Karen Buys leading
12 participants
Prior to meeting for this discussion, a number of articles and internet links were shared for discussion; here they are:
Indigenous people face the same racist social construct as other minoritieshttps://sojo.net/articles/super-bowl-over-discrimination-indigenous-peoples-face-not
We will be seenhttps://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/530/we-will-be-seen
A Meditation from Fr. Richard Rohrhttps://cac.org/to-know-thee-more-clearly-2020-02-09/
Survivors Recount the Relevance of Holocaust Remembrance https://nowthisnews.com/videos/news/survivors-recount-the-relevance-of-holocaust-remembrance?jwsource=em
The “Red Summer”
“The whole United States is Southern!”
https://www.memphis.edu/benhooks/creative-works/pdfs/payne.pdf
James Baldwin debates William F Buckley (1965)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFeoS41xe7w&feature=youtu.be
Reviewing all these, we were reminded to be alert to the ally of denial, distancing. That is, the trick of saying, “Well, that was then, or that was there,” to say, “Not now, and not here.”
The “homework” from last week was to identify the (few) things that resonated with each of the group in the first six chapters. Many comments and insights as well as personal stories were shared. Here are a few (quotes are not exact and any emphasis shown is mine):
“The impact on me – asking myself – how does this fit with my understanding?”
To throw up ones hands in frustration and say, “I’m done with this,” as in “I can’t stand to think about this [racism] any longer,” is a measure of white privilege.
“Racism is a system; it’s more than personal prejudice or bigotry.”
“I find myself feeling the pressure of the history of my own family’s role in the construction of our racist society.”
“My education has been horribly neglected; I am ignorant, and I am grateful for this group.”
“We [the United States] are not nearly as progressive as we kid ourselves.”
“When I’m telling a story, can I resist not “naming” people when it is irrelevant to the story. Example: ‘I was talking to this Asian lady in the store’… or ‘I met this gay guy yesterday on the golf course’…”
“I didn’t catch the whole ‘White Savior’ bit in ‘The Blindside’.” [a Sandra Bullock movie; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blind_Side_(film)]
The example of “The canary in the cage” [see Chapter 2, page 23]
“We Shall Overcome” was pretty simplistic; it is all so much more complicated than that.
“The concept of the United States as a ‘melting pot’ was propaganda.”
An opening question was asked, but the response was delayed:
How does racism affect white people?
As racism is a system, white people may realize that they (we) are a part of this system.
As a closing exercise we reviewed “Common Patterns of Whites” found here: https://robindiangelo.com/resources/
For the next meeting, we will step away from the text for a week to discuss “The Case for Reparations.”
Reading: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-case-for-reparations/361631/
— Duncan Taylor