Fellow blogger Sabrina Stevens Shupe has once again managed to get inside my head. That’s why she is so good. Sabrina has been stirring the white privilege pot while critiquing education reformers (I do not have issues with this approach.) For example:
I truly believe that many of you on “the other side” have good intentions, but there is a certain ignorance, born of privilege, that makes it almost impossible for elites to be serious allies of the marginalized in any struggle for justice. Even just the manner in which the problem is approached– “I know best, I will impose my will on you, and you will eventually come to accept my wisdom” as opposed to, “I have the means, you have the knowledge, how can I help you achieve what you want?”– is itself a counterproductive, disrespectful way of doing things, that all but guarantees failure. Until that is understood and addressed, we’ll continue to have this kind of problem.
So if I read this right, my privilege does not impact my intentions, rather it impacts my means by which I go about my work at reform. (I say “I” because I am a white, middle-income, college educated male who has certain privileges.)
I have plenty of experience working with “people of color” on social justice issues. In each of my interactions I have always noticed (probably because I have been enlightened to do so) that there exists a certain tension between me and the “others” who are working towards the same goal. This tends to dissipate over time. I have been accused of not understanding the issue because I am not one of the marginalized; because I have had a different life experience that somehow bars me from doing anything more that working on the periphery.
I persisted in my work because I do not have a big ego that needs stroking and because I was focused on the goal of the work. I also stuck/stick with it because social justice work benefits not only those are directly impacted but it benefits me and society as well.
So, my question to Sabrina is this: After I am done unpacking my invisible knapsack of privilege, what am I supposed to do? Should I just send in my check to the social justice organization? Is it more important to recognize my privilege or is it more important what I do with my privilege?
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She really struck a nerve. I have the name of a great therapist….
Regarding recognizing vs. doing: I think both are necessary– it’s not enough to just recognize it and move on, nor is it enough to try to do good without doing that work. The only way to be effective when coalescing across lines of difference is to work on ourselves as well as the issues we’re facing. They’re inextricably linked. The payoff is worth it though; being able to connect with others on truly equal footing, and having a chance to help create lasting positive change, is a very rewarding experience.
This is a great post Mark. It’s a question I have also struggled with for a very long time.
During the 3 years I lived and worked in Africa, I was disabused of the idea that I could somehow get beyond, or worse, deny the privilege into which I was born. I had to face the fact that no matter how bad things got, I could have been repatriated to the richest country on Earth. Everyone around me knew this better than I did.
The question I took up was – how can I use this privilege to best effect? I don’t have a complete or even a really satisfactory answer yet. I also had to deal with the problem of what to do when my privilege turned into a disadvantage (like when I was playing poor and a soldier required payment to let me on my way).
Spending most of that time in or surrounded by South Africa, where Europeans have been for as long as they’ve been in North America, was very interesting. They tend to be very open about some things many Americans prefer not to discuss. Watching the transition to majority rule was pretty cool too.
I have come to the conclusion that we will never finish unpacking our invisible knapsacks of privilege, any more than people growing up in generational poverty will unpack their invisible knapsacks of oppression. What we can do is grasp that some baggage is useful when traveling. We could decide to take a journey together, keep the useful things from our collective baggage to support our travels together and help each other to cast off the rest.
To wish it all away will get us no where.
Now, I don’t mean any offense to anyone, and I hope no one thinks I’m proselytizing, but the wisdom of my culture is buttressed by the Bible. It is at the core of what makes Latinos tick.
St. Paul says, in 1 Corinthians 12:20-26:
But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I do not need you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I do not need you.”
Indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary,
and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety,
whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it,
so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another.
If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy.
You see, this is the issue. There is a part of our society that believes that it has all the answers, that it doesn’t need the other parts to pull us all forward. But the irony is, in this Judeo-Christian society, is that we’ve never seen it that way. We’ve always known that all hands have to be on deck, and that everyone has a valuable (but different) contribution to make to the common good.
I hope we can remember that before more kids are disenfranchised.
That is a wildly interesting interpretation and evidence for how easy the “word” is able to fit our views.” I find it almost ironic coming on the eve of potential disaster for public education, immigration reform, (pointedly the barrel of the gun at Latinos.), and unions in the USA.
Is seems as though you’re saying that I’m using the Bible to fit my agenda. Did I misinterpret you?
To clarify, ,the intention was to show that collaboration has always been part of our cultural framework, especially the Judeo-Christian one.
No you do not misinterpret me, though to be clear, I do not even understand your agenda.
I am still unclear by virtue of the clarification sentence, and I am interested.
Collaboration is a part of the cultural components of Latinos? So to meet a Latino is to meet someone who one can predict will collaborate? Latinos are Judeo -Christian? (Highly likely true re: Christianity but more homework on number of Jews, but as an often used expression I can understand this.) Or are you saying a framework of the culture of Judeo-Christian is to collaborate and therefore, Latinos, also being likely Judeo-Christian, are highly likely to collaborate?
Yet now as I type this I am thinking you meant that Latinos are historically competent at collaboration by virtue of historical societies of what is now labeled Central and South America, parts of North America, blending past practice of god/gods worship and guidance with that of the Conquistadors who were influenced by Christianity, Judaism and even Islam. (They were pretty good at it as well for a time)
if this is so, I understand now, and makes me chuckle a bit as you use the words of a passage from A bible, demonstrating the very thing you claim! Leading me to declare: Clever Latino woman with a history, who collaborates, and likely prays to one god while potentially thinking of other (god/gods)
What a strange comment. It’s so easy to look at us from the outside and try o pick apart our cultural framework. Why do we threaten you so?
You cannot change your history nor can you rewrite it which seems to be the theme here. You are who you are–you were brought up the way you were brought up–when you reach adulthood you need to take responsibility for your life–whether you were priveleged or whether you spent your life struggling. You cannot ignore either and you cannot expect people to be the way you hope them to be. It has been proven time and time again that people born with privelege fail and people born with nothing succeed. It is your inner self that achieves.
I used my white privilege by taking my young African American drop-out housemate down to the Auraria Campus to enroll at CCD. I walked the campus knowing and understanding this place is mine, it is for me and my benefit. I have been told since birth that college – and work ethic – leads to more comfortable lives.
As we walked through the campus, my young friend saw a police car with lights flashing. He stopped in his tracks. Never having been stopped because of walking while white, the lights had no impact on my stride. I assured him the police were not going to stop him. “Maybe they are looking for you,” he joked.
At 20 years old, he likes his labor jobs. I know how bodies age and want him to have skills beyond his back. I want him to move from poverty to the middle class through education.
Does being middle class make me better or smarter? No. I shared with my young friend that it means we live in the same house for a long time. We can pay the heat bill. The refrigerator is full. The cars usually work. Our phones are always available. It’s a safe nest in which to worry about our kids’ academic and emotional lives instead of worrying if we can afford the antibiotics.
Once graduated with skills, “isms” still exists. But still I believe knowledge and skills, along with work ethic and social skills, will benefit my kids. I hope all of my children find careers with enlightened members of society who see their wealth of character and don’t hold their skin color, religion, or class against them.