 I couldn't resist adding my two cents to the discussion. I've marked my comments with ** before and after. How can we bring these discussions into the literacy classroom or tutoring session? >Karen, I agree with you. As an African American, my intent is not allow >the dominant culture to obscure my vision. Consider the situation where a >husband is verbally abusive to his wife and this issue is brought before >the marriage counselor by the wife. During an exchange between the husband >and the wife, the husband attempts to deflect attention off of himself by >pointing out at every opportunity anything that he can construe as verbally >abusive by his wife. When White Americans begin to identify others as >racist they deflect attention away from their history as a people. >African Americans accuse other people of being racist and deny that they >are equally so the same reasoning applies? **Anyone who deflects attention from his or her own attitudes and behavior by accusing someone else of engaging in the same behavior is resisting self-awareness. Rejecting the opportunity to examine and transform your own behavior and instead accusing others is not conducive to change and does nothing to overcome animosity. But the original situation remains: African Americans are not in a position to institutionalize their prejudices against white people. Animosity of an African American toward whites based on race is a learned response to racism.** You argue that a man who is abusive will look for opportunities to show that his partner is equally abusive. In doing this he will absolve himself from any guilt or remorse over his own behaviour and will place the blame on her - so he no longer appears to be the antagonist but the victim defending himself against an aggressive wife. Right? Very clever! Let us take this illustration one step further. Would you suggest that an African American who is racist would similarly look for opportunities to prove that non African Americans are racist in order to justify his/her own antagonism towards white people? In fact might such a person not argue that it is impossible for an African American to be racist? In denying one's own ability to be racist one automatically absolves oneself of any blame or guilt for racist thoughts or deeds - you cannot be guilty of something you are incapable of doing. By deflecting attention from oneself, by pointing out at every opportunity that white people are racist, is it possible (following the reasoning above) to argue that African American 'husbands' are merely shifting blame because they want to ignore their own histories? **It is possible for an African American to look for instances of racism to support his or her contention that whites are all racist. In doing so, he or she might be denying personal prejudice. But again, there is a difference between personal history/individual attitude and societal history/institutional racism.** It seems to me that to focus so much on other people's abuse of power is to ignore that there may be other explanations. This isn't to deny that racism exists and that many white people are racist, but to argue that only white people can be racist ignores the fact that black people around the world are also in positions of power and some do use that power in ways which prejudice other groups who may be white or may be black. This is not to say that 'two wrongs makes a right' but we have only to look at the expulsions of white Africans in Zimbabwe in recent months from the farms their families have tended for perhaps a hundred years or more to see this occurring. **How did that land come to belong to the white people? Who tended that land before colonization? Your statement, without context, vastly oversimplifies the situation.** One last point, you say that "When White Americans begin to identify others as racist they deflect attention away from their history as a people." Since when do all white Americans share a common history anymore than white Brits or white Europeans? Do my Polish American cousins in Chicago share the same histories as the Irish Americans, the German Americans, and the Italian Americans also living in Chicago? Most white people did not have ancestors who benefited from the trade in slaves any more than most black people did, although we know that both white and black individuals were involved in the slave trade, so why should you again pick on white Americans only? **Most white people's ancestors did not trade in slaves. However, most white people's ancestors, and most white people in the U.S. today, benefit from the unequal power structure of the racist system that was set up to justify and support slavery. My Irish, Ukrainian, German, and Belgian ancestors did not share a common history in Europe or in their experience of America, but once they were here, they could assimilate as "Americans" with no ethnic qualifiers within a few generations and by doing so gain access to the privileges of other white Americans. That option has been much less available to people of color.** >From: RMALCUS@aol.com >Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@nifl.gov >To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> >Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:147] Re: Defining Our Own Racism--Individual >Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 13:01:33 -0400 (EDT) > >Sue, you know I have been feeling like I was in a class where the topics >are so interesting that I find myself thinking about them all the time. I >went to be last night trying to figure out how to better articulate to >White Americans (or Brits) what I understand as racism in contrast to >racial prejudice. > >I find it necessary to make sure that I do not get hemmed into a corner >when discussing issues of race with the dominant culture that I do not >begin to concur >everyone can be a racist. There is an historical perspective and perhaps a >cultural perspective that come in to play when discussing racism. Who did >the enslaving? Who has benefitted from the cultural imperialism that >perpetuated the marginalization of certain groups? Racism has played an >important part in maintaining the culture of the White Ameripean (Colin, >199?) as the dominant culture. Now there is racial prejudice. Clovis >Semmes (1988?) talks about the efforts taken by African American-regardless >of the course--to right the wrongs they have experienced as a result of >cultural hegemony. > > > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
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