-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Freda's response to Bruno
Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 13:09:34 -0700
From: Freda Fair <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Peter Rachleff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi again Peter,
You all are wonderful and I'm so happy to see this level of community
building and strength in the seminar-- it
will only make you all stronger and smarter. Please forward my response
along to the MMUF family and I'll post it on The Mac Weekly online too.
much love,
Freda
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Bruno
posted 10/19/07 @ 9:19 AM CST
I don't agree with Professor Rachleff's use of the expression "reverse
racism". I think it's more appropriate to talk about "anti-white
racism". the "reverse racism" expression actually promotes racist
stereotypes against white people. Saying "reverse racism" implies there
is a "norm" in racism (white people's racism toward other racial groups)
and that racism is, somehow, a "white thing", which is wrong and
prejudiced.
Please see my page : reverse racism Vs anti-white racism
Unfortunatly, I'm afraid this is precisely the kind of racist stereotype
he is teaching...
_____________________________
Hello Bruno,
I think that your distinction is not quite fleshed out and that you
don't really understand the historical, cultural, and social systems of
racism and oppressions in the United States and in the world.
It's a shame and it's embarrassing that with all that is going on in
this country related to educational institutions, racism, and an
anti-affirmative action backlash, students would not understand the
importance of having a safe academic space for students of color on a
predominately white campus. Are white students aware that Macalester is
a predominately white campus?
White privilege has shaped the world in ways that allow white folks and
particularly white students to not have to feel uncomfortable and
address questions of race in any/most of their courses or in their
lives, and when race is engaged it's not necessarily about a
self-reflective process of becoming a more critical, caring, and active
person engaged in creating community, instead it's about entitlement,
trying to get something you think you deserve (admission into a course)
even though you might not have the appropriate prerequisites or
experiences.
It's a shame that so much energy is being spent on this issue and
"exposing" bias against white students, when folks could be creating
ongoing conversations about race in order to address racism and other
oppressions on campus. The truth is white people make up almost the
entire student body, faculty, and staff at almost EVERY educational
institution in this country (unless it is a historically black college
(and white students are currently trying to populate and gain admissions
into those few institutions in order to take advantage of what they
perceive as lower tuition rates). This is a very tragic, deliberate,
and material (you can experience it, you can travel from campus to
campus and see it operating) manifestation of institutionalized racism.
It is important to understand the history of how race privilege and
white superiority have been constructed through colonialism, genocide,
and slavery and have taught white folks that people of color are savage
Others who need to be kept out of their communities or washed of their
cultural identities in order to socialize with them (see history of
segregated schools (that are still de facto segregated and lacking
resources) or American Indian boarding schools, and English only K-12
curriculum and violence toward immigrant youth).
Reverse racism is a claim that white people make so that they don't have
to be accountable and self-reflective about their own racial privilege
and ability to be oppressive. It is not a systemic reality, like racism
which manifests itself in red-lining neighborhoods, A.P./I.B. tracking
models in high schools, police brutality, stereotypes, immigration
policies, etc. It would be wonderful to see the energy spent making
claims of reverse racism instead invested in anti-racism and a
commitment to becoming white allies.
Anti-white racism? Where has this happened historically and presently? I
understand prejudice against white people occurs, but racism is a system
of oppression that intersects many other aspects of identity (race,
class, gender, sexuality, etc.) that was constructed and practiced by
colonialist White Europeans through slavery, genocide, eugenics, and
violence. It's imperative to understand this distinction in order to
not ignore the histories and present challenges facing entire
populations of people-some of whom go to school with you, might be
professors of yours, and might be the folks who clean up the dorms on
campus.
There have been systems of white advancement in almost every institution
in the United States and in Europe take a look at who populates and
makes decisions (and who they make decisions on behalf of) in major
governmental, educational, political think tanks, and social
institutions in this country.
The great thing is that you have the opportunity to attend a school like
Macalester where there are some (there should be more) resources to
interrogate, unpack, and learn more about the struggles that are
currently affecting peoples lives in very material ways in this country
and abroad. I suggest you take an AMST, WGSST, HMCST 100 level course,
or draw on the resources at the Department of Multicultural Life to get
a basic grounding in factual studies of oppression and hegemony.
The MMUF seminar is attempting to turn some of these inequities around;
it is nurturing and sustaining scholars, activists, and artists of color
to go out into the world and create change.
Freda Fair
'06
_______________________________________________
Mellon Myers Undegraduate Fellowship Program at Macalester (http://macmmuf.org)
[email protected]
http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
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