Ignorance...It's very "American"

I saw the graphic above on Facebook and it first struck me as true then I began to be bothered by it. (Caveat: Any people of color reading this may encounter instances of my white obliviousness. If you choose to let me know about what you spot I would be grateful and remedy it/them asap. Thank you.)

I genuinely wish things were so simple to comprehend. Truth, probably two years ago I would have hit "like" and been cheered at being on the side of the good guys and also I actually would have believed that it was all just that clear and simple to grasp.

Wait though...if we want to end the doing of racist behaviors by ourselves and others...then it is demanded of us to be more precise and sophisticated in our thinking and understanding.

There is a sizable segment of (mostly white but some people of color too) people (and I plead guilty to sometimes being among them) who are easily drawn into grabbing onto simple (inaccurate...but seemingly clear) understandings which actually lead us to a dead end but one where we can feel good about ourselves for not being "baddies". "End of Story"? Nope, not at all.

That graphic is akin to 2nd grade thinking. It implies that complex phenomena are easily understood. What's scary is that various cultural programming and institutional practices encourage just that kind of erroneous and misleading and inadequate thinking. Please educate yourself...just a little...go read this article and see if you don't learn something new.

After having a lengthy dialogue with a Trump supporter yesterday, I came away very disturbed by the serious absence of their interest in or their willingness or maybe even ability to grapple with the confusing and/or distressing topic of race/racism. Or, for that matter, many other confusing and/or complex things.

One of the factors I saw in operation repeatedly (and powerfully) was denial. What was seriously surreal about dialoguing with her was her avowed liking for the movie "The Help" and her repugnance and dismay over the behavior of the racist white people depicted in that movie. All the while she was maintaining the absence of racism from Trump and herself. She really likes the movie and has watched it several times. She seemed to be unable to recognize that Trump would have fit perfectly into a part as one of the white racists depicted in the movie. It was a bit scary.

(p.s. the movie itself has some problematical issues and should be viewed with some skepticism...that said...it also has strengths too. It is, in many ways a prototypical "white savior" movie so keep that in mind. If you want to read more about racist movies that white people often adore, here's a good source.)

The phrase: "all of them decided that racism isn't a deal breaker" is misleading in that it presumes all Trump supporters are/were able to accurately identify "racism". Oh come on, you might say, everybody knows he's a racist. No. They. Don't.

I will repeat that. No. They. Don't.

(Of course they "should" be able to, I'm not excusing them, I'm describing them. I'm not giving them an out or a pass, they're fully responsible but I promise you their thinkers are shitty and they do not recognize racism...unless it's blatant...and sometimes not even then...when they encounter it. They're not innocent, none of us white people are innocent...no matter how "good" our intentions are...in the racist nightmare we support and uphold. Their flawed perceptual abilities are in place with them because they hold onto them and do not struggle against them...hence...it's on them...just as it is on me or you...this stuff takes work to resist...no excuses.)

My bet is that if you polled a number of Trump supporters most all of them would deny racist intent/attitude/behavior either on their part or on Trump's part. Dr. Bonilla-Silva's phrase "racism without racists" is very accurate in naming the weird way in which many people (mostly white) that would condemn racism are at the same time able to be participate in supporting racist politicians and/or policies.

The cultural factors that have permeated U.S. culture/society for centuries that distort accurate comprehension of race/racism have been ferociously effective and they reside in and influence the thinking of almost everyone in this society. Including me. Which really pisses me off.

Consider this. One article I read by Tim Wise made reference to a Gallup poll conducted in 1962 (Jim Crow laws were in place nationwide) that some 85% of white people believed African American children had just as good a chance to get a quality education as white children. This is while schools were legally segregated in many locations. In 1962...this was apparently what most white people believed.

A poll in 1963 showed that about 66% of whites believed that blacks were treated equally in their communities...again...legal segregation was in place at that time.

If the reality comprehension abilities of the majority of white people (re racism) was that deficient during the Jim Crow era (when blatant and overt racism was in full blossom) it seems sort of absurd and simplistic and magical to think their (our) comprehending skills somehow "smartened up" since then.

Do you really believe passing some laws forbidding discrimination somehow also made white people smarter?

Aaarrrggghhh! And hey, I'm upset with myself too...I'm not just railing at you...ok? I have and do engage in crappy thinking...but...I'm working like hell on thinking better and if you aren't...well...sorry to say this...but...you're part of the problem.

There has never been any concerted effort by white people to struggle with identifying and fixing their (our) deficient perceptual/comprehending practices. Oh sure, most of us white people can identify overt and blatant racist acts...some sick bastard yelling racial slurs or wearing sheets and a pointy hat and burning a cross elicits almost universal condemnation. We're good to go, right?

Sorry...it's not that easy...take a look at who is the new President.

It is my belief that "most" white people are "well-intentioned" however if you couple good intentions with deficiencies in accurate perceptions and comprehension of race/racism...you end up with "good" people supporting and advocating for awful practices. Sound familiar?

By mis-perceiving reality, (we) they're able to maintain their self-perceptions of being "good" people because they also are unable to identify or comprehend racist practices by engaging in denial and/or other reality distorting mental maneuvers. If it isn't comprehended or recognized...then...it ain't me. Right?

We white people (again mostly white people although cultural programming influences everyone) have severe reality comprehending problems and I wish it were so easy as to segment ourselves into the glib and simple slots that are implied by that graphic.

How nice that would be...but...I fear it is much more difficult than that. I bet if you talked to a bunch of Trump supporters you would find that most totally dismiss any suggestion that either Trump or themselves have any racist intents and/or thinkings.

As far as that goes, most "good white liberals" would dismiss any suggestion that they are complicit in supporting racist practices or policies or thinking. But...guess what...most good white liberals (probably most of the readers of this blog) also have deep and persistent distortions operating when it comes to recognizing more "normalized" manifestations of racist ugliness.

And yet...heck...go read this.

As I've struggled to take wrestle with my own "epistemology of ignorance" it has become painfully clear that, for instance, the media and the entertainment offerings in this culture present deplorably racist ideations and depictions as "normal" and routine...as "common sense", if you will,...and very rarely (if ever) do other white people challenge and/or effective resist or counter these absurd and destructive offerings.

Worse, many...if not most...white people, whether Trump supporters or not are unable to even identify racist notions when they are served up to them. It's not just Trump supporters who are ensnared in the insidious aspects of white supremacy.

I desperately wish these problems were so easily addressed as to simply go with the notion expressed by the graphic (note...I agree with the accuracy of the graphic that alliance with Trump is alliance with racism) but the problem is that most (some are just despicable humans...but most aren't) of the Trump supporters are white people who were served up with cultural learnings that systematically distort their perceptions and who experience that distorting as "normal" and hence do not perceive themselves and/or Trump as racist. And they do not fight against these cultural learnings.

And...what's really sneaky the culture presents us with notions of thinking/perceiving that serve to decrease the likelihood of our detecting and dismantling our lousy thinking. Like being "colorblind"...that's one of the mainstream ways culture teaches you to not discern crappy perceiving/thinking.

Jeez. Sinclair Lewis wrote a disturbing and scary book way back in 1935 titled "It Can't Happen Here" about the rise of fascism in Europe. Based on my struggles to comprehend race/racism over the past couple of years I would have to say it has already happened here...in fact it was never any other way here...we've just been a little slicker (sometimes) at obfuscating the reality of its having happened here than were the white peoples in Europe.

I'm coming to think that race/racism and fascism aren't different phenomena but rather they are different aspects of a particular approach to comprehending and perceiving all living beings and subsequent social/cultural practices and arrangements. It's uncanny how many core components are almost identical between racist thinkings and fascist thinkings.

I don't think it was by accident that a omnipresent feature of the various authoritarian dictatorships that arose in Europe and Japan was a deep and closely held commitment to racist thinkings. Indeed...the authoritarian dictatorship that gripped Russia for so many decades had a deep and persistent strain of antisemitism (and other racist notions) that characterized it (even though such were "officially" disavowed). Such stuff was nevertheless believed in and practiced even if not openly embraced.

One way of thinking about the graphic is that it is itself a manifestation of the easy (and erroneous) maneuver of sorting people into “good/bad” binaries….which is a core aspect of racist thinking and of fascist thinking. It is just silly to think that racism and racist practices have persisted for centuries here in the U.S. because of "bad" white people. "Good" white people have supported and upheld it in the past and they (we) continue to do so even now.

The Trump supporter I dialogued with is a family member that I've known all my life and is a "good intentioned" person...and she is also a lost and bewildered person (who can sometimes voice her confusion) who feels like much is desperately wrong in this nation but misidentifies (at almost every turn) what those wrongs are. Subsequently...she grotesquely clings to Trump as being almost some sort of "white savior" figure. I suspect every white person who might read this has friends and/or family members that think/believe much the same way she does.

This is a hell of a situation we white folks have created and/or sat around with our thumbs up our a**es and allowed to persist. I feel both profoundly responsible and deeply sad and disturbed about this whole debacle.

Like you (probably) I was suckered into thinking that if I didn't have any conscious racist thinking, if I didn't do racist doings then hey...I was one of the good guys...right? Of course anyone who enacts stuff like that or thinks that way (consciously) is deplorable and to be condemned strongly. But...that's actually a relatively small percentage of the population.

White enacted racist policies and racist white institutions aren't controlled by those "bad" folks...it's us, the "good" white people that keep this crap rolling on. Our thinkers are busted. Our comprehendings are deficient, our recognizers suck. We've substituted the word for the deed. We are the problem...not "them" out there.

Pogo said it decades ago: We have met the enemy, and s/he is us.

I desperately wish it were so easy as to just say "they're a**holes" and "I'm not". I really do...but I’m concerned that trying to conceptualize humans and their behaviors this way is, while certainly enticing, not at all useful if our goal is to convert and/or transform folks into genuine believers and practitioners of equality and equity.

We've been doing it that way for a long time...it doesn't work. If just naming the bad guys made the bad guys disappear and/or have no power, heck, we would have achieved nirvana long ago. It's a lot tougher than that.

I'll end with this graphic that has a scarily prescient quote from a seriously important American that most of you white people are totally unfamiliar with (and your unfamiliarity is part and parcel of what keeps racism rolling along here in the U.S.A.). His statement is profoundly and deeply true and if we get destroyed...it will be our own fault for not doing our work.

Things fall apart...

The title of this post is taken from a Yeats poem called The Second Coming. Here's the first part of that poem, it has always sort of haunted me:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The last lines of that poem are also shivery and scary:

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

I've been grieving and thinking about the unprecedented fit of ugly self-destructiveness that is (to me anyway) manifested by the 2016 presidential election outcome.

The U.S. has put into power a white man who has never held elected office nor has ever held any appointed government position or served in any military position or rank.

He's outed himself as a racist misogynist who is likely also a pedophile or child raper. Anyone who has even a moderate amount of judgement can detect that he is afflicted with serious emotional and cognitive problems but...that doesn't seem to matter to those who voted for him.

This is who those voters selected to represent them as their leader...this is who they have turned over control of all the nuclear weapons to. This is what has happened...and I am frightened.

In case you didn't know...that's never happened in the history of this place called the U.S.A. I will repeat...it has never happened before that a man elected president has never had any position in the military or government. Never.

You can, if you want, read more about that here.

If I consider what's happened during my lifetime, it sort of appears to me that the nation seems to let the destroyers and harmers nibble away at the economy and the planet and the people until the harm gets so great and so profound...to enough white people...that there's a big flurry and push for helping the economy and (white) people.

This nation mostly doesn't much care about harming people who aren't white men. If you disagree, I invite you to examine the history of the U.S. and please let me know where you find something different. (Realize that I'm speaking in generalities, broad swaths or trends not unconnected instances. As far as I can see...every instance of help to the less powerful was in some way or another connected with helping white men either in substance or prompted by shaming and worries about how white people here might appear to the rest of the world.)  You might learn something by looking at history from the viewpoint of such harming/helping and if you find something that means I need to revise my thinking...then I learn too. Ok?

Before I was born that's what seemed to lead to the election of FDR and the subsequent reforms and guarantees for average people (white) that came into place under him. I'm looking at the civil rights movement and subsequent legislation that came from it as being essentially a continuation and completing of that supporting of the less powerful citizens in the U.S.

Let's say FDR started changing things in 1935 and this period of assisting the less powerful ended in 1965 with the voting rights act. I'm skipping over lots of stuff, I know...but stay with me here. Since 1965 the power group (white wealthy men and their cohorts and hangers on) have been working to dismantle those helpings and to increase their harming/destroying of the planet and the people and the economy. They were doing it all along but I'm using 1965 as a marker date for the onslaught of harming and the essential end of the repairing.

What led to FDR and the national sentiment to help the less powerful and take away power from the wealthy white men was an economic devastation so profound that at one time the unemployment rate was about 25%. Now understand that the 25% who were unemployed were non-wealthy white men. Note that now whenever the unemployment rate for that group gets to 6 or 7% or more everyone gets excited (I'm glossing over, my apologies, how marginalized group folks always always have higher unemployment rates than white men).

So FDR comes in with a large majority pushing for fixing and helping that begins in 1935 and all that pretty much ends in 1965. We've essentially been in a period of harming ever since then...that's for over 50 years. Power has been generally been being taken from those with less power and being gathered by those with power (I'm painting in large strokes here).

And here we are...we've elected to the presidency the most egregiously unfit person I've ever seen...and we've had some really bad and awful men there before. He is openly aligned almost totally with the harmers and abusers and with wealthy white men.

And right now, I think one of the biggest factors that led to his election was that Barack Obama was black and was the president and that absolutely terrified and unhinged white men...and white women. Even though, in large and small ways, Barack Obama's policies were on the side of the harmers.

It was his blackness that terrified them and in their derangement they've put a white man in power who is the epitome of someone who has no regard for any marginalized group. He cares not one whit for people of color, for women, for poor people, for disabled people, for LBGTQIA people...no grouping of humans with little or no social power has any significance to him at all. They are prey.

I suspect we might be entering the end phase, the crescendo of the 51 years of harming that's been working to tear up the fixing that began with FDR.

And...if all this broad picture looking is true...it's likely to result in some disaster (like 25% unemployment rates for white men) to provide enough ooch for those who oppose harm to come together enough to start fixing again.

I don't know what form the coming disaster might take...but I strongly suspect one is coming. And many are going to be harmed...and it will mostly be those with little or no power but it will eventually harm white men too.

I fear that we all (except wealthy white men) are going to be damaged...maybe severely...maybe even unprecedentedly disastrously before this is all over. Maybe fatally...I don't know...I do know it's going to be awful. And it's going to be totally unnecessary. We (white people) could have done better than this long ago...but we didn't and it seems we won't until it gets so horrid that we have to do better. That happens...but we don't seem to learn...we get forced to do better but our thinking doesn't seem to change much.

As I wrote that last sentence it struck me that there is one group that (I'm speaking on average) that never gets hurt is...guess who...wealthy folks. Come what may, the wealthy (mostly white men) might get dinged, but they don't get hurt. They don't end up starving or out of work or lynched or enslaved or beaten up or imprisoned.

That's true...why don't we understand that then they should never ever have power because they don't have to deal with the consequences of awful?

Hmmm...I'd never thought of that in quite the way I'm thinking of it now. Consider...if you wanted a human society that did the most positive stuff for the greatest number...you would always put in power those who were most interested in helping the least powerful and who would be most impacted by harm to the least powerful. Hmmm. Think about that for a minute.

That would be the way to go if you wanted to do the greatest good for the largest number of folks because...helping the least would automatically result in either neutral or good for those more powerful than the least powerful. If you lift the floor...it raises everyone...right?

Well...if that's true, and I suspect it is, then we've done the exact opposite. We've put into power one of the most powerful who is an abuser and a harmer and is intent on helping those with all the power. He wants to raise up those already high and screw those who are lower or less powerful.

I don't think this is going to end well and I'm unwilling to rule out a devastation that makes WWII look like a birthday party. When harmers are supported by a large swath of the population (by that I mean those who put this man in power) then the likelihood of awfulness for every human without much power...for all living beings without much power, is almost a certainty. I suspect he may end up harming everyone...even those who think they are insulated from harm.

I hope that isn't true...but I fear that it is.

I'll continue to think about this and also to think about ways to maybe counter it however I can. You think about it too and let me know what occurs to you. Hey...people who are much better writers and thinkers than I am are writing about all this too. One of those writer's articles is here.

I'm pretty sure no wealthy white men read this blog...so you who do read it are among those who are at risk of being hurt by what's probably coming and your thoughts about stopping it or decreasing it or preventing it are welcome. I'm really saddened about this and I''m profoundly ashamed of us white people. This did not have to be.

I've been writing about and thinking much about race and racism here in the U.S. for quite some time...now you know why...it permeates this society...and it is destroying all of us.

A quick note...

I may not post again until after the election. Please review this post if you haven't done so already.

My span of experience of presidential elections covers about 12 of them. Mr. Trump is the least qualified and most frightening person to be presented as a major party presidential candidate I have seen in my whole adult life.  

He is an openly misogynistic and racist man and his existence as a major party candidate highlights the work we have remaining to achieve a just and equitable society. The forces against a fair and just society are strong and the number of people who oppose such a society are many...Mr. Trump's candidacy makes that clear.

Saying all that to say...these are scary times and I feel for folks who are members of groups targeted by Mr. Trump and his supporters...I feel for all of us because it likely will be an ongoing and destructive disaster if he happens to win the election and we would all pay, severely, in one way or another.

Please vote...and vote to ensure Mr. Trump does not have access to the nuclear bombs or to the power to nominate supreme court justices.


We really need to change the course of this nation...and we can...but...there might not be a chance for that change if that guy gets elected.

The election of a U.S. president...

will occur soon.

A while back I came to an important realization...and I assure you it didn't just float down out of the ceiling into my head. This realization was a result of the rather astonishing (hey, I sometimes can astonish myself in a good way) amount of time and effort I've put into reading and thinking and conversing and feeling and thinking some more that I've done over the past 18 to 24 months which focused on grappling with some of the ways oppression operates. That includes focusing (and often being dismayed and appalled) on my own thinking and understanding as well as what plays out in society "out there".

It is axiomatic that we (I include myself) must struggle with our own inner selves (repeatedly) even while also turning our attention to "out there". We gotta struggle with our own demons in order to accurately identify and resist those "out there" demons.

Most especially I've been trying to learn about race/racism (both "out there" and inside myself) and to a somewhat less concentrated degree about the operations of sexism (both inside myself and "out there"). But, I only have so much capacity for comprehension at any given time. I can't do everything...that doesn't mean I can't do something though.

I'm not going to write detail about my struggles with comprehending these deplorable doings in this post...I've written about a lot of it previously and I'll continue to write about it but this post is simply to offer you up a summary of what I've come to understand so far in regards to voting next month.

Look at this:

Hmmm....the above graphic shows that people of color overwhelmingly opt for Ms. Clinton as opposed to Mr. Trump and while it's a bit less overwhelming...white people, combining both men and women, opt for Mr. Trump as opposed to Ms. Clinton.

Now look at these:

Women only voting would elect Ms. Clinton and men only voting would elect Mr. Trump. So, what can we learn from these graphic representations of polling information? (note: these graphics are located on this website)

Well, if you've been following my writing here you'll already know that if you're interested in opposing or resisting oppression then you will want to align yourself with those groups who are targeted by oppression and injustice, also, people who belong to subordinated groups tend to be more knowledgeable about injustice. One useful way to think about this is to remember that the servants tend to know more about the masters than the masters know about the servants. 

Since here in the U.S.A., which is a white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalistic and heterosexist society...among the groupings of humans which are targeted for subordination and oppression are people of color and women. And...these polling results show the preferences of those groups and they overwhelmingly prefer Ms. Clinton for president.

So...there ya go...I'm with them and that's who I will vote with...what's nice about figuring out to follow the preferences of people of color and/or women is that I don't have to do anything but find out what what their choices are and I'm ready to vote.

Note...this does in no way shape or form indicate that Ms. Clinton is someone who either understands or is an effective advocate against oppression or oppressive practices...no...it simply means that of the choices offered by the two major parties...Ms. Clinton is overwhelmingly preferred by members of subordinated groups over Mr. Trump.

If we are ever to have candidates that "get it" in terms of comprehending and resisting oppression then we have to direct our efforts to that end and that has to happen way way before the selection process begins. That's work that has to begin at the grassroots local community level. Good stuff doesn't come from the top down...it flows from the bottom up. There's no "magical" leader or savior out there that's going to do our work for us. We must do it ourselves.

Ahistorical...

I've noticed a couple of often used maneuvers that seem to serve to assist in keeping oppressive structures and conceptualizings in place. These doings can take place in situations which are not involved in oppressive activities...but...they sure seem to show up too often to be accidental anytime oppression is in play.

One of them (ahistorical) is stripping away the historical knowledge and events as they occurred over time in regard to concepts, things, words and even living beings. After this omitting...the de-historicized concept, thing, word or living being can then thought about or written about or interacted with in ways that can serve the function of oppression much more easily (and misleadingly) than if that lost or hidden historical information is taken into account or considered. One of the results of losing or hiding history is that mystification of the phenomena (words, things, concepts or living beings) is much more readily achieved.

In other words...it's real easy to get real stupid (or engage in oppression) real fast when dealing with concepts, things, words or living beings if we hide or "forget" their history.

Another thing I've seen in my adventures in learning about some of the "isms" of oppression is how often the maneuvers associated with injustice engage in stripping away the context associated with concepts, things, words or living beings. A snazzy word that's used to identify that operation is decontextualize.


Part of how I think about the difference between "ahistorical" and "decontextualize" is that the first word (ahistorical) generally refers to the origins and evolution (change over time) of concepts, things, words or living beings, while the second word (decontextualize) more often refers to current or near current circumstances.

Since I've presented several links in this post to dictionaries...then dictionaries might serve as a useful example of the way in which power can be invisibly enacted via use of the handy dandy tool of stripping knowledge about the history from something.

Think about this...who do you think creates and maintains English language dictionaries (both now and in the past)? Is it men or is it women or is it a combination of equally shared power and control between men and women? Do members of marginalized groups of peoples have any input into these dictionaries or is it only white men and/or white women? (not to mention even whether any Earthlings besides humans have any input into those dictionaries)

While you're thinking about that, I'll go on and note that Julia Penelope, in her cool little book titled "Speaking Freely: Unlearning the lies of the father's tongues" tells us (p. 217) that one researcher...when looking into the compilation of "authoritative sources" that English language dictionary editors used...only those sources created by "anglo men" were consulted while works from women or other marginalized peoples were ignored and not used. Hmmm... (I wrote a little about Ms. Penelope and language in a post last year)

That tells us that, for we who use the English language, even the words and the meanings of words that are used to communicate and think are pretty much controlled by white men. Hmmm... How many of you were familiar with that little bit of context and history? See what I mean about how nifty those tools of ahistorizing and decontextualizing are for making (potentially) relevant information invisible?

But hey, as we all know, white men wouldn't ever engage in oppression or such detestable activities if they have power...right? White people (especially white men) pretty much always behave in fair and socially just ways, right?

By the way, some feminist scholars caught onto some of the problematical aspects associated with English dictionaries and created A Feminist Dictionary that, according to the Wikipedia entry, has: "...the intent of “forcing us to consider who assembles the dictionaries usually consulted and to ask how the words have been chosen.""

Ahistoricizing and decontextualizing...good stuff to know about if you're concerned with the maneuvers of oppression. 

White obliviousness.

I've been posting about manifestations of oppression that target human Earthlings lately.

Part of my motivation for doing so is that I've slowly and with a lot of struggle and difficulty come to (only) vaguely comprehend that I live in a society and nation wherein oppression directed toward various (relatively powerless) groups of living beings is a core structural component of everyday life.

For instance, if you belong to that group raced as white...then you (me...we) participate in enacting and upholding oppression directed toward groups raced differently than white and we do that routinely and mostly with no meaningful comprehension of doing so.

I live in a society and nation wherein if you're sexed as male...then you (me...we) participate in enacting and upholding oppression directed toward groups sexed differently and we do that routinely and most often with no real comprehension of doing so.

I'm going to write here about an instance of my enacting whiteness that happened recently and it disturbed me greatly (and continues to strongly bother me). My discomfort comes not only from my being oblivious to enacting whiteness...my discomfort also has greatly to do with the fact that I had every element of information available to me that would have allowed me to not be oblivious to my white privilege...and yet I still was able to be deplorably oblivious.

Briefly, I recently became acquainted with a young man who commutes to the town where I live so that he can attend some university classes. He drives about 30 miles or so (one way) to come here a couple of days a week. I have interacted with this man a number of times and I thought to offer him my phone number so that if he ever had any sort of difficulty or mishap in his commuting then maybe I could be of some help.

I did this, in part, because I used to commute about that same distance to a town near here to teach a couple of classes and I always was a little uneasy because I didn't know anyone in the town I drove to and knew if I had car trouble or something there really was no one in that area I could call on for help or information. It would have been somewhat comforting to have known someone there I could have contacted in case I needed to do so. Sure, there are garages and mechanics around but I didn't know any of them or where they might be located and such and maybe someone who lived there would have been more tuned into what was available or whatever.

Another part of why I offered to be a contact was that this young man is raced as Black. I've worked at, over the past few years, to paying attention to the racial makeup of people I see out in public places. I live in a really "white" town...one source indicates only about 4% of the population here is identified as Black. That means that if he had some sort of car trouble or other situation...most likely he would have to approach and/or call on some stranger to help him and that stranger would not be Black. There's a lot more to be said about all that but I'm not going into it now...this post will probably end up being too long as it is already.

So...after asking if he knew anyone here in town...and his saying no, I decided to offer to be available as a contact for him and to help him in case of some problem if I could.

Hey, I'm a nice guy, right? Well...I'm really probably not...I don't mean I'm a daily jerk or anything (that I know of) but I've lived long enough to become aware that, more often than not, if people are around me for a bit they tend to decide they don't want to have much to do with me. Sometimes they don't have to be around me very often at all to decide that I'm sort of unpleasant or uncomfortable to be around. Over the years I've been told that I was "weird", of if they were being polite they said I was "unusual", a number of times and so I just figure that the quality of "weirdness" or "unusualness" off-puts most people. So be it.

Saying all that to say that I was offering to be a contact not because I'm all warm and gooey and "nice" but for several reasons, one of them being that I'm deeply bothered by how we white people are taught to be ignorant of and oblivious to people of color and what the experiences of living are for them and I wanted to bridge that socially created gap in some small way. Also...I liked this young man and liked his demeanor and he's young enough to be my grandson and when you get old you sometimes want to help out youngsters when you can. All well and good, right?

Nope...my making that offer to him turned out to be something that's brought me face to face with some of my white obliviousness and that is resulting in my become a little more cognizant of how very often many of the ways I comprehend my world around me are shaped and formed and directed by my social conditioning. It has called on me to be a little more aware of how poorly I comprehend "reality" and flawed my perception is of what living life is for someone here in the U.S. who is raced as African American.

A week or two after I gave him my phone number and let him know I would help out if I could, he approached me and asked if he could talk to me. I said sure and he proceeded to tell me that he appreciated my offer and he had been thinking about it but he realized that it might not, in some instances, be useful for him because he knew that if the police stopped him and he tried to use his cell phone to call me that his reaching for his cell phone might be used as an excuse by the police to kill him...because they could interpret phone use as a "threatening" gesture.

As he told me about his thinking, awareness flooded in on me that he was perfectly accurate in his assessment of what might happen and I also was totally chagrined and dismayed that I had been completely oblivious to that truth. It never, in any meaningful way, impinged on my viewpoint that such a risk existed for him. And yet...and yet...as he spoke and I listened and understood his words I knew that I should have known that. It's not like information isn't all over the place about these obscene police killings of black people. My god, an ugly and unjustified police killing of an unarmed black man just happened in Tulsa which is only about 100 miles from here. I'm "aware" of this stuff...and yet...it just didn't register with me that he was someone who was at risk for being murdered by the police.

I've been wallowing with this ever since he spoke to me...even as I write this it almost overwhelms me to grasp how grotesque it is that I didn't consider this aspect of one of the ramifications of his calling me. I see this stunning gap in my comprehending as a manifestation of white obliviousness. I see this absence of meaningful understanding and knowing as me enacting whiteness and all the while doing so without realistically knowing what I was doing. It makes me want to weep and it also really really pisses me off. I'm not "stupid"...I'm not wholly insensitive...and yet...I often behave and view the world around me and the living beings, human and not human, in the world in just that way.

And that ignorance and obliviousness isn't accidental...nor is it because of some inherent flaw or glitch in me. I've been carefully groomed and taught this way of being in this world...my culture...my society...has diligently and persistently taught me to not pay attention to people of color or to their experiences. It has diligently and persistently cultivated and rewarded me for being oblivious. And...I've learned my lessons well.

That results in my feeling sad...and...it results in really really angering me. I'm angry about my being lovingly and lyingly induced to be "stupid" and oblivious and thereby assisting in these sorts of wrongs continuing to be "normal". I'm angry at the creeps that came up with these teachings, I'm angry at my society for making those teaching "normal" for we white people and I'm angry and my own complicity in going along with them and horrendously thinking and acting as if...well...everything is just "normal" and ok.

It occurs to me as I write that that hey...if I'm going to be an ignorant a**hole...I want to know I'm being an ignorant a**hole. I don't want to act that way and not know it...I don't want to go around thinking I'm being helpful or useful or friendly or whatever and all the while being complicit and upholding of disgusting awfulness. I would like to have some choice in the matter. If I'm going to be a jerk I want it to be because I choose to be a jerk...not because it was chosen for me and I was seduced and suckered into jerkiness because I was seduced into and induced to not know what in hell was going on.

Here's one way I can think of this phenomenon that might illustrate (to me...and maybe to you) one (there are many) outrageous thing about my white obliviousness. It means that I end up behaving in ways that I would not choose to behave if I realized or comprehended that a choice was involved. If part of being "free" or having "freedom" is having choices then whenever I engage in life and do things without awareness of having a choice...then I have less freedom. Someone else made a choice for me...and taught me to be unaware or uncomprehending of their choosing for me so I wouldn't kick up a fuss about their controlling or influencing my behavior. I've been made into a puppet of some kind to further whatever their goal or desire was and that pisses me off.

Nobody asked me about it. Nobody asked me if I wanted to choose this or choose that. They chose for me...and taught me to not notice and to not be meaningfully aware and like a dork I went along with it...because I thought it was "normal" or something and then I end up operating like an oblivious a**hole.

When I do gain some awareness, I feel like a fool. And I feel sad...and I feel inadequate...because I comprehend that all the information was there in front of me and I just glided right over it and didn't put all the pieces together in a genuine and comprehending and meaningful way. I thought I was doing something positive (and don't get me wrong, I think I was, in one way, doing something worthwhile) all the while I was also doing something that might place that young man at risk if he were unaware enough of reality to act on my offer in certain situations. Thank goodness he wasn't afflicted enough with white obliviousness to not think about some of the implications of his acting on my offer. It's really frightening to think about the fact that he could have also succumbed to unawareness and maybe even have lost his life because of that unawareness.

He's been exposed to the same flimflam I have...all the same cultural messages that float around have drenched him too...but...he has black skin and because of that he has received many many other messages too. Those messages informed him that what was being presented as "normal" and such wasn't the whole story. Messages that I didn't get because of my having white skin or if I did get them I was carefully taught to minimize or deny or ignore them.

He's probably aware of the "The Negro Motorist Green Book" and the implications of the necessity of such a publication, he's probably aware of the implications of the phrase "driving while black" while I've been taught (and not clearly told I was being taught) to either be unaware of these or...if I was aware of them to just minimize or ignore or deny them.

What I'm calling white obliviousness and/or enacting whiteness is a phenomenon that victimizes...or sets up victimization situations...for people of color. Sometimes those situations can have disastrous and horrible consequences. I believe it's important for me (and for other white people)  to work at knowing this and to also realize that being oblivious does damage to white people too.

It harms differently yes...but it harms nevertheless. People of color can lose their lives because of it...that's horrendous. White people can, without desiring to or intending to, be supportive of and complicit in this stuff too. And...if you're white and you're upholding or engaging in white obliviousness then you've been damaged because your ability to choose...part of your freedom...has been taken. And you're harmed because you end up supporting or upholding monstrousness thereby making you complicit in hurting others.

This white obviousness stuff is a screw job all the way around. People of color get, by far, the worst of the screw job...but if you think the white people who wouldn't choose this crap escape wounding...well...that's not true. It's not a win/lose situation...it's a lose/lose tremendously situation.

I'm not comparing the differing results depending on which side of white obliviousness that you're positioned. I'm simply saying that it's a really ugly and destructive thing that can inflict the ultimate harm on some and lesser harm on others...but make no mistake...all are harmed. And it's all so unnecessary and disgusting.

I made reference to a question in a post back in September. The question was: "Do we really want a society that is based on dominance and control and the valuing of some lives more than other lives?"

Well...I don't...but...my stumbling around in the fog of white obliviousness means I participate in upholding and maintaining just that kind of society. And that pisses me off because that obviousness means that I'm being controlled by the a**hole fools that started this whole mess and it means I'm being controlled by all the generations after them that refined and continued this crap...and...all I can say is screw them.

I resent the hell out of being suckered into helping along their crappy and monstrous version of society. Understand...I'm not letting myself off the hook here...I'm the goofy one who swallowed their stuff and then blundered around thinking I sort of knew what I was doing. That's my responsibility and it's my job to undo it when and where I can. I can tell you this though...there's no way in hell I would have created this mess if it had been left up to me. But...it wasn't...and I'm left with the undoing of it...and if you have white skin...guess what...you're faced with the undoing of it too.

This all makes my head hurt...and my heart too.

I hope this makes sense...it's so disorienting and upsetting to me that I'm not sure whether it does or not. Jeez.

(any errors or omissions here are mine and go ahead and give me hell about them if you need to or correct me gently if you're so inclined, thanks)  

A movie.

Sometimes we can learn from books and movies and situations even when they have much erroneous or misleading information or depictions in them. Sometimes.

I recently re-watched a movie, The Help, which is an instance of a fictionalized account of some aspects of pre-civil rights southern life that offers many learning opportunities all the while promoting some seriously deluded and misleading notions.

In the scene from the movie above, the actress Octavia Spencer is in the foreground and Viola Davis is shown behind her. Both did phenomenal acting jobs in the movie.

I re-watched primarily because I'm a massive fan of Viola Davis (who plays a housemaid named Aibileen Clark). During the re-watching I did some more learning and you might use it for that too.

One situation that slammed me was a scene wherein a woman who had worked as a maid for decades was fired by her white employer. The employer was faced with the decision of whether to break ranks with a culture of white solidarity and to do the right thing or fire her maid (the maid, played by Cicely Tyson, was theoretically someone the employer and the employer's family "loved"). White solidarity won and in the process the employer outed some of the integrity corrupting aspects of the ideology of whiteness.

Watch the movie and the scene I described. There you'll see white racial solidarity working to damage everyone who upholds it and to deeply harm those who are targeted by it. It's a painful and ugly scene to watch.

The movie itself exemplifies a common Hollywood meme, that of the white savior, and many insightful reviews and critiques have been written about it. You can read some of them here and here and here.

I found a brief documentary that was evidently created to accompany a commemorative re-release of Gone With the Wind. The documentary was called Old South, New South. It's about 25 minutes and I would urge you to watch it...for a number of reasons.

One of them is if, like me, you attended public schools in the U.S. you were likely treated to a distorted view of the cause of the civil war and the documentary pretty much demolishes the whitewashed version of the "lost cause".

Briefly (and you see these untrue memes all over the place) the feel good version of the civil war I was taught was that the southern states instigated a war because they wanted to uphold the "right" of their states to make whatever laws they wanted to...even if those laws defied the constitution or the federal government. What this whitewashed version fails to mention is that the principle "right" they wanted to uphold was to be able to continue to legally enslave human beings. It's also noteworthy to realize that the North didn't enter into the war to "free the slaves" but rather to resist dissolving the union of the states.

From what I can gather the establishment of slavery arose because it became apparent that the North might lose the war unless they found some way to deprive the South of the benefit they got from exploiting enslaved humans and one way to do that was to declare emancipation. Initially such emancipation was only valid in southern territory that had been conquered by the north.

At this point in time my viewpoint on the onset of the civil war is that the south was fighting to uphold enslaving humans and the north was fighting to uphold the union. The abolishing of human enslavement was not anything the north was initially wanting to do and only arose, in part, as a tactic to assist in defeating the south. Watch the documentary, it's quite informative.

Also, in that documentary, the author of the book titled "The Help" (which the movie was based on) is shown in several scenes. Having read the book and also having watched the movie and having seen the author in the documentary leads me to suspect (of course I don't know that she actually thinks and/or feels) that she exemplifies a "good white person". By that I mean I suspect she's been conditioned (like most of us, especially we who have white skin) to have negative biases toward African Americans but she also knows that such notions are false and despicable so she has banished such thinking from her consciousness. But...that bias continues to operate within her (albeit out of her conscious awareness) in some form or fashion and to influence her perceiving and comprehending.

Struggling to escape the constant subtle and not so subtle racist conditioning, especially for we white people, that constantly pounds at us from all sorts of media and social sources is incredibly difficult. Part of that difficulty occurs because we are taught that if we have good intentions and think good thoughts then we're good to go. Well...that's a seriously big load of crap. Consider this, is it realistic to think that centuries of racist domination and enslavement and murder and atrocities are going to be negated and resolved by "thinking good thoughts"? Gimme a break...and I write that as someone who believed such an absurdity up until a couple of years ago...to my everlasting shame and chagrin.   

I suspect that the author, were she to take the Implicit Association Test, would get results revealing that she harbors some degree of bias toward African Americans. And...even if she didn't get such results...I still would view her with some skepticism because, as far as I know, she has used none of the money (apparently a tremendous amount, based on the popularity of her book and of the movie) she has gained to support or fund any organization that works to overcome racism here in the U.S.

I'm absolutely opposed to members of an oppressor group making money off of exploiting or writing about what has been done (and continues to be done) to victims of oppression without using those profits to resist such awfulness. Such stuff is just not ok with me. That's adding insult to injury.

Anyway...if you haven't seen the movie and want to see one with some fine acting by Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer (along with many other good performances) then do so. But...realize that this movie is pretty much a movie that whitewashes a lot the past (and current) ugliness of white racism. In no small part because it tries to present the notion that the problem of white racist America has been and is a function of "bad" white people instead of the truth that it is the "good white people" that uphold this deplorable and awful stuff.

The movie tries to make you feel good about "white saviors" when in truth there's really not much to feel good about...either then or now. With all of its flaws, the movie can still function as a learning opportunity...but...you'll have to work at it and you'll have to comprehend and resist much of the minimizing and distorting that's present in this film.

P.S. If you want to read a fairly well done book about "Good White People", author Shannon Sullivan's book is an ok place to start.

Living vegan is a breeze when compared to the difficulty of grappling with the racist ugliness we all swim in here in the U.S.

Most of us white people (as well as some people of color) are really really messed up about all this...and I definitely include myself in the messed up group. Jeez. To resist it...you have to be able to realize what it is when you encounter it...and this movie might assist in that task and...as a bonus...you get to watch Viola Davis. 

 


   

Quote and variations.

I recently ran across this quote that concisely explains what is meant by the phrase "social construction".

Here's the quote:

“We think we see ‘race’ when we encounter certain physical differences among people such as skin color, eye shape, and hair texture. What we actually ‘see’ (or more accurately ‘perceive’) are the social meanings that have been linked to those physical features by the ideology of race and the historical legacy it has left us.”

-- Smedley, Race in North America (xii)

I read it several times and realized that it could be tweaked a little and accurately reference other instances that we tend to think have some meaning outside of what we humans make up and apply to such ideas. For instance "gender":

We think we see ‘feminine’ or 'masculine' when we encounter certain physical or other differences among people such as size, voice timbre, clothing, behaviors and hair length and/or style. What we actually ‘see’ (or more accurately ‘perceive’) are the social meanings that have been linked to those various features by the ideology of gender and the historical legacy it has left us.”

-- Smedley, Race in North America (xii) (modified for “gender”)

It's instructive and enlightening to consider terms like "race" or  "gender" or other terms that are socially constructed...which means humans made them up...to "explain" something and those explanations have been created via the interactions of power and culture and history and such and...they can change depending on any or all of those factors.

They aren't fixed...they morph and change to suit shifting times and circumstances...all the while upholding structures of oppression.

The problem of oppression isn't that there are differences among living beings...the problem is created by the fantasized (but purposive) meanings humans attach to those differences.

And...way way too often these human created meanings of differences (sometimes called "identities") are then used to mark which living beings are targets for oppression and policing and control and violence and which beings are considered to be "fully human" and "superior" and worthy of freedom.

For one powerful instance of human created 'meaning' go here and read about the difference between having white skin and the ideology of whiteness. Those are two different things, one is simply a description referencing skin color and the other is a human constructed system of comprehension and understanding (an ideology) designed to implement and maintain oppression. 

Having white skin is one thing...the ideology of whiteness (often attached to and conflated with having white skin) is something quite different.

For a further insightful bit of writing about these notions...go read Aph Ko's excellent article regarding the need for change in our conceptualizing about the way we understand "knowledge" and liberation.

Hmmm...when we forget history and context and relate to social constructions as if they are independent of human made meaning...well...that's when we enter the troublesome land of believing that fantasy is "true" and while that could theoretically be fun and interesting...the sad fact is that, way too often, it gets misleading and dangerous and harmful real fast.

Here's one last quote that tells us something very important:

The world changes according to the way people see it, and if you can alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change the world.

—James Baldwin

I have slowly and haltingly...oftentimes with dismay and sorrow...come to realize that things like liberation and social justice and freedom are simply out of reach without doing some arduous and frequently frightening and painful digging into my own ways of understanding the world and how I've been taught to comprehend the living beings in that world.

Think of it this way...most of the people I know seem to be good-hearted and well intentioned...I suspect most of the people you know are too. If that's the case...how is it that we live in a social world where living beings are routinely subjected to horrendous instances of harm and oppression?

What the hell is going on?

I'm saying that maybe we're seduced and/or co-opted into...without intention or desire...being complicit in upholding and maintaining those systems of oppression.

And maybe...part of what's getting in our way of breaking out of these systems of harm has to do with our understandings. Maybe a big part of our job...if we are desirous of interrupting these systems...is to start digging into our own selves and into the understandings that were given to us by our culture and our society and figuring out which of those understandings have some actual non-harmful utility and those which primarily serve to uphold and keep the operations of oppression in place.

Maybe...if we want things to change...part of what we have to do is to engage in the work of changing ourselves by examining and revising our comprehension and our understanding.

Wallowing around with and wrestling with all this is absolutely the most difficult and painful thing I've ever undertaken in all my life. I fluctuate between astonishment and dismay and bewilderment and sorrow...sometimes...I even have moments of clarity. I must admit that clarity is rare...but it does happen on occasion. And wow...it's quite a treat when it does.

I'm dreadfully old to be engaged in something like this...most of you who read this are probably much younger than me. Don't wait, please...the longer you put off this quest the longer you (without meaning to) engage in oblivious complicity in upholding systems of harm.

I firmly believe we can do better than what we've done so far...but...we must do the work of taking apart these social constructions that we confuse with "reality" that our culture/society has presented to us. And...once we do that and gain a little more accurate understanding then we can better choose how to go about achieving social justice.

This is what I think so far...in no way do I believe I don't have further to go. If you see obvious errors or distortions here...please...let me know what you think. Heck, it's even ok to let me know if you think this makes sense.  

 

James Baldwin.

One of the most insightful and talented thinkers and writers ever. The graphic below might offer you some understanding of why I make that statement.

The part of this quote, where ignorance and power are referenced and that an alliance of those two phenomena present the greatest obstacle to justice is scary true.

I'll add that we who are afflicted with whiteness (along with everyone in this society) are carefully and incessantly taught to be ignorant (but to be oblivious to that not knowing) and all the while thinking we are well informed. We all are subjected to this sort of demeaning flimflam but...those who belong to oppressed groups also are slammed with experiences that counter such social propaganda.

I have a book that contains a collection of his essays and it is just excellent. It's titled: The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings and it contains some excellent work....and his other writings are superlative too.

Notice how Mr. Baldwin is expressing (albeit in much more lyrical and powerful form) what Ruth Frankenberg has condensed into one the axioms she formulated as tools to assist in analyzing information.

Axiom Three: Those who are being harmed and/or oppressed by a system of domination are going to have the best location for detecting, apprehending and comprehending those domination activities. In other words, those who are being hurt by domination/oppression are going have the most comprehensive viewpoint. If you want to know what is going on...listen to the victims of oppression...they know more than you.

I love it when I run across things like this. If you haven't read James Baldwin...do so.

Some humans

are spooky. I'll be more specific...some humans who are raced as white are spooky.

This morning I went on Facebook and quickly ran into a link to this story. A brief summary:...a woman (white) publishes a textbook about Mexican American heritage and makes the mind-boggling statement that "...Mexican-American scholars weren't tapped to help write the book in order to have an unbiased book." She's saying if you want a supposedly factual book about a subject you should avoid consulting those who are knowledgeable about the subject in order to be "unbiased". Hmmm...

Then I ran across this next story. It's an article about a woman (white) who has written several books but this time the author is giving a talk and in the talk she's promoting the idea that she (or anyone) should be able to write about anybody's experiences because...it's fiction. She's arguing that since fiction is "fake" anyway then no one should object to her (or anyone) writing from the viewpoint of, for instance, a rapist (even if they are not a rapist) or a Nigerian woman (even if they're not a Nigerian woman) and on and on.

This might be an interesting question to wrestle with (whether or how you can "know" the experiences of someone different from you) but...apparently that wasn't the tenor of the talk. The speaker was primarily ridiculing the idea of anyone objecting to writing from viewpoints that the author knows little about...if they were writing fiction.

There might be something of substance to consider here...but...I suspect the substance is going to be bound up primarily in consideration of whether the speaker/writer is operating from being positioned in a group that socially dominates another group or other groups. I'm specifically referring to Ruth Frankenberg's third axiom.

I can meld the messages together coming from these two women (white) and they seem to be saying that they should be able to present anything they want...without anyone objecting...and that ignorance about the topics is actually a strength. If the writing is supposedly factual then ignorance is a strength because it is "unbiased" and if the mode of writing is fiction then ignorance is a strength because it is an exercise of "freedom".

Notice that both are apparently upholding and lauding and maintaining that ignorance indicates some kind of strength or positive thing.

I couldn't help but think that, in some form or fashion, both of these women (white) seem to be confirming some of Dr. Mills' conceptualizations about an epistemology of ignorance.

He wrote about the substitution of ignorance for "knowledge" in regard to race but he also made mention (as does Cori Wong) that maybe there is an epistemology of ignorance for each manifestation of group dominance/subordination.

There's ignorance (masquerading as "knowledge") associated with white people vs people of color, there's an ignorance associated with men vs women, there's an ignorance associated with heterosexuals vs non-heterosexuals and on and on.

In each configuration of social domination directed toward a subordinated group noted in this post, the members of the more powerful group claim that they don't have to "know" that which they don't "know" and that their their "unknowing" is actually a good thing...either because it is "unbiased" or it is an exercise of "freedom".

There's something sort of Orwellian (think doublespeak) about all this...and...like I said...spooky. Humans sort of frighten me vis a vis their attitudes and behaviors toward Earthlings not identified as humans.

And, even more unsettling (spooky) maybe, is the fact that more and more I am rather frightened by white people.

Notice that I am situated as being in each of these groups (human, white...plus, jeez, I'm also situated as male and cisgendered and heterosexual)...and that is deeply uncomfortable to me. Because...each/all of those groups are situated as dominant and there seems to be a pervasive epidemic of unfounded prideful superiority coupled with a serious and persistent embracing of ignorance among all of them.

Also note...even though both the folks referenced in the articles I'm writing about are situated as women (a subordinated group) they are raced as white (a dominant group). Their dominant ways of viewing the world are apparently obscuring or suppressing the possible knowings they might have access to as a result of their belonging to a subordinated group. Is this a situation where the bad pushes out the good or power makes you deficient in awareness? 

These two articles made me think about the notion of not knowing what we don't know. It's very unlikely that we'll be able to find out about our not knowing that which we don't know if we maintain the position that our lack of knowing (or our lack of knowing that which we don't know) is a positive or laudable condition. That seems very much like saying "I'm ignorant and proud of it" or "I'm ignorant about being ignorant and I'm proud of it". Or...as Mr. Orwell said...ignorance is strength.

Like I said...some humans (especially those who are raced as white) are spooky.

Dr. Johnson wrote

this in his book:

…the basic features that define patriarchy as a type of society have barely budged, and the women’s movement has stalled in much the same way that the civil rights movement stalled after the hard-won gains of the 1960s.

Thus far, the mainstream women’s movement has concentrated on the relatively less threatening aspects of the liberal agenda. The primary goal has been to allow women to do what men do in the ways that men do it, whether in science, the professions, business, or government. The more serious challenges to patriarchy have been silenced, maligned, and misunderstood for reasons that aren’t hard to fathom. As difficult as it is to change overtly sexist sensibilities and behavior, it is much harder to raise critical questions about how sexism is embedded in major institutions such as the economy, politics, religion, and the family. It is easier to allow women to assimilate into patriarchal society than to question society itself. It is easier to allow a few women to occupy positions of authority and dominance than to question whether social life should be organized around principles of hierarchy, control, and dominance at all, to allow a few women to reach the heights of the corporate hierarchy rather than question whether people’s needs should depend on an economic system based on dominance, control, and competition. It is easier to allow women to practice law than to question adversarial conflict as a mode for resolving disputes and achieving justice. It has even been easier to admit women to military combat roles than to question the acceptability of warfare and its attendant images of patriarchal masculine power and heroism as instruments of national policy. And it has been easier to elevate and applaud a few women than to confront the cultural misogyny that is never far off, waiting in the wings and available for anyone who wants to use it to bring women down and put them in their place.

From The Gender Knot, 1997, Allan G. Johnson, page 13. (I have an older version of the book...it currently is available in a 3rd edition)

The hierarchies we are all squeezed into (and uphold by our knowing and/or oblivious actions and/or silent complicity) rarely are challenged by the excellent question he asks: "Do we really want a society that is based on dominance and control and the valuing of some lives more than other lives?"

Dr. Johnson doesn't live vegan (from what I've learned about him so far) yet that question he poses is one that addresses the functioning of every system of oppression...including speciesism.

From what I've been able to grasp over the past couple of years is that a tremendous amount of identifying and theorizing and conceptualizing of systems of domination has been accomplished...mostly by black feminists and anti-racist advocates. These systems...which involve all of us, sometimes as oppressors and sometimes as oppressed, are often "normalized"  (e.g., 'Tradition') and made invisible.

One of the purposes of normalizing and/or invisibling is to decrease the possibility that these systems are recognized and understood and discussed and debated...and maybe interrupted or dismantled. Heck...if you don't know about something and it is not comprehended (as oppressive) then the likelihood that you'll do anything about it is pretty low. 

I was recently in a setting where folks were assigned to groups of four and each group was asked to draw a line representing a continuum and place the various racial groups on that continuum ranging from least valued/powerful to most valued/powerful. All the groups placed black folks on the least powerful side of the line and white folks on the most powerful side with other racial groupings somewhere in between those two extremes.

The most interesting part of the exercise came when a young Native American woman talked about how doing the exercise was very uncomfortable. The discussion revealed that the discomfort came from making visible that which everyone knew (all groups placed blacks on the least powerful side and whites on the most powerful side) but everyone was uneasy with being open about this and talking about it. Breaking the silence triggered discomfort.

That phenomenon of everyone knowing something but not making that knowing open and talking about it exemplifies invisibling. The discomfort of being open and overt about what "everyone knows" is one of the forces used to maintain invisibility and invisibility is one of the prime ways that "everyday" or "normal" oppression maintains its power.

You could do the same sort of exercise by using groups such as sexual orientation or gender or species or ability or age and...it's likely that most of you could predict how those group members would be placed on a continuum of least to most powerful/valued and...it's likely that doing those exercises would result in discomfort or unease. Because...you're breaking the silence...you're interrupting the power of invisibility.

     

Interesting, eh? We all "know" that certain groups of humans (gender, race, age, etc) are valued less than others and we all "know" that various groups of living beings (humans or other Earthlings) are denied rights and/or restricted in their freedom...or are discouraged or prevented from accessing societal resources and on and on.

We all know these things but we tend to avoid talking about it...discouraged either by our own sense of discomfort and unease or...if we persist in trying to discuss such stuff...we'll often find ourselves discouraged from talking about such shared knowings by other people.That's how invisibility works.

If you're a white person, try talking to another white person about race/racism. I suspect that if your own sense of discomfort doesn't get in your way...you're likely to be end up being encouraged to shut up by the other person. That which we all know but participate in silencing are usually the very aspects of our social structure that are the most odious and harmful.

Whew...invisibling is insidiously and amazingly effective. Of course oppressive structures are much more complex than I've addressed here and there are other factors that maintain them in addition to invisibility...but invisibling is something that most of us engage in and therefore we can access it and challenge it ourselves...if we so choose.

Do be aware though...that oppression is potent stuff and when it is challenged strongly enough it will reveal itself in all its awfulness.

Oppression is, in the end, maintained by violence or threat of violence and challenging it always carries the potential to evoke that usually hidden aspect. Breaking silence around those who are invested in maintaining oppression can be risky in ways that go beyond personal discomfort. It can be dangerous because it might be met with ostracism, avoidance or...at the ultimate extreme...physical violence. 

Dr. Johnson is writing about the oppressive structure called patriarchy and it is especially difficult to grapple with...in part because of the aspect of it that's shown in this graphic.

That intimate association makes disentangling the factors involved in patriarchy (and sexism) really really confusing and tricky.

The graphic below lets us know that intimate association isn't the only aspect of patriarchal oppression that is convoluted and complex.

One of the ways to lose yourself when trying to comprehend oppression is to not consider historical factors and/or identity aspects. Each group targeted by oppression has its own unique history and...none of these groups are monolithic...by that I mean each member of a particular group will have their own unique experience of how oppression plays out in their life and among the factors that will influence how they experience that oppression will be their ethnic and/or racial grouping. 

There is no woman who exists who is not also assigned to a racial group...just like there is no member of a racial group who isn't assigned to some sex group...(as well as being in some class and being of a certain age and some particular ability level, etc.) hence...it can be profoundly misleading to think about oppression as a single factor sort of thing (think intersectionality).

Now...there's no way in hell I have the capacity to keep all these factors in mind simultaneously, therefore I often think in shortcuts or by using words like "woman" that actually always encompass other aspects of lived experience (like race, age, class, history, etc.). But...if I lose sight of the fact that I'm using a shortcut word that collapses together lots of other important factors...that's when confusion and lousy thinking sits in. And...I do plenty of that...but...hopefully less than I used to.

This sort of "forgetting" is something that happened to what is sometimes called the 2nd wave of the feminist movement. It "forgot" some factors and inadvertently fell into mostly only theorizing about and advocating for...white middle class heterosexual women. It was trying to oppose oppression and stumbled into being a source of oppression itself...by silencing and ignoring the experiences of women who weren't raced as white and/or who weren't middle class and/or who weren't heterosexual.

What is called Black Feminism challenged 2nd wave feminism and triggered a tremendous amount of re-thinking and re-conceptualizing about the various ways that oppression works. It is within the Black Feminist tradition that the notion of intersectionality arose and intersectionality is probably one of the most potent theoretical tools ever in terms of being able to make visible many of the dynamics of the operation of oppression. If you want to become more familiar with the one of the origins of the Black Feminist movement...you can read the most excellent Combahee River Collective Statement here.

See what I mean about this stuff being complex?

But...the great thing about all this is that it might make my head hurt to try to wrap my mind around it...yet it doesn't injure my spirit...in fact it often lifts and liberates that part of me. That's totally different than what oppression does...to everyone...oppression injures the spirits of both those who oppress and it injures the spirits (and often the bodies too) of those who are targeted by oppression. It isn't good for anyone even though it might be seductive to think so (thinking that it is good for the oppressors is one of the seriously insidious and dangerous aspects of it).

And you thought this was simple, right? All ya gotta do is save the animals, right?

Nope, sorry, it's a lot tougher than that. Oppression has been operating in a whole bunch of ways for a whole bunch of centuries...that's not an accident. This stuff called oppression is tough to figure it out and to effectively stop it...we gotta figure it out.

I'll end this thing (I didn't intend to write this much) by quoting a wonderful dedication I ran across in a book about feminism. The title of the book is "We Were Feminists Once" by Andi Zeisler. 

The dedication reads: "To my sweet Harvey -- May your generation be the one that finally figures this shit out."

Is that not nifty? I hope Harvey's generation gets it done...in the meantime it is incumbent on all of us to struggle with trying to figure it out and to interrupt oppression where we can...while being aware that oppression has persisted, in part, because often efforts to oppose it resulted in recreating oppression elsewhere. This is really really nasty and insidious stuff.