Discombobulate...

is defined here as an "Americanism" that originated sometime in the early 1800s. It is a word described as a; "fanciful alteration of discompose or discomfort."

Note...I'm writing this entry mainly directed at readers who are raced as white. I've become painfully aware that most of us white people are woefully in need of consciousness raising when it comes to racial matters. White people who haven't spent quite a bit of time and study are only superficially acquainted with race. Hence, this post might seem pretty elementary and obvious to anyone who has a fair degree of racial literacy...which...because of lived experience would probably include most people of color. Also, I'm white and grappling with all this so my degree of comprehension about race and racial matters is limited and flawed.

For those who seek to make sense of our world and society through vegan comprehendings...you may have ongoing instances of being discombobulated as you encounter the routinized "normal" destructive absurdities served up to you by we humans and our treatment of our sister/brother Earthlings. Situations where someone tells you they "love" animals while they are eating a hamburger made from the flesh of a dead cow. And...these absurd juxtapositions of contradictory behaviors and/or thinkings are accepted as both "normal"...as "common sense".

It 'discombobulates' me to consider just how much horrible suffering and harm we routinely can engage in, be complicit in, unknowingly support with our consumption habits, with our everyday patterns of living and at the same time firmly believe we are "good" people doing little or no harm. Even when we know everything we need to know to comprehend what we're really doing. It's way too easy and convenient to be unknowing and oblivious.

The ease and the automaticity of complicity scares me. I spent many years as a non-vegan and believing all the while that I was behaving kindly and even compassionately toward beings not identified as human. When I first began to comprehend these contradictions I was (and still am to some degree) having experiences like those depicted in the image above.

That vegan discombobulation began some years ago, I've lived with it for some time now so it's not new...it's not any less unsettling...but it is familiar.

Here's the thing though...if I can be lulled into thinking I'm a "good" person in terms of my behavior toward animals...while actually engaging in harmful practices and upholding a system that exploits them...if I can be oblivious there...then I have to wonder whether there are other aspects of how I live and think and comprehend that promotes and upholds harm to other victims. I have to wonder about that, don't I? What if I'm being an "accidental a**hole" elsewhere?

Fast forward to now...once again...a feeling of disorientation is scrambling my being. This time it isn't associated with human dealings with Earthlings who aren't identified as human...it's associated with that strange and bizarre stuff called race (which isn't unconnected to how we think about and behave toward animals). And...race, racism, racial literacy...these things are quite complex and difficult to comprehend. Partially because our system of socialization culture devotes much energy and ingenuity to keeping this stuff hidden or invisible.

One of the difficulties (among many) with getting some measure of comprehension has to do with the fact that the white dominated cultural conditioning that we're all influenced by encourages us to believe that race isn't a problem. Or...if it is a problem it's just because of a few "bad" white people...you know...those goobers who might wear sheets and pointy hats. All you have to have is "good" intentions and you're good to go if you're white. Right? Nope...sorry...it's much much trickier than that.

An example, I recently visited a website wherein a young person (African-American) had written something to the effect that the current racist and anti-immigration stances being openly promoted by presidential candidates weren't something new in these United States but were rather exemplifications of what has been a core organizing principle for this nation from its beginning.

One response to this, by a man raced as white, was something to the effect that the person writing this piece obviously had a fundamental misunderstanding of racism and that the problem had to do with economic class. I read that response...and then read it again...and my head started to feel as if it might disintegrate or something. I had to go away from the computer and later come back to see if maybe I had hallucinated the response. I hadn't.

The way this young woman above looks approximates how I felt when I read that response. Hell, I still feel that way. I'm off balance and can't seem to find any place to stand mentally that doesn't feel distorted or unsteady. This happened several weeks ago and I'm still struggling with it.

Part of what contributed to my befuddlement is that I was reading a book by the historian David Roediger titled Black on White. The book is a compilation of writings by black authors on the nature and manifestations of white consciousness and white behaviors about race. Some of these authors are still alive and working, others are from earlier periods dating as far back as 1830.

One of the repeated themes that occurs is that white people often like to "explain" race and racism to black people. As if black people...who are the targets of racism and racist actions perpetrated by white people just don't "understand" the nature of racism or what race is or what are racist behaviors.

This is very much similar (not identical, I know, but similar) to a man explaining to a woman that she doesn't know what sexism is nor does she understand what is meant by the concept or nature of sexist behaviors. Can the perpetrator of harm (or a member of the perpetrating group) explain the "fundamental nature" of that harm to the victim? Even the idea of such a thing points to a bizarre disconnect from reality. 

I have no idea of how to express...in words...my experience of astonishment and discombobulation. I don't. I'm flailing around here but I'm in no way able to express this in words that even approach how unsettling this was...and is.

Chris Rock is quoted in this piece of writing as saying that white people are maybe a little less "crazy" now than before. By his use of that ableist term "crazy", I think he is meaning that white people are absent strong contact with actual lived experience or are lacking adequate comprehension of reality...and maybe now they're a little less disconnected. I suspect that, in many ways, we white people are still just as disconnected and clueless...but we're not as overt and obvious about it. The social messaging that maintains our disconnectedness has morphed and evolved to fit current society.

I fumbled around for a few days after seeing the comment about "misunderstanding" racism and then I couldn't help myself...i replied by saying something to the effect that maybe his perspective as a white man sort of disqualified or precluded or at the very least made it problematic for him to make an assertion that the author "misunderstood" racism...given that the author would have had a lived experience of being targeted by racism and he, the commenter, since he was a white man, would not have had such an experience...indeed...he would have been the recipient of privileges because of his race. 

Predictably (duh)...he was offended and incensed and allowed as to how his "personhood" had nothing to do with it (see the paragraph about a man explaining sexism to a woman) and that I was just being condescending and immature and I should shut up. I generally avoid further engagement with people who opt for anger and belligerence when they're challenged. I haven't had much luck with such undertakings so I took his advice and didn't respond.

During this time I also saw something written on the Addicting Info website that noted that the creator of the Dilbert cartoon strip (a white man) had written something to the effect that it was wrong (and racist, for god's sake) to compare Trump to Hitler. And he said...that Hitler wasn't such a bad guy and that Hitler could accurately be compared to Gandhi or Nelson Mandela. Holy smoke!

It is painful and disturbing (and depressing) to acknowledge that many/most or maybe all of us who are raced as white (and we are all exposed to these teachings of ignorance since they permeate our media and public discourse and education) are lacking some fundamental grounding in reality. As a result of this, when we do attempt to write or talk about race or racial issues we sound buffoonish or we're unintentionally offensive or we otherwise generally make fools of ourselves. (and who knows how else these distortions preclude our being able to think and feel and comprehend accurately and fully...about various aspects of ourselves and others and mother Earth...about everything really)

We've been socialized to be racially illiterate and and that learning is deeply embedded in most white folks. But...remarkably...in the depths of that illiteracy we all seem to have developed strong opinions about race. That's a potent (and dangerous) combination...being ignorant but having strong opinions about those areas of ignorance. 

I referenced a conceptualization by Charles Mills in another post that he termed the "epistemology of ignorance". In that he notes that this sort of operation of comprehension (or absence of comprehension) includes "patterns of localized and global patterns of cognitive dysfunctions" regarding race.

The statement by the commenter I noted above and the notions expressed by the creator of the Dilbert comic strip very well exemplify "cognitive dysfunction" from what I can comprehend. Differing forms of it maybe...I think the Dilbert creator's statements are more easily seen as absurd by most humans...but the notion that a white man is going to "explain" racism to a black person who has a lived life experience of being targeted by racism is also devoid of reality or accurate meaning.

This all scares the hell out of me and is troubling, for many reasons, but one of the primary ones is that I'm just as susceptible to such deranged stuff and as influenced by it as any other white person when it comes to race. (and who knows what else?)

One thing I know is true right now...2 or 3 years ago I might have seen the comment explaining racism to an African-American person by a white man and not been struck by the distorted quality of it (I'm not sure what i would have thought then...I don't think it would have struck me as absurd though)...now it stuns me with its arrogance and patent ridiculousness.

I think that's an improvement...I hope that suggests that I'm successfully interrupting some of my cognitive dysfunctions. But...it also leaves me terribly sad and upset...not only at my own distortings and failings of comprehension...but also at what passes for "normal" in terms of most white people's 'thinking' about race.

I've reached a place where I realize that most humans hold contradictory beliefs and comprehensions toward animals. Not many of us have taken the unsettling step of realizing how horribly we behave toward them. That realization makes me a little uneasy about humans...especially in anything having to do with animals.

Now...I find I'm moving into a place where I glimpse that most (me included) white people are seriously and deeply confused and ignorant about race and racism...while concurrently thinking that we aren't. White people are starting to make me nervous (and yes, I make myself nervous sometimes). I've begun to notice that I feel more comfortable around groups that don't have many white people in them.

All living white people in the U.S. were stuck into a system that teaches (and it often will punish us for not "learning" this obliviousness) us to be racially illiterate. We had no choice about that. But...we have a choice about whether we remain ignorant and unknowing. We have a choice about whether we continue to live and behave as "accidental a**holes".  I'm not going to kid you though...grappling with this stuff is hard...really hard. It is probably the most difficult thing I've ever struggled with. And it just goes on and on. But...there are benefits, not the least of which is that you'll be working toward decreasing your participation in a culturally sanctioned and maintained horror story. And that's a good thing, a desirable thing.


Chris Rock may think white people are a little less deranged than previously...I hope so. As my perspective shifts...I'm just beginning to glimpse just how profoundly deranged we white people have been and are...and it is...well...discombobulating.

Note: any omissions or errors or "accidental a**holiness" in this post is a function of my own lack of comprehension and/or my inadequate ability to clearly express myself. I apologize for them and ask anyone noting such stuff to please let me know and I will endeavor both to listen and and to understand and to modify/correct this post, if needed. Thank you. 

   
 

"Reverse" racism?

Just a little tip for my readers who are racialized as being 'white'. Or...anyone who wants to divest themselves of a fantasy that's often presented as if it were reality. That fantasy is called "reverse" racism.



See...racism cannot be enacted by a group that isn't dominant in the society where they live. Folks who are positioned in subordinated groups can be prejudiced, they can not like people in other groups, they can avoid people in other groups, they can be angry toward individuals not in their group...but...they cannot enact racism toward others because they don't have access to the social power that goes along with being a member of a dominant group.

"Ism" refers to an ideology and ideologies are systems implemented by groups and/or institutions...not individuals.

There's no such thing as "reverse" racism anymore than there's such a thing as "reverse" sexism or "reverse" ableism. The oppressive ideologies represented by the "isms" reference a dominant group targeting a subordinate group and hence...they can't be reversed unless you also reverse the dominant and subordinate groups.

While it might be an interesting sociological experiment if, for instance, every other month people of color controlled all the major institutions in the country or if every other month people not gendered as male controlled all the major institutions in the country...that doesn't happen. Actually, I sort of wish it did...it would make for a very stimulating and fascinating society.

Racism = race prejudice + social power. Sexism = gender prejudice + social power. Got it? You can be prejudiced without social power...but you can't "do" racism or sexism without social power.

Mr. Rahman explains very clearly what would have to occur for "reverse" racism to be possible.

Why write about this here? Well...you can go over to the excellent Aphro-ism blog and read this post that grapples with theorizing about structures of oppression. There Aph Ko writes that: "...animal liberation can't happen until we change the way we understand animal oppression."

I firmly believe that to be true.

And...to grapple with changing that understanding requires being able to somewhat clearly conceptualize and comprehend race and racism as it is enacted in this Eurocentric society. To grapple with understanding race and racism demands some degree of racial literacy...and...whoops...we (white people especially...but everyone is subjected to inaccurate and inadequate information) are socialized to be racially illiterate.

Dr. Breeze Harper very accurately writes: "We are all racialized subjects with racialized consciousnesses that have been born out of a white supremacist racial caste system;...". There's no escaping this...to believe you escape it means you believe you aren't influenced by the society/culture that you were born into and live in. And that's not possible.

We are carefully taught to think and behave in certain ways but we are also taught to be ignorant and illiterate in terms of being able to think about and talk about racial issues. That's why someone can utter the phrase "reverse racism" and believe they are saying something that makes sense. 

That ignorance or illiteracy is one of the principle ways in which the oppressive system known as racism maintains its power. If you can't somewhat accurately conceptualize it and coherently talk about it...it's unlikely that you're going to be able to effectively challenge it, or interrupt it or change it.

No one here in the U.S. had a choice about the teachings of racial illiteracy and ignorance they received from this culture. But...each of us does have a choice about whether we do the work necessary to attempt to overcome that systemic ignorance. We've all been given a mishmash of ignorance and distortions and outright lies about race and racism...and we were told that such was all we needed to understand what was going on around us. Nope...what we were given were tools designed to keep white supremacy and racial illiteracy in place.

So next time you encounter someone who uses the phrase "reverse racism" seriously...realize you're dealing with someone who is evincing racial illiteracy. Maybe you will want to share this video with them.

Here's another resource that provides some good information about "reverse racism". (Note: if you spot any errors or important omissions in this post, let me know please.)

On being creeped out.

I ran across a blog post over on Lee Hall's Vegan Place about Michael Pollan. It triggered a series of thinkings about something I noticed in me when I was a fairly young child. Sometimes I would encounter a human in person or be exposed to them via some electronic medium that let me see them moving and talking...motion pictures or video or live television and I would instantly be creeped out.

What I mean by 'creeped out' is that often I could feel the hair on the back of my neck start to rise and I would experience a strong sense of revulsion, sometimes tinged with fear. It would happen quickly and it would occur before I could assign much meaning to the content of what they might be saying.

Later in this post I'll share some photos of some of these folks who produce that reaction in me. All of these people are some sort of "celebrity" or politician or some sort of "newsmaker" so you might be familiar with one or more of them.

I won't share names or photos of anyone I've met personally  or who aren't "famous" but there have been a few of those too. I never knew quite how to make sense of my reaction until I was well into my late 20s and working at a mental health center where part of our professional tasks was to provide emergency mental health evaluations for the court system.

One day a young white man was brought in for an evaluation and my creep out detector activated as soon as I heard him utter a few sentences. I didn't conduct the evaluation but the clinic director did and later I spent some time talking with him about my reactions because this director was a well experienced psychotherapist who taught me a lot while I worked with him. I trusted him and wanted to know what he thought about my 'creep out' reaction. He said his evaluation of the fellow in question was that he was someone who exhibited psychopathic/sociopathic tendencies or features.  The director said he, himself, had a set of responses that were sometimes activated in him around such folks and he had learned to trust them as a guide and that I was fortunate to be aware of such an alarm system and I shouldn't discount it.

Of course if it was needed and/or important such a reaction must be followed up by the gathering of behavioral history and/or other "evidence" but just in general...in everyday life...I learned trust the reaction and go from there.

The first time I remember having such a strange and strong feeling was when I was a youngster and saw an old timey character actor named Lyle Bettger in some movie. The fellow scared me and I couldn't figure out what in heck was going on. He wasn't doing anything or saying anything in the movie to prompt such a revulsion..but there it was.

Lyle Bettger

You may not recognize him but he played small roles in a number of movies in the 1950s and...whenever I saw him in a movie...ding ding ding went my creep out detector. I had no idea why though. Weird, eh? For whatever reason...Lyle spooked me. Another actor from movies I saw when I was a kid who repulsed me was Ronald Reagan. I was 'creeped out' by him from the first time I saw him in a movie. It was sort of like a nightmare coming to life when he got into politics and ended up being the president.

Here are some images of folks, who, over the years have elicited the same sort of immediate spooked repulsion in me that I mean by the phrase "creeped out". This reaction always happens immediately in me...I've never had the experience of it coming up after lengthy exposure to anyone even though I have had a few experiences of being around someone who eventually did or said things that made me be very leery of them.

Tom Cruise

Oliver North

Michael Pollan

Ronald Reagan

Margaret Thatcher

Notice that one of the images is of the subject of the blog post I linked to at the beginning...Michael Pollan. I clearly remember seeing him being interviewed on TV some years ago and having my creep detector activate...I didn't know who he was or what he was touting...I just knew that he sort of spooked me. If you are unfamiliar with him, read the post about him. He's a creepy yucko who says that if you treat them sort of kindly...it's not a bad thing to kill a living being...as long as you've been nice to them. Retch.

What to make of my 'creep out' reaction...heck if I know. It's my own personal thingee...maybe you have something like that too. Let me know if you do.

Looking at these images I notice that most of them are white men...I rarely have that sort of thing happen regarding women or men who aren't raced as white. What does that mean? I dunno...one of my speculations is that white men maybe have a greater frequency of sicko/creepos in them than do other groups. That's only a guess though.Well...a guess but one I have a fair amount of confidence in.

And...this is the part that is seriously significant to me...I've never had that sort of reaction to a living being that wasn't a human. No animal (excepting the human ones) has ever weirded me out like that. I've been afraid or fearful of some animals but not creeped out and repulsed by them. I'm prone to suspect that most (maybe all) of the sicko/creepos on mother Earth are of the human type...mostly white men type. Again, just a guess (but, a good one I betcha).

The actor Tom Cruise was responsible for some mild arguing back and forth for a time between my wife and myself. He used to be a big favorite of hers and when she would go on about how much she liked him I would say that I thought he was a creep...which would bother her and she would endeavor to change my mind. All those efforts on her part stopped when he acted like a fool on the Oprah Winfrey show way back in 2005. I never did have to listen to any stories about what a hot shot he was after that. It's nice to have your intuitions confirmed.

The biggest confirmation for my creep detector came from Ronald Reagan...and...that's also the most bothersome incidence of it. A lot of people virtually worshiped him as a "leader" and president. Anyone who gives a speech in support of his desire to be president in the county in Mississippi where 3 civil rights activists were murdered and...in the speech indicates his support for "state's rights" is using code words to tell you he is a white supremacist. He was a trashy white man who caused a lot of harm...all the while smiling like a buffoon.

Obviously my drummer and the drummer a lot of other people pay attention to are quite different. 

I suspect all beings have some sort of detector like this in them...I don't "know" that, I just suspect it. It might be akin to something Fritz Perls once wrote. He said that everyone had a built in crap detector and that the biggest difference among humans regarding this detector was whether they paid attention to it or not. Who knows...but I always have liked that he said that. If you don't know who Fritz Perls is...he was a psychotherapist who was both seriously gifted and also pretty zany and unusual.

He was one of my "heroes" when I was learning the art/craft of psychotherapy. He...truth be known...was probably something of an a**hole in person...but...he could dang sure do some effective psychotherapy from time to time. He wasn't much prone to suffer fools gladly and had several rather infamous incidents where he punctured what he perceived as pomposity in some well known psychology type of folks. He probably harmed his own 'career' because of this...but that was one of the things I liked about him.

Anyway...I've always wanted to write something about Lyle Bettger (what a name, eh?) and when I read the post about Michael Pollan it all sort of came together. It connects nicely too with veganism in that, as far as I can tell, most or maybe all of the creeps on this planet happen to be human. More reason to not hurt our sister/brother Earthlings who aren't human...they don't do creep. 

(please note that I don't know anything at all about Mr. Bettger as an individual...he may have been a really nice guy...and please note that I firmly believe everyone else whose image is in this post is or was...a genuine creep)

 

My feelings were hurt...

and I was upset...but...I came to see my rejection and banishment from a vegan group as a gift and as motivation for more learning. Hey...when you get knocked down it's ok to lay there for awhile...yet eventually you have to get back up. But that hasn't come easy...it hasn't been a stroll in the park on a sunny day and I sure haven't whistled a happy tune during the process. 

It was just about one year ago that I objected to a member's facebook posting on the page of the vegan organization I co-founded. The post linked to a video ostensibly advocating for veganism...but it was done using racist performances by white people that "humorously" caricatured and mocked a false media created version of a small subgroup of African Americans.

My objection was seen by my four white female co-founders as problematical and unwarranted and not correct...and...while they didn't say it out loud...it was apparent they thought I was a whack job.

What played out next was not pretty...or fun. My stance was that since some African American vegans found the video offensive then that settled the question. Nope, according to the other founders they could make the call as to whether the performance was racist or not...even though they were not members of the targeted group, even though they were members of the offending group and even though members of the targeted group had identified the video as offensive and racist. That sort of arrogance is rather stunning when you run into it.

Identifying or perceiving racism is often difficult for people, especially white people. We have all been trained and taught diligently from birth to not notice...to be oblivious or to ignore to such harms...and...we white people don't experience it. In addition, we've been exposed to countless images and narratives normalizing derogatory notions about people of color...and that support and reinforce "goodness" of whiteness.

We see these fake and false and misleading tropes in all forms of national media and discourse, in movies and magazines and social media...all on a 24/7 basis. They seem "normal" and commonsensical to us instead of being clearly identified as distortions of reality which are supportive of a white supremacist worldview. We are taught, carefully and painstakingly, to take in and believe the messages and to act on them and at the same time we are taught to behave and think as if the messages themselves did not exist. The content of the messages are promoted as "reality" and the messages themselves are made invisible.

It's insidiously effective. We are told that untruths are truth, unreality is reality and that the messages selling us these distortions do not exist. We swim in and are immersed in a sea and we are told that we are not wet...and most white people believe this and even some people of color succumb to these delusions. Don't believe it? Go take an Implicit Association Test and find out for yourself. Many of the minoritized (and denigrated) groups that are targeted by these invisible messages are represented in these tests. Go learn what you've been learning but didn't realize you had learned.

For most white people, unless someone is wearing a white robe and burning a cross or unless someone uses an obvious racial slur...racism often escapes conscious notice. If it is clearly and unequivocally racist...then "good" white people and people of color condemn such doings...but if it is ambiguous or subtle...then it can get...well...ugly. Conflict can arise because people who are targeted by racist images or actions are generally much more aware of and sensitive to such awful stuff. White people tend to be much more oblivious to it or tolerant toward this crap.

The remarkable thing is that most of us white people here in North America are virtually racially illiterate...but...that doesn't stop us from thinking we know what is going on nor does our ignorance prevent our having strong opinions about race and racist behaviors. Mostly ignorant, harmful and erroneous ones.

As I watched the four of them message back and forth regarding their thinkings on this situation...I sort of felt like the cat looks in this image.

I was stunned and amazed at some of the things that were being said. The process was depressing and educational and awful all at the same time.

A decision point for me was prompted when one of the women said she thought anything but "blatant" racist postings should allowed as long as the post advocated for animals. When I saw that statement...and I saw none of the others objecting to or condemning such a stance...I sort of felt like Don Knotts looks in the photo below.

That ugly sentence with its despicable meaning, along with some others...for instance that I was too sensitive or "passionate" about racist behaviors...made me decide that I really didn't want to continue my association with these white people if this was how they were proposing to think and behave.

I wanted to sever my connection with them but I also wanted to advise all of the group members that I was leaving and why I was leaving. I wasn't interested in pointing fingers or putting anyone down (well, maybe a little) ...but I wanted the members to be advised about the difference of opinion between myself and the rest of the founders and why I was leaving the group. (Since there is only one of me and there were four of them...I figured there was little chance of their deciding to leave the group...although that would have been probably ok with me.) It seemed only fair to me for the group members to be made aware of the unspoken orientation of their group "leaders" and my disagreement with that orientation.

How to present this to the group without being divisive? My suggestion was that we craft a statement about my leaving and why but that all of us would agree to the wording of the statement before presenting it to the group. That way I figured it would be something that didn't demonize anyone or slant the situation in anyway that was objected to by the five of us...and it would be informative for the group members.

The image above, while a little dramatic, essentially captures their response to my suggestion about a mutually agreed upon statement. That absolutely was not something they were willing to do...and...they decided that I might say or do something that would subvert their stance of silence so they removed me from an administrator position in the group and then removed me from the group altogether.

Wow...talk about "white fragility" in action. Few better examples can be found. I can only presume they were so fearful and reluctant to openly expose their viewpoints that silencing me seemed prudent to them.

It's just this kind of bizarre obliviousness that led a number of black vegans to start up the excellent website called Black Vegans Rock. It's just this kind of avoidance and silencing that websites (among others) like The Sistah Vegan Project and Aphro-ism and The Funcrunch Files and Striving with Systems work at overcoming among the community of vegan advocates.

If you step outside the sources of online vegan activism to sites that seek specifically to interrupt racism, the options expand exponentially for accessing the voices of those who strive to avoid being enclosed and defined by the destructive mentally and emotionally debilitating vacuum of whiteness.

White dominated vegan groups tend to mirror of white dominated culture...and such culture here in the U.S. is structurally white supremacist in nature. Both U.S. culture and white dominated vegan groups usually overtly disavow racist imagery, actions, stereotypes and beliefs...and also routinely invoke and make use of racist imagery, actions, stereotypes and beliefs. Welcome to denial and distortion and disconnection.

But...if you think about it...what else would you expect in a nation that declared its desire for independence with the powerful (but sexist) and eloquent statement:  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..." all the while enslaving human beings and continuing to do so for centuries while excusing that enslavement by maintaining the "inferiority" of those who were enslaved. We began as a nation that talked one thing while doing another. And...we haven't stopped yet.

It is confusing and misleading and damned complex and difficult to sort out...especially if you've lived in a bubble of whiteness most of your life. The problem of racism in the U.S. is a problem created by and maintained by white people...and white people have the responsibility to fix it.



Yup, being disbelieved and ejected from the group was hurtful and upsetting. But...it served to signal me that I was onto something of significance. If bringing attention to the problematical aspects of a type of "animal advocacy" could so easily result in rejection and silencing...well...that's strongly suggestive that something is going on that many (white people) do not want to investigate and delve into. Doing so would violate some of the most powerful and ubiquitous rules that enable this white supremacist society...thou shalt not talk about it or investigate it or attempt to interrupt it. If you do you will be rejected, ejected and silenced.

So...I gotta give thanks for the gift of rejection. It has helped me to grasp that being in solidarity with all Earthlings requires struggling to recognize and to opt out of capitalistic patriarchal white supremacy in my thinking and my doing and to resist and interrupt it where and when I can.

I have to listen to the voices of people of color, of people in all marginalized groups and center their knowings and perceptions because they are the rightful experts on recognizing elements of this massive deception. Because otherwise...whether I want to or not...I will recreate oppression. And...I'm sorry to say...so will you unless you do the hard and painful work of opting out. It is, however, definitely better that I feel discomfort or even pain trying to understand and stop this system than to be someone who causes unwarranted pain to others.

There is another benefit to this effort...besides that of becoming less hurtful/harmful...and it is a phenomenal one. Becoming acquainted with the writings and thinkings and perceptions and art and poetry of people of color and people assigned to other marginalized groups has been and continues to be an incredible and enriching experience. We white people routinely are shunted away from and aren't exposed to (or avoid) these sorts of sources...excepting celebrities and superstars. I'll write more about this later, for now I just want to alert you to the fact that, for example, there are authors who are raced as African American and Native American and Asian American and Latina/o American and and and who are phenomenally talented and excellent that...if you are white and straight and cisgendered...you may well never have heard of. Their insights are much richer and deeper and more comprehensive than most "mainstream" white authors...partially because they usually are not laboring under the edicts to avoid noticing structural racism or capitalistic patriarchal white supremacy. It is genuinely amazing and staggering to encounter their knowings and wisdoms. Wow and double wow. 

I asked myself

a question that I had never asked myself before...at least not in the way it popped up inside me yesterday. I'm still grappling with all that was stirred up by that question.

A little context is called for so you can get some feel for the situation in which this question came up. Yesterday I attended an all day presentation/panel discussion that was titled "Decolonize the Movement". It was an educational event presented prior to the beginning of this year's Take Root conference here in Norman on the OU campus. The facilitators were Sandra Criswell and Ashley Nicole McCray.

Standing are Ms. Criswell and Ms. McCray.

If I heard correctly, Ms. Criswell noted that she is racialized as white/Filipina and Ms. McCray is identified in this story as Lakota/Absentee Shawnee. I'm specifying how they are raced because this is seriously important in regard to the experiences of lived lives. Racial identity is important to all of us in terms of our life experiences...whether we realize and/or acknowledge that or not. This is especially true here in the U.S....even though we often like to pretend it isn't. I'm racialized as white so many of my life experiences are much different than theirs.

The main presenters were Alecia Onzahwah-Saddler (Absentee Shawnee) and Tosawi Saddler (Chippewa) who are creators of an organization named Indigenize, Inc.

Alecia Onzahwah-Saddler

Their talk was about a little known (little known to those who aren't identified as Indigenous or Native American or Indian) U.S. government program (this program also took place in Canada) that was a deliberate and calculated effort to eradicate Native American cultures. This was done by forcibly removing Indian children from their parents and making them attend boarding schools, many of which were operated by various Christian religious organizations. The first "school" was established in 1860 and at their peak there were more than 450 in operation. This practice did not totally end in the U.S. until a law was passed in 1978 that "gave" the right to American Indians to protect and preserve their traditional religions and cultural practices. 

Just in case you might not comprehend the horror of this, the definition of genocide includes instances of forcibly transferring the children of one group to another group. Just so you know....just so you understand...up until 1978 here in the U.S....genocidal acts directed against Native Americans were legal and were ongoing.

In this post, I'm not going to delve into the atrocities and suffering and deaths that occurred in these "boarding schools" but I will tell you that I'm personally acquainted with one woman who was separated from her family and was sent to one of these schools. There she was beaten if she slipped and spoke any words in her Tribal language. There she was forcibly inculcated with the "Christian" religion and taught that Native Americans and their culture were inferior and she was taught to be ashamed of being Indian. All paid for by the taxpayers of the United States. I know this woman, I have known her for many years...I write this to stress that these awfuls are not "history"...this is not the distant past.

Ok...I'm going to stop writing about that now...not because it doesn't deserve much more...but because I want to offer the question that occurred to me. My stopping in no way suggests or implies or means that boarding school atrocities don't cry for much more attention and awareness. It just means I'm changing the focus right now.

While listening to the presenters and the facilitators and the attendees at this conference...it came to me. What if this had happened to me or what if this had happened to my mother or my father or my grandmother or my grandfather or or or.

What if this were the case and some white person (understand that all of the decisions made and all of the government departments that enacted these horrors were created and controlled by white men...and white women) came to me and asked that I "go vegan" because animals were suffering and dying? What if?

And...this white person asking me to "go vegan" was oblivious to the suffering and misery that had been inflicted on me or my family by white people. And this white person had never protested or objected to how me or my family had been treated by their white government.

And this white person had no understanding or empathy or sympathy or repulsion and upset at what my family or group or tribe had been through and thought all that horror was some distant and past thing...if they even thought about it at all. And...here they are...asking me to be concerned about and worry about and to not harm innocent animals. What would I think about them and what they were presenting to me? What would I think about their compassion and their caring? What would I think about their priorities? What would I think about their comprehension of my lived life?

What would I think about some white vegan who maybe belonged to a white dominated vegan group and that group's singular effort that even faintly hinted at cognizance of these horrors was some sort of brief statement on their website or facebook page like this one: "Postings using abusive language (speciesist, racist, sexist, etc) will be deleted...".

What would I think about this kind and concerned vegan who thought that "boarding schools" were just "history" and not important now even though the victims of such crimes were still living and suffering from what happened, much less the suffering of the families of such victims?

What would I think about any white person who had made no effort to educate themselves or to urge that their white government acknowledge its atrocities and wrongs?

I can't help but imagine...that in many respects...I would find their request to be insulting and absurd. I can't but imagine that in some way I would think they were deranged and out of touch with reality...with truth about who they are and what people with their skin privilege have done...and continue to do to people who aren't identified as white.

Wouldn't that be like some guy whose brother beat me up a week ago coming to me and asking me to not hurt animals? And the guy doing the asking doesn't mention his brother who beat me up or the beating I took and ignores my injuries but wants me to be concerned with and worried about animals. And if I want to know what about the brother who beat me up...the guy then says...well that's history or says, I'm just concerned about the animals, or he says...well that wasn't me that beat you up, I'm not responsible. What then? What would I think? Would I think that guy was compassionate and concerned and kind even though he made no offer to help me with my injuries or to ensure his brother didn't hurt me again? (note: what we white people have done...and continue to do...to people of color is much more atrocious and vicious and devastating than a beating...I'm only using a physical attack as an example)

I guess what I'm trying (badly, my apologies for my poor communication skills) to express here is that we white people who are vegan (or aren't vegan for that matter) are way too often ignorant and oblivious to the lived realities of people who are not white. And that maybe, just maybe, we white people need to work on becoming...well...less 'stupid'. I don't mean that derogatorily (although god knows we white people are certainly deserving of derogation) so much as I mean it in the sense of being stupefied...which, I'm sorry to say, is the "normal" state for the majority of white people here in the U.S...I include me.

If I want to effectively advocate for animals, I'm obligated to be aware of the human society I live in and cognizant and conscious of the lived lives of the humans in that society. If I want to object to and protest against harm to others...I am obligated to comprehend the harm and hurt that exists both historically and as it occurs in the present. And I'm obligated to resist and object to that harm and hurt and to interrupt it whenever I can. Otherwise...I'm risking being foolish...and maybe insulting...no matter how "well intentioned" I might be. Children are expected to be unknowing and oblivious...not grown-ups.

This post exemplifies my white stupification in that yesterday was the first time I ever asked myself the question I'm writing about here...at least in the way I asked it of myself and in the way it resonated all through me when it rose up in me. I'm embarrassed and appalled that I hadn't asked it of myself before now. The devastation against Native Americans and other people of color has been going on for centuries here...and I'm just now asking this question?

I'm struggling...and it is difficult...to decolonize my mind and viewpoint and yesterday just re-affirmed that I still have much work to do. My culture and my ancestors along with my own inattention and obliviousness has done a hell of a good job of making me into an oblivious and lamentable fool...thanks Mom and Dad...thanks Grandma and Grandpa! (sarcasm) And 'thanks' to me to for being flim flammed and fooled by all of the absurdities that pass for truths in my culture.

I do request that anyone not racialized as white who sees problems with this post...please let me know. I will listen. If you're raced as white and see problems...please let me know too...but...be aware...you might be suffering from white fragility...cuz we white folks are pretty illiterate when it comes to race.

The analogy I offer is only an analogy...a guess...a speculation. I have no way of actually knowing what it would feel like to have a member of a group that inflicted vicious and unwarrented harm to me or my family over generations ask me to offer compassion to another group all the while they are evincing little or no understanding of what their group has done to me and mine. They would have to tell what that was like...I can only guess...and my guess is that it would be bizarre and disorienting...and even scarey.


Note: I'm in no way diminishing or minimizing the suffering and misery of animals...I'm just focusing on a little bit different aspect of vegan advocacy. Nor am I in any way suggesting that oppressed groups of humans who aren't Native Americans don't suffer or hurt or experience harm...one of the really really hard things about trying to write about groups of humans who suffer because of white people is that there are so many of them and their suffering is so immense and on going and long standing that there is simply no way to even try to express it all in one place at one time. Or at least I'm incapable of doing it. My apologies for my deficiencies.

Grandpa's racism?

I came into young adulthood during the civil rights era in the U.S. Legal segregation seemed to be the single most significant obstacle to racial justice in the U.S. The photo below is of a classroom at the University of Oklahoma (where I did my undergraduate work).

The kind of reality distorting thinking by white people that created the appalling and absurd situation depicted in the photograph hasn't just evaporated. White people had to have been profoundly cognitively warped to create such a classroom configuration. It is nice to believe that such bizarre thinking can be abolished by laws. But such powerful and widespread delusional thinking doesn't just evaporate simply because of changing legalities.

I ran across an article written by Roger Wilkins that did a good job of summing up what many black citizens thought during that era.

In our naivete, we believed that the power to segregate was the greatest power that had been wielded against us. It turned out that our expectations were quite wrong. The greatest power turned out to be what it had always been: the power to define reality where blacks are concerned and to manage perceptions and therefore arrange politics and culture to reinforce those definitions. When we were segregated, we hadn’t ground into our considerations the nation’s long history of racial subordination. From the dark and cramped box of segregation, the rest of the country out there looked bright and shiny. We thought the only thing it lacked was us. We didn’t understand then how normal a part of national life racism had become.

I admit to being besotted with that same naivete he writes about. Hey...legal segregation is forbidden...things will work themselves out now...right?

Nope...they didn't. Read Jonathan Kozol's The Shame of the Nation or read this article. The problem wasn't just, as noted above, segregation...it was the power of being able to define reality by white people for people of color. It was the power of white people being able to deceive themselves, via an epistemology of ignorance, that there was no race "problem" now that civil rights legislation had been enacted.

If you believe there's no problem...you might want to read this article detailing a study that showed that white men with a criminal record were more likely to be selected for employment than a black man with no criminal record...even when job qualifications were the same.

Here in the U.S. we have a race "problem"...and...that problem is created, conceived and enacted by white people. I'm one of those white people and we victimize both the targets of our denial based delusions as well as ourselves. We corrupt our own abilities to accurately perceive and understand ourselves and reality.

I came to young adulthood in a U.S. that was devoted to (the white people anyway...and they controlled (and still do) all the major institutions that publicly define 'reality' like the media, the school systems, etc) a type of racism that's called Jim Crow racism. That's what I mean by Grandpa's racism.

Currently the most prevalent type of racism is sometimes called color-blind racism (an ablest term...my apologies) or aversive racism or symbolic racism.

Jim Crow racism, in part, is/was characterized by burning crosses, white hoods, lynchings, the common use of racial slurs and legal segregation. Other horrors were "normal".

Symbolic racism is characterized by notions like the idea that blacks no longer face much prejudice or discrimination and that any problems associated with being black have to do with the failings of blacks themselves. This stuff is closely aligned with the thinking that says: "I don't see color". Joe Feagin, a sociology professor, suggests that white racist attitudes haven't changed all that much it just that whites have learned to behave and talk one way in public and differently in private. In other words...instead of changing our ways we just became more overtly dishonest as well as more self-deceptive.

The belief that racism virtually disappeared is really sort of magical when you think about it. Establishing and enforcing a white supremacist regime for centuries and somehow making it all disappear and become not a problem as the result of changing of a few laws in the 1960s? That sounds almost like a joke...one that isn't funny.

The fact is, as noted here by Ta-Nehisi Coates, that: "white supremacy is not an invention of white people; white people are an invention of white supremacy."

Centuries of crafting attitudes and beliefs about people of color and about white people that supported and sustained unspeakable atrocities and human enslavement and zip zoop...we wiped all that out just like that?

For about 80% of the time the U.S. has existed it has been a white supremacist nation...enforced by law...but somehow we've made all that be unimportant and irrelevant to how things are now for people of color. And...we managed to do all that without formally apologizing...without any system of reconciliation and...best of all...without any compensation or reparations to the descendents of those who were subjected to slavery.

It's simply ridiculous and yet...like many of you...I didn't think about the bizarre absurdity of thinking we could recalibrate our racial mindset with the passage of a few laws...I just believed it.

What does human enslavement and racism and white supremacy have to do with veganism? Go read Syl Ko's writings. Or go watch Aph Ko's video for some insights into the mutually reinforcing aspects of these superficially unrelated ways of oppressing.

If you are just beginning your journey toward comprehending/interrupting the absurdities of racism...it might be helpful for you to read this.

Grandpa's racism was just one version of white supremacy. As soon as it became unacceptable and not "normal" it morphed. It didn't disappear...it only became more adept at hiding itself in plain sight.

Outsiders (like the United Nations working group referenced in an earlier post) easily comprehend it...many who are victims understand it but those of us who are immersed in it and are beneficiaries of it...well...that's a different story. Maybe the biggest obstacle for we who are raced as white is overcoming the falsehood that we think we know or understand this stuff. The first step to learning about something is to know that you don't know.

Most white people think they "know" all they need to know about race and racism. Last year I took the risk of trying to talk to my younger sister about what I was learning and coming to understand about racism. She listened (or appeared to) and said she would read the resources I had provided her and think about it. Some weeks later she emailed and said that while she appreciated what I was presenting to her that she just didn't think it was true and then she went on to allow as to how that all that "stuff" was in the past and that she thought President Obama was just making it worse by even mentioning it.

I had not entertained much hope that she would be able to hear/understand me...but I felt the obligation to try...she is my sister after all. I did wish, that even though she was adverse to admitting ignorance, she would have avoided the remark about President Obama. It was equivalent to hearing someone say that the victim of an unwarranted attack had made the assault "worse" because they said something about what had happened. Her mindset of denial and victim blaming, sadly, exemplifies aspects of the current version of white supremacist worldview.

When we believe absurdities...we are going to make absurd remarks. I love my sister...and she's probably what would be considered to be a "good" white person...but she is effectively clueless about race and is firmly convinced she knows all that is necessary. She wouldn't wear a white hood...but she is a firm pillar in terms of obliviously supporting the white supremacist mindset via denial of its existence.

And that firm conviction of hers is a strong and enduring aspect of why racism is a white people's problem. And that firm conviction of hers is an aspect of white obliviousness. And that firm conviction of hers is part of why this nation...and all of us in it...are in deep doo doo. I say all of us because while people of color aren't the creators of or the maintainers of this mess...they are the targets of it hence the deep derangement of we who are white people harms everyone.

This stuff is heavy and hard and depressing...but...like many delusional horrors...it is so divorced from reality that it becomes almost zany at times. Go read Abagond's post about the "Barbara Bush Award for Deluded Whiteness" and then you can read Chris Rock's article about racism...both provide a little (in a sad way) levity about a really really unfunny thing.

If you're designated as being 'white' and you believe in fairness, if you believe in justice, if you believe in equality then you are obligated to put in the effort and the time and the study to learn about race and racism. If you think you can get by through just being a "good" white person who lives vegan and avoids overt racist acts...you can't. The system is so pervasive and so entrenched that unless you are pushing back against it...knowledgeably...then you are...whether you want to or not...upholding and being complicit in it. It's a mess and it's a pain in the kabooka...but...it's a mess we white people created and it is our job...our obligation...to eradicate the whole unconscionable thing.

My parents and my grandparents and my great grandparents and for generations further back all helped uphold and maintain this ugly and awful system of white supremacy. And so did yours...if you're white. And what they made...we must unmake.

The United Nations says

...and I'm paraphrasing..."hey U.S., you suck in terms of how you treat your citizens that are identified as African Americans...knock it off...and while you're at it you need to do some making up for your horrid behavior".

You can read about the report (issued on January 29th, 2016) in this article on the Colorlines site.


Here's the full report decrying the racism here in the U. S. It calls for this country to pay reparations to our black citizens. In part, the report says:

The colonial history, the legacy of enslavement, racial subordination and segregation, racial terrorism, and racial inequality in the US remains a serious challenge as there has been no real commitment to reparations and to truth and reconciliation for people of African descent. Despite substantial changes since the end of the enforcement of Jim Crow and the fight for civil rights, ideology ensuring the domination of one group over another, continues to negatively impact the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of African Americans today. The dangerous ideology of white supremacy inhibits social cohesion amongst the US population. Lynching was a form of racial terrorism that has contributed to a legacy of racial inequality that the US must address. Thousands of people of African descent were killed in violent public acts of racial control and domination and the perpetrators were never held accountable.

Contemporary police killings and the trauma it creates are reminiscent of the racial terror lynching of the past. Impunity for state violence has resulted in the current human rights crisis and must be addressed as a matter of urgency.

Racial bias and disparities in the criminal justice system, mass incarceration, and the tough on crime policies has disproportionately impacted African Americans. Mandatory minimum sentencing, disproportionate punishment of African Americans including the death penalty are of grave concern.

Uh...if you're someone reading this...and you wear the white racial uniform like I do and you're not extremely concerned and upset about past and present oppression that's directed toward U.S. citizens of color then you're deceiving yourself in a serious and troubling way.

You're either upset or you're ignorantly oblivious or you're malevolent...there aren't any other positions that a living human can occupy.  (sorry...but there it is)

The other nations of the world tend to comprehend us much more accurately than we white citizens of the U.S. understand ourselves.

Many African American citizens (and other citizens of color) of the U.S. also apprehend this nation with great acuity. One of my favorite authors wrote these excellent words: "while my country may need to lie to itself, it can no longer effectively lie to me."

I don't want to believe falsehoods anymore. I hope you don't either. (actually I never did want to believe untruths...I was just too bamboozled by white obliviousness to realize that the dream wasn't real...sad but true)

If you're trying to figure out how racism and veganism are related...you can start doing some learning by reading this post by Sistah Vegan.

My thanks to the United Nations working group for speaking truth.

Forty Seven Years Ago

On January 29th of this year, there was, in the evening, a symposium that took place on the Oklahoma University campus. It featured presentations from a number of student activist organizations.

These various student led organizations are all focused on advancing the needs and visions of people (students) who are identified by the dominant white culture (and also by the predominantly white university) as belonging to groups designated as a minority. Minority, here, is referencing power differences, not population variances.

The graphic above was circulated as the invitation to this event. There were 5 time slots scheduled and 6 presentations were given during each time slot for a total of 30 different learning opportunities. Since there's only one of me...I did not get to attend but a sampling of the offerings by the groups. They were all stimulating and interesting....and...in one an observation by a young woman that made me want to weep.

She noted this true...but dismal...fact during the presentation by a group called Unheard. A researching of the history of activism by black students on the OU campus indicated that a group had formed some 40 years ago (it was 1969) and that the various demands for changes they presented were essentially the same demands that OU Unheard is presenting now.

That's 47 years ago that the university was put on notice that things needed to change. And here we are...with the exception of some cosmetic dabs...still dealing with the same old face of indifference...if not hostility...toward the college experience of black students at Oklahoma University. What happened?

In this post by Alph Ko over on the Aphro-ism blog she writes this phrase: "...de-contextualized and re-framed through a narrative that makes the dominant class comfortable." These processes of de-contexting and re-framing (among others) are so profoundly insidious and powerful in the patriarchal white supremacist culture (the dominant social culture here in the U.S.)  and are both efficient and potent in terms of supporting the status quo. 

The practices of de-contexting and re-framing are aspects of something Dr. Charles W. Mills references in his book, The Racial Contract. He writes:

on matters related to race, the Racial Contract prescribes for its signatories an inverted epistemology, an epistemology of ignorance, a particular pattern of localized and global cognitive dysfunctions (which are psychologically and socially functional), producing the ironic outcome that whites will in general be unable to understand the world they themselves have made”. p 18.

When I read this quote I am reminded of Audre Lorde's often repeated observation that the master's tools will not be able to dismantle the master's house. One meaning I take from this is that we (mainly white people) will not be able to neither understand/comprehend the society we've created nor will we be able to fundamentally change it using the approaches associated with the epistemology of ignorance we white people invoke when thinking about race and racial oppressions. De-contexting and re-framing exemplify "the master's tools" regarding the maintenance of the racial contract's epistemology of ignorance...so does invisibling.

Another 'tool' is historical amnesia...which...interestingly enough has no specific entry on Wikipedia. I didn't realize that until I started looking for a linkable definition. There are multiple entries that use the historical amnesia phrase...but no specific entry titled historical amnesia. That's just an accident...right? Gore Vidal wrote a book with that phrase in the title which is focused on imperialism but Wikipedia, so far anyway, has yet to tackle writing about the meaning of the phrase. Maybe they forgot to do so.

I ran across a brief (around 13 minutes) but excellent video by Dr. Cori Wong talking about the epistemology of ignorance that informs the racial contract. In it she wonders/suggests that maybe there are epistemologies of ignorance not only associated with race/racism but also structures of deliberate and cultivated ignorances associated with other practices of oppression and dominance (e.g. sexism, homophobia, etc.). Each set of awful behaviors has its own customized methods of getting you to believe they aren't awful or that they don't exist or to cause/maintain confusion when attempting to comprehend them.

Multiple epistemologies of ignorance that are in place that serve to assist in implementing and supporting the practices of various oppressions and dominances? That support and maintain...for instance...the invisibility of privileges, the spooky and ubiquitous obliviousness of white people to the racism that permeates U.S. society? That participating in an epistemology of ignorance is part of the racial contract and...if you dare to attempt to opt out of this ignorance you will be seen...if you're racialized as white...as betraying whiteness? Hmmm....

Let me make some suggestions for you. You might tackle Dr Mills' book but if you do you may, as I do, find it to be hard going because he is an academic and professor of philosophy and his writing is rich and dense and erudite. The content is terrific but getting to it requires (at least it did/does for me) looking up lots of words and re-reading many passages. If that seems not quite right...you might want to read this entry about bell hooks and then get one (or more) of her books. Her first would be a good one. She's also an academic and a professor but her writing style is (for me anyway) more accessible and engaging.

If you prefer not to wade into a book...there are a myriad of videos available with various people expounding on these matters. I have thoroughly enjoyed videos of bell hooks and Robin DiAngelo and Joy DeGruy and those videos address the issues I've written about in this post. You can also watch this video by Robert Jensen.

If you want...you can watch this brief video of Professor Mills offering a quick summary of the popular conceptualizations of U.S. social and economic history. In fact, definitely watch the video by Dr. Mills. It is both amusing and horrifying. The horror is that he summarizes the version of the racial and economic history of the U.S. that was presented to me in grades 1 through 12...and he does this in just 3 minutes and it is pure nonsense. it's a wonderful example of how promoting and teaching ignorance dresses itself up as presenting 'knowledge'.

Forty seven years ago students were asking for changes at the University of Oklahoma...and, except for superficial efforts, those changes have yet to occur. What a terrible and abysmal statement that is about we here in the U.S. who are racialized as white people. Shame on us.