white ignorance and recommended reading
I've been thinking a lot about white ignorance, particularly since dohnut's post.
From Jane Elliott:
... I'm an ignorant white female and my number one freedom in the United States of America is the freedom to be totally ignorant about those who are different from myself. And my number two freedom is to deny that I'm ignorant. And my number three freedom is the freedom to say to people of color who accuse me of making a racist remark: 'Well, you took it wrong, or what do you people expect?' To do all this rationalization.
This is from this Australian site, where Elliott (whose name is misspelled or correctly spelled, I'm not sure, as Elliot there) discusses her famous "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" project. The quote is from her recalling her decision to do the project, and what she expected to come out of it (she had no idea).
Clearly, this ignorance is real and needs addressing.
In hadiya's most recent post, discussion was started of having a reading list, either for new members or for wannabe members who are early in their journey of thinking about race, racism, white privilege etc.
judiasverdes recently made a post on the same topic in the last week that got some great suggestions, but with all that's been going on did not get as many responses as it should have.
And here's a great list from ladyjax of resources on intersections between feminism and race.
So, what are your favorites? What's moved you? Shown you something you hadn't thought about? What have you found helpful in doing this work?
A touchstone for me is Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks--a very powerful answer to the question "what's it like to be oppressed for your race?" of which many versions often come out of the mouths of whites who are just starting to think about this stuff. He also does a fantastic job of depicting how whites oppress nonwhites, but that question doesn't seem to pop into newbies' heads as quickly.
So, hit me. Let's do this. If possible, be as exact as you can about what the book/article addresses and suchlike, in case others haven't read it.
From Jane Elliott:
... I'm an ignorant white female and my number one freedom in the United States of America is the freedom to be totally ignorant about those who are different from myself. And my number two freedom is to deny that I'm ignorant. And my number three freedom is the freedom to say to people of color who accuse me of making a racist remark: 'Well, you took it wrong, or what do you people expect?' To do all this rationalization.
This is from this Australian site, where Elliott (whose name is misspelled or correctly spelled, I'm not sure, as Elliot there) discusses her famous "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" project. The quote is from her recalling her decision to do the project, and what she expected to come out of it (she had no idea).
Clearly, this ignorance is real and needs addressing.
In hadiya's most recent post, discussion was started of having a reading list, either for new members or for wannabe members who are early in their journey of thinking about race, racism, white privilege etc.
judiasverdes recently made a post on the same topic in the last week that got some great suggestions, but with all that's been going on did not get as many responses as it should have.
And here's a great list from ladyjax of resources on intersections between feminism and race.
So, what are your favorites? What's moved you? Shown you something you hadn't thought about? What have you found helpful in doing this work?
A touchstone for me is Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks--a very powerful answer to the question "what's it like to be oppressed for your race?" of which many versions often come out of the mouths of whites who are just starting to think about this stuff. He also does a fantastic job of depicting how whites oppress nonwhites, but that question doesn't seem to pop into newbies' heads as quickly.
So, hit me. Let's do this. If possible, be as exact as you can about what the book/article addresses and suchlike, in case others haven't read it.