TTT April 14: WHITE PRIVILEGE 2:Psychology and Pathology of Entitlement
This week's show brings back our guests and the next phase of our discussion on White Privilege. The dynamic of hatred of a people we once enslaved is not as unusual at it may seem. This is the American Indian experience and the African-American experience. The psychology and pathology of refusing to accept what it means to be white pervades the culture still.
In the wake of an annual conference on white privilege in LaCrosse, Wisconsin last week, TTT will delve deeper into the issue of unconscious entitlement that is so much a part of the American psyche, and the most difficult to extricate from our national inclination toward the colonial European view of race as well as undertand the oppositional subculture we've created from the dregs of slavery over 200, 300, 400 years of American history.
• PEGGY MCINTOSH, PhD - Sr. Research Scientist and Associate Director, Wellesley Centers for Women; Author, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack/strong>
• NANCY RODENBORG, PhD - Associate Professor of Social Work (Diversity), Augsburg College; Augsburg College Diversity Committee and the Diversity and Global Learning Collaborative
• ROWZAT SHIPCHANDLER - Program Manager, Facing Race Initiative, Saint Paul Foundation
• LISA ALBRECHT – Associate Professor, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota College of Continuing Education
- Title: Truth To Tell (2010-04-14)
- Length: 58:16 minutes (26.68 MB)
- Format: MP3 Mono 44kHz 64Kbps (CBR)
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Unconscious entitlement (resubmit with ID)
Indeed, there is a degree of unconscious entitlement when a panel of mostly White "experts" believes they have any way to frame a discussion on racism, never mind anti-racism, other than to network for more funding to study this "problem." How many ways is this approach wrong? Well, there are many, but I will simply point out that the objects of White privilege are largely missing from the so-called discussion and the audience for it seems fairly self-centered thereby ultimately self-defeating. An end to White privilege is not a topic, but a necessity of action and the actors who will end White privilege will not be the benefactors, but the victims. Unless, of course, "y'all" are willing to give up your privilege of recognition as "authorities" to the true authorities fighting racism (remember that racism is the real name for "White privilege"). Do you really believe that people of color care one whit whether you are cognizant of your privilege? What we care about is that it be ended. We just need to build our strength of resolve with our growing strength in numbers. White people who really care about ending White privilege will seek ways to build that resolve, not undermine it by touting themselves as experts on a subject (racism) that they sanitize into a term more palatable to the oppressors (White privilege).
M. Barrera
mtomas3@hotmail.com
Of course, ending white
Of course, ending white privilege is a topic for discussion. Did you listen to this program?
It is your right not to give a whit whether or not whites recognize their privilege, but racism and white privilege won't end without such cognizance. If you believe that by merely demanding that racism and privilege go away by shouting "begone!" or that such eradication can happen without the collaboration of whites, you are sadly mistaken. My sense is that you ought to be grateful that whites are studying this, talking among ourselves about the mutual necessity that whites both recognize their privilege, then be willing to be part of its elimination – not railing against those who devote their lives to doing so. They are colleagues in your quest, not ivory tower, self-defined "experts". If you had listened to the program, you would know that all of us talked about the effects, not just the fact, of racism and privilege has had on people of color in this country (and elsewhere).