After the initial "Last Sunday" gathering -- http://thirdcoastactivist.org/lastsunday.html -- in November, many people made the observation that it was a mostly white audience, and then asked the question, "How can we attract more people of color to the event?"
The observation about the complexion of the group was important to acknowledge, but I think it was diversionary to move right away to that question. Instead of asking how to diversify the event, it's crucial that we white folks be able to ask: (1) "Why are there so few non-white people here?" and (2) "What is our motivation in wanting more non-white people here?" I think only after we have dealt with those questions can we start to work to transform Last Sunday -- and other predominantly white events, groups, and movements -- in ways that challenge white supremacy rather than reinforce white privilege.
Put more bluntly: The goal shouldn't be just diversity but the end of white supremacy, a much more ambitious goal but one that can be the basis for real hope.
These questions of language are not arcane; it's crucial that we pay attention to the terms we use to deal with the question of race. Do we speak of diversity and multiculturalism, or do we acknowledge that we live in a white-supremacist society and confront unearned white privilege? The difference is important. While most people -- even many conservatives -- accept that we live in a diverse multicultural society, fewer are willing to name the contemporary United States as a white-supremacist society and acknowledge that white people have unearned privilege.
Naming the United States as white supremacist doesn't mean all white people run around in white sheets or join neo-Nazi militias. Instead, it marks the fact that racialized disparities in wealth and well-being endure -- and in some cases have deepened -- even 40 years after the major gains of the civil-rights movement. It marks the fact that many white people -- maybe the majority? a significant majority? -- still believe that what has come out of Europe is inherently superior. Maybe even many white liberals who celebrate diversity still secretly believe that the art, music, politics, and philosophy that come from white parts of the world are more sophisticated, more important, simply better. So, we live in a world where we (1) speak of our commitment to racial justice yet accept a white-supremacist distribution of resources and (2) speak of our commitment to valuing all traditions yet go to schools that reflect a white-supremacist ideology.
And, just to drive home the point: Some white people go to churches that still have pictures of a white Jesus. Remember that Jesus was a Jew from Palestine. He wasn't European, wasn't white. But he's white in pictures that still hang on the walls of some churches, which means those churches and the culture in which they thrive are white-suprem...
So, acknowledging and celebrating that we are a multiracial and multiethnic society is a good thing. Multiculturalism is a value. Working to eliminate all-white spaces is a good thing. Diversity is important. But that's not enough.
So, let's go back to the questions I think we should be asking.
(1) "Why are there so few non-white people here?"
One thing to ponder: Maybe non-white people don't like being around us white folks? Why might that be? Could it be because we haven't done enough to transcend the white-supremacist culture in which we live, and non-white people recognize that, and they have better things to do with their time than hang out with us? I don't know the answer to that, and there's certainly not one answer for all non-white people. But it's something worth considering.
Another related thing to consider: Maybe non-white people don't trust us white people, especially when we gather in large groups. After all, large groups of white people traditionally have not been safe spaces for non-white people. Much violence against non-white people has come when lots of white people have gotten together.
And one more thing worth thinking about: Last Sunday is an event specifically designed to create a sense of community for many of us who lack that in our everyday lives. What if people in non-white communities already have a sense of community, rooted in their common experience of dealing with white supremacy? If that's the case, what's the great attraction of this event to them?
I am not claiming to know the answer to the question #1. But it seems like something we should ponder. But even harder to face is question is #2.
(2) "What is our motivation in wanting more non-white people here?"
One person offering suggestions about how to diversify Last Sunday wrote, "I do not believe that Austin is so segregated that progressive white people do not know progressive people of color." Certainly there are white people in Austin who know non-white people in Austin, either as friends or political allies or both. But does that comment reveal what we don't like to admit: We are not a truly integrated society. What if, in fact, Austin is that segregated? We may not want to believe it, but maybe it is. And if it is, is our quest for an integrated Last Sunday the desire to avoid that reality?
A dozen years ago, a Chicana friend of mine at the University of Texas told me that her first question of white people was, "Do you have a real friend who isn't white?" She meant someone you trusted, that you could ask most anything of and vice versa. When she said that, I swallowed hard. She was my first real non-white friend. I was 36 years old. If any of us were to list our non-white friends today -- real friends, people whom I trust and who trust me -- how long would that list be?
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...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
I found a way to summarize: nothing will happen or improve if you put an action item on what to do about the white folks. The correct action item has to be what to do with ALL folks. Yes, ALL folks. The problem has no color no matter how Prof. Jenkins put it. It is a human problem. And we all are humans, aren't we?
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Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Jan 29, 2007 at 1:06:37 PM
I have a certain experience in registering voters and in getting out the vote. It has been my experience that, in the working class neighborhoods, white, black, yellow , whatever, folks work hard, and for much less money in most cases than do their white counterparts. Folks work two and three jobs as well. Perhaps the low numbers of people of color in attendance is simply that they are working or tired from working, perhaps no effort was made to actually get these folks to feel a part of this coming together...I do not know but sometimes the answers are there before us.
Of course, the crux of your article, that racism is alive and well in America is factual, sad but true.
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ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments) on Monday, Jan 29, 2007 at 6:19:43 PM
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