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"A White Oppressor? Who
Me?"
Your daughter is enrolled at
a major university that has well-defined policies
prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race.
She decides to attend a campus event. The
organizers forbid her entry because of her skin
color: white. Under concerted pressure from the
Student Government Association (SGA) which
prohibits racial discrimination at school-sponsored
events, the organizers grudgingly admit your
daughter. But they make a point of publicly
humiliating her from the podium for the color of
her skin.
On September 25th, the
Women's Studies and Graduate Consortium at
Northeastern University (Boston) www.nu-news.com/media/paper600/news/2005/09/28/News/Forum.Opened.To.All.After.Discrimination.Complaints-1001178.shtml
held a public on-campus meeting called "Breaking
Bread: Women of Color Dialogue." White women were
barred.
The SGA demanded that no
student be denied entry to a public and on-campus
event because of skin color. This was not merely a
moral stand but also a demand that the
university-sponsored event comply with the
university's non-discrimination policy. (Exclusion
on the basis of gender seems to have raised no
comment.)
Rather than cancel, Dr.
Robin Chandler -- director of women's studies and
an organizer of the event -- cracked the door wide
enough for white women to walk through. Only one
attended. A Senator from the SGA, her presence was
obviously meant to make the point that students
cannot be excluded from campus events due to
race.
In NU, Northeastern's
student newspaper, Chandler described her response
to allowing a white woman attend. "I welcomed her
anyway, in addition to telling the audience to
conduct themselves with integrity even though the
presence of a white woman was
unwelcome."
Chandler continued, "I
think it's a shame that one or two white students
based on white privilege, a lack of awareness of
racial issues and a lack of generosity of spirit
complained to the office of the provost and were
able, because they were white, to gain admission to
the morning session that I was forced to open
up."
At a university-funded
event www.nu-news.com/media/paper600/news/2003/10/22/News/Wall-Of.Oppression.Breaks.Down.Diversity-535263.shtml?page=2
some while back, Chandler gave a closing speech
that was followed by spectators, who were
encouraged to come on-stage to "share their
thoughts about diversity and
oppression."
I'd like to take Professor
Chandler up on the offer to share my
thoughts.
First of all, in what
dictionary did Chandler look up the word 'welcome'?
And since when has protesting discrimination
demonstrated a "lack of awareness of racial issues"
and a "lack of generosity of spirit"?
Before deteriorating into
an uncharacteristic rant, however, I should clarify
where I stand on the "race question". For most of
my life I have been neither proud nor ashamed of
being white -- although I rather enjoy being Irish.
My race is not something I achieved; it is a
circumstance of birth over which I had no control.
I judge people, including myself, on the content of
their character and their actions. My family
through marriage includes blacks, Hispanics, and
plain vanilla sorts like me. Race is simply not an
issue.
Nevertheless, I've heard
the charge of "white privilege" so often that I've
numbed to its meaning and implications. That is a
mistake. The accusation is too often a racial
attack and those who hurl it are too often
oppressors in sheep's clothing.
Chandler's remarks broke
through my numbness. Why? My three nieces are
university age or close to it. One is black, two
are blonde and fair-skinned. Chandler would have
broken up a family along racial lines rather than
let them attend a public event together. And she
would have labeled anyone who protested as a
"racist", a recipient of white
privilege.
"White privilege": the
phrase has different meanings depending on the
context but most often the accusation rests on
historical analysis. Namely, due to the great
historical wrong of slavery -- a wrong that no one
denies -- whites are said to have sins to
expiate.
For most white people,
however, history frowns upon this interpretation.
Again, I use my family as an example.
In 1865, when slavery
ended in America, my ancestors were on ships
fleeing the famine and political oppression in
Ireland. A third of the passengers died in transit;
many more perished from privation in a foreign
land.
The family on my husband's
side fled Cuba as Castro made his power grab. Their
children literally had to maneuvre through
explosions on the streets of Havana in order to
attend school.
These are not people of
privilege. They have no connection to or
responsibility for the oppression that was
slavery.
There are no laws that
grant my blonde-haired nieces any privilege due to
skin color. Such laws have been methodically
removed from the legal system for decades
now.
Nevertheless, attendees
said they would feel "threatened…if white
women were present." White women, they claimed,
could not understand issues like prostitution and
truancy. As a white woman who has lived on the
street, I disagree.
The preceding sentence
contains the worst impact of Chandler's racial
policies: "as a white woman." While writing this
column, I've thought of myself as a racial category
and I've wanted to vigorously defend being white.
It is difficult to be part of the only race for
whom racial pride is a social taboo.
This is the ultimate
result of people who want to open or close a public
door based solely on skin color. They force you
think in racial categories and that process can
become a slippery slope into racism. It is a slide
I refuse to take.
©2007, Wendy
McElroy
* * *
Wendy
McElroy is the editor of ifeminists.com
and a research fellow for The Independent Institute
in Oakland, Calif. She is the author and editor of
many books and articles, including her latest book,
Liberty for Women: Freedom and Feminism in the
21st Century. She lives with her husband in
Canada. E-Mail.
Also, see her daily blog at www.zetetics.com/mac
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