Moving from Guilt into Action

1. Moving from Guilt into Action By Prof. Jose Alamillo CES 101: 06 4/14/08 Spring 2008

2. “white guilt” Comments • “I feel that white people are given a lot grief for simply being white” • “Why do I have to pay for the sins of our grandfathers” • “I’m tired of hearing about what whites did to minorities” • “I am not racist, I’m a good-hearted and well-meaning person”

3. Problems with “white guilt” • Seeing oneself as the oppressor creates a negative self-image • Leads to resistance and withdrawal from learning and discussing issues of race  “immobilization” • Loss of white allies in the struggle against racism • White guilt White stigmatization

4. Unearned Advantages vs. Earned Advantages • Failure to distinguish between earned advantages (earned condition, skill or talent that benefits the possessor) and unearned advantages could lead you to interpret all privileges as earned advantages: • Example: Ann Richard’’s remark: “George Bush was born on third base, and to this day he believes he hit a triple.”

5. Six Stages of white student identity development By Janet Helms 1) Contact: student is unaware of own racial identity 2) Disintegration: feelings of guilt, anger and withdrawal as they become aware of white privilege and racism 3) Reintegration: transforms guilt and anger into hostility toward people of color 4) Pseudo-Independence: student abandons feelings of racial superiority and seeks out people of color 5) Immersion/Emersion: student grapples with the question of “what it means to be white” and seeks “white role models” for inspiration 6) Autonomy: student have developed a positive white identity and become anti-racist

6. Solutions to “white guilt” • Develop a positive white identity that is anti-racist. • Move from microscopic to macroscopic view to understand white privilege as both UA and CD. • Provide students with a positive self-image of whites fighting against racism • Fighting “white stigmatization” by challenging white privilege and oppression and anti-racism

7. From Socialite to Social Activist: Juliette Hampton Morgan, In 1939, 16 years before the famous Montgomery Bus Boycott, Morgan began writing letters to the Montgomery Advertiser, the city's local newspaper, denouncing the horrible injustices she witnessed on the city buses. In these letters, she said segregation was un-Christian and wrong, and the citizens of Montgomery should do something about it. The response was immediate: Morgan lost her job at a local bookstore.

8. White Martyrs of the Civil Rights MovementAt the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., the names of 40 men, women and children are inscribed on a granite monument; each died in the struggle to end apartheid in the U.S. Among the named martyrs, 8 are white: Paul Guihard, William Lewis Moore, Rev. Bruce Klunder, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Rev. James Reeb, Viola Gregg Liuzzo and Jonathan Daniels. Why have you not heard about these 8 individuals? What is a white anti-racist? A white antiracist is: "a white man or woman who is clearly identified as an ally to people of color in the struggle against racism" (Tatum in Brown, 2002, p4) and someone who "daily vigilantly resist[s] becoming reinvested in white supremacy" (hooks in O'Brien, 2002, p5). Check out: http://www.whiteantiracist.org/

9. S.C.R.A.P Students Challenging Racism and (White) Privilege http://www.canopyweb.com/racism/

10. "Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentors, not the tormented " -- Elie Wiesel FROM GUILT TO SOCIAL ACTION 1) Build a friendship with someone of a race different from yours 2) Write a letter (to a newspaper, to an elected leader, etc.) about something you think could be done to advance racial justice 3) Make a donation to an organization that works for racial justice 4) Stand up and speak out when something seems unfair 5) Ask questions in class when the histories, contributions and viewpoints of people of color are not included. 6)Add to this website by writing us about what you have learned, noticed, done, etc. 7)Go to a celebration, an event, a holiday observance, or other cultural experience in a culture different from yours. What else could you do?

11. I Can Be An Allyby the Gay Straight Alliance Network • You can be white and be an ally with blacks to end racism. • You can be black and be an ally with Arabs/Arab Americans to end racism. • You can be a man and be an ally with women to end sexism. • You can be a heterosexual and be an ally with gay or lesbian to end homophobia.