Racism and white privilege in small town America

McGovern Center for Leadership and Public ServiceDakota Wesleyan University28 September 2016

growing up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Growing up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Popular culture as I was growing up…

College…

think about “race” — when did that word first become part of your vocabulary? what did it mean? who taught you? how has it changed over time?

If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters,and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

loving each other in the midst of our deep differences is never going to be easy

The problem with colorblindness is that we are not color blind with regard to race, indeed, we not only “see” it but we use it – often implicitly, without conscious thought, to structure how we interact with each other.

“White skin privilege is not something that white people necessarily do, create or enjoy on purpose. Unlike the more overt individual and institutional manifestations of racism … white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society. White skin privilege serves several functions. First, it provides white people with “perks” that we do not earn and that people of color do not enjoy. Second, it creates real advantages for us. White people are immune to a lot of challenges. Finally, white privilege shapes the world in which we live — the way that we navigate and interact with one another and with the world.”

Holladay

“white skin privilege is a transparent preference for whiteness that saturates our society”

Holiday

being white becomes normalized

if you do not “look white” you are marked as “different”

what’s the difference between a name and a label?

“Second, [white privilege] creates real advantages for us. White people are immune to a lot of challenges.”

Holiday

link

link

“white privilege shapes the world in which we live — the way that we navigate and interact with one another and with the world”

Holladay

Bigotry + power = racism as interpersonal practice.

Disparities created and/or exacerbated by societal institutions

= racism as institutional practice.

Normalization and legitimization that routinely confers advantages on whites, while producing

chronic adverse outcomes for others = racism as structural practice.

Race is a social construct — we can deconstruct it!

get proximate change the narratives

cultivate resilience through hope embrace discomfort

Stevenson

listen, really listen

change the narratives

“As Americans, we have a “theological” national story we tell about our country. It begins with the Constitution and typically describes the constant progress that good people have made since the start. It’s a relentlessly positive story.”

Jones

“From a spiritual perspective, the problem is that this story has not incorporated a serious account of our wrongs. ... The clearest example of this is our failure to sufficiently deal with our two most obviously horrific wrongs—the carefully orchestrated genocide of Native Americans and the 300-year-long story of the most brutal social system ever created, chattel slavery.”

Jones

“Why is this absence a spiritual problem? There is no religious or spiritual tradition, at least any worth their salt, that does not begin with a serious account of both the good and bad that people can do. There are many names for the negative side of human existence, such as sin, evil, illusion, moral absence, iniquity, transgression and negative karma. All recognize that human beings, alone and collectively, can do really bad things. This doesn’t mean we don’t have a good side. But these stories insist that if we do not existentially reckon with the ugly side of our beliefs and actions, we will not have healthy communities. Egregious harms will continue to unfold and profound despair and alienation inevitably set in. Why? Because deep down, we are living a spiritual lie.”

Jones

Learn the history of social movements

listen deeply change the narratives ally with a truer story

get proximate change the narratives

cultivate resilience through hope embrace discomfort

Stevenson

embrace discomfort move towards healing

more ideas are to be found on the handout

Mary E. Hess Keenan Visiting Chair in Religious Education University of St. Michael’s College Toronto, ON

meh.religioused.org http://www.slideshare.net/maryhess1/

text citations

On Racism and White Privilege Jennifer Holladay

How to Heal the Spiritual Pain of America Serene Jones

Just Mercy, and 4 Steps to Change the World Bryan Stevenson

video links

Proud to Be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mR-tbOxlhvE

Systemic Racism https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPVXdjJCkCA

We Shall Remain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs0iwY6YjSk

5 Tips for Being an Ally https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dg86g-QlM0

The Human Family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztMfBZvZF_Y

image citations

Jesus Takes a Selfie https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153785383611727&set=a.10150239991551727.318146.659866726&type=3&theater

MLK, Jr. quotation http://www.thefreshquotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/I-Have-A-Dream-That-My-Four-Little-Children-Will-One-Day-Live-In-A-Nation-Where-They-Will-Not-Be-Judged-By-The-Color-Of-Their-Skin-But-By-The-Content-Of-Their-Character.-»-Martin-Luther-King-Jr..jpg

Got privilege? https://afreshvoiceblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/wp-1454321991075.jpg

Brady Bunch http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Third_Party_Photo/2009/09/29/bradybunch3__1254231911_1125-2.jpg

Good Times http://d236bkdxj385sg.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/times2005.jpg

Tiger Beat https://superradnow.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/tumblr_lsqnn3bitq1qzdza2o1_500.jpg

image citations

The McGoverns http://airportjournals.com/wp-content/uploads/0605004_6.jpg

Civil Rights Movement http://www.spiritedsocialchange.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/marchjobs.jpg

Cognitive biases https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Cognitive_Bias_Codex_-_180%2B_biases%2C_designed_by_John_Manoogian_III_%28jm3%29.jpg

Protect Our Water http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2016/08/19/gettyimages-587636528_custom-8c05f831b3d3d2696526016ada176144c3ee74fa-s900-c85.jpg

Got Hope http://rlv.zcache.co.uk/got_hope_postcard-r9b57eef35e0d4b918d767f7c3a8184a1_vgbaq_8byvr_324.jpg

All others from Mary Hess