Conversation Recap for March 11, 2007

Questions folks are grappling with:

Challenging aspects of presenting notions of race in different contexts. How much of flat response is due to style of presenter and how much due to denial and inability to relate?

What do statements like “I don’t see color” mean?

“I don’t see color” is part of privilege—if black cannot go outside without seeing white people and knowing that you have to process their reactions as white people. Part of how people bond and share intimacy is to share not only the joy but the pain. When you say I don’t see color you’re saying I don’t want to acknowledge your pain.

It was mentioned that while lots of people state that they are mixtures of various ethnicities, no one ever says “I’m mixed with black”. A response was “we’ll have to wait for reparations, LOL”

There was some discussion about Barak Obama’s candidacy and the “controversies” around “is he black enough for black voters or too black for white voters” and such.

A short description of a model was shared describing interactions between agents and targets of oppression and how they evolve based on the development of each.

White people have to call other white people on racism

When the whiteness in seats of power is challenged, there’s a warfare response that’s completely unacknowledged. Don’t want to share power.

Reaction about comments like “some white people.” White people don’t experience being grouped by race.

There was some discussion about how to develop and practice allyship—good to have examples—i.e., a heterosexual person taking the cause of the homosexual, the white person being the “race guy”.

Various members shared anecdotes about racialized encounters. It was shared that it’s useful to note the difference between being a racist and acting in a racist way or perpetuating racism.

Talked about the Port protests, arrests, police brutality, City Council etc.
It was noted that they don’t arrest us when we’re at the Federal Bldg. But the most violent response occurs when action is occurring at the point of mechanisms of power—i.e., military shipping points.