January 29, 2007 at 08:26:44

Last Sunday: What to do with/about white folks?

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By Robert Jensen (about the author) Page 3 of 3 page(s)

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The unifying theme of Last Sunday is coming together to confront honestly the depth of the problems -- political, cultural, economic, ecological -- that we face. Earlier I made the claim that this kind of blunt talk is the basis of real hope, which may seem counterintuitive. Who wants to think things are this difficult? I certainly don't want to, but I see no other path.

The reason I think we have to get beyond "diversity talk" is that it doesn't answer people's needs. Non-white people recognize that multiculturalism doesn't ask much of white people. When we are honest with ourselves, white people understand it doesn't ask enough of us.

To echo remarks I've made at other Last Sundays, maybe this race thing has no solution. I don't mean that no white person can ever transcend white supremacy to have an authentic relationship with a non-white person. I don't mean that we must remain stuck in an overtly racist framework. But maybe 500 years of modern racism -- rooted in Europe's and the United States' brutal project of grabbing a disproportionate share of the world's resources, rationalized by a white-supremacist ideology -- simply can't be overcome in the time we have available to us. If that's the case, well, so be it. Let's go forward to make the best we can make of it.

Let's heal where we can.

Let's pass on less of this insanity to our children.

Let's organize to support projects that can get us a bit closer to real justice.

And let's tell as much of the truth as we can bear.

Here's the truth that I see: So far, we -- those of us who make up white America, including me and others here tonight -- have largely failed at this project. It's a big project with many obstacles. Maybe we will continue to fail. Since we know a bit about our past failures, let's at least commit to failing in new ways. Maybe we'll be surprised by where that failure leads us.

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Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His latest book, All My Bones Shake: Seeking a Progressive Path to the Prophetic Voice, was published in 2009 (more...)

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