Serving the Towns of Wawarsing, Crawford, Mamakating, Rochester and Shawangunk, and everything in between
(none)   
SJ FB page   
 

Gutter
White Privilege?
Mixed Race Audience Explores Our Racism

KINGSTON – Racism exists and can be found all over the world. Where ethnic discrimination and oppression shades into actual racism is complex, though, with enough variations to keep ethnologists and politicians busy for centuries to come.

Monday night at the New Progressive Baptist Church in Kingston, Professor A.J. Williams-Myers of SUNY New Paltz gave a spirited lecture on the topic, with some interesting follow up work conducted by Tracy Givens-Hunter and Peter Heymann of the End the New Jim Crow Action Network (ENJAN).

Yes, it was noted that some people, usually white, still attempt to argue that racism is no longer an issue in America. To that, Givens-Hunter noted a very simple response. Ask any white person who questions racism whether they can say, "My life would be a lot easier if I were black."

The ENJAN movement, sparked by Michelle Alexander's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the age of Colorblindness (2010), works to reveal how the mass incarceration of black youths has enabled racism to persist, as well as to end the noted practice of jailing poor black people disproportionally through a judicial system tilted in that direction. While the book and its concepts have stirred critics, the basic fact remains that up to a third of black male Americans have been to prison, and subsequently slipped to a second class citizenship stripped of their voting rights. Was this a deliberate aspect of such campaigns as "the War on Drugs," begun by President Nixon and re-emphasized by President Reagan?

Williams-Myers spoke movingly of certain indisputable facts. He noted that there is only one "race"— the human race. He described the evolution of humans from hominids in East Africa, noting that that process took about 7 million years before early humans migrated out of Africa into Asia, Australia and Europe. Later still they crossed the Bering Straits and entered the Americas. Hence, "We are all Africans."

"We have a variety of types on a common theme, humanity," the professor explained regarding the ways in which Europeans, the "whites," developed their national cultures within a small continental area where they fought each other a lot and honed their ability to make war on others. When they sailed out to explore the rest of the world they found that they were a small minority, and that in every direction lay lands with "people of color." So they conquered the world with "mechanical power," as Williams-Myers' put it, and created colonies such as those that began on the eastern seaboard of today's United States. At first, he said, the colonial masters used white labor via a system of indentured servitude that typically spanned 7 years, during which the indentured servant was essentially property. During this period, in the 17th century, the importation of black slaves from Africa grew and subsequently indentured whites were given privileges never extended to the African slaves. There, the professor noted, lies the origins of the notion of a "working class separated by race."

Williams-Myers then noted how skin color, already so important, was co-opted into the Christian religion. Mediaeval European Christianity had already depicted Jesus as essentially European. Instead of being seen as a Semite, with brown skin, who spoke Aramaic, a language with little connection to the Indo-Aryan family of European languages, Jesus became a designated Aryan instead of historical evidence suggesting him as dark skinned, even African in appearance.

Williams-Myers said, "We need truth." He suggested reiterating the fact that racism is a sickness that can only be healed by the truth. Many of the laws put in place to create the racist society of America were written because the Africans brought here against their will didn't accept slavery and always threatened rebellion.

He pointed out how, when he was young, John Brown — the white rebel against slavery — was depicted as a crazy man. Today that view has been replaced by a more sober judgment.

Williams-Myers added that "the system then and the system now doesn't give a damn about the white working class. In fact the system fears that white working class. They've been kept poor over the generations and they're still poor." Essentially, racist prejudice against African Americans — as well as against Native Americans, Latinos, Chinese and Japanese immigrants and others — has also worked to disguise the class oppression that operates within the majority white society.

"Racism," said the professor, "is about putting something over on everyone."

This deception, he added, need not be tolerated.

"We can change things," he said.

Following up, Peter Heymann isolated that change concept.

"We can change the way we look at things, our institutions for instance," he said. "Education, law enforcement, health, and so on."

Tracy Givens-Hunter then put up poster sheets of paper divided down the middle as note paper was handed around and the audience was asked to write their own observations on how they were privileged or not by the various institutions of society, from schools to housing. Later, she read some of the comments, which led to audience members speaking up about their experiences. Givens-Hunter explained that while it had just touched the surface of the issues, the meeting was just another step.

"Don't go home, go to bed and think this is done," she said.

The moderator for the evening, Minister Rita Worthington, concluded by reminding everyone that "Juneteenth" is coming up. That is June 18, which celebrates the day in 1865 when slavery was abolished in the United States.

More steps...



Gutter Gutter
 
 


Gutter