[Peace-discuss] Re: [Peace] AWARE Minutes for 8 October 2006

[John W.]

At 09:42 PM 10/17/2006, Karen Medina wrote:

>John W. wrote:
>
>>This has been suggested since the 1960's, at least.  It was foolishness 
>>then and it's foolishness now.
>
>John,
>
>I'm not sure what "this" refers back to. What is foolishness? The consent 
>decree? Some white middle class people trying to help bring understanding 
>between poor people and policy? Making sure that a legal agreement is 
>followed through as both sides understood it rather than by the letter 40 
>years later? Conversing with non-lower class people?

None of the above.  What is foolish is the idea that white people can 
somehow convince other, racist white people, through the power of reason 
alone, that their racism is incorrect or undesirable.  Racism does not 
operate on the rational plane at all.  The ONLY thing that can "cure" 
racism in an individual (or a society, for that matter) is having positive 
experiences with the "other", such that we come to see that the "other" is 
not in fact "other", but is just like us in every essential way.

Here, incidentally, is the context for my statement.  The "this" should 
have been quite clear:

: >The meeting was with Imani Bazzell with 5 members of AWARE's Anti-Racism 
Working
: >Group to explore ways in which the ARWG could contribute to the cause of
: >fighting racism/discrimination. We discussed many things, but one thing 
Imani
: >said that struck me was that as mainly white middle-class folks, we know 
best
: >how our parents and grandparents think. We know best how to craft a 
message that
: >would reach our siblings or cousins.


You're free to disagree with my assertion, of course.  But I've been trying 
to convince white people not to be racist ever since I had my own 
"epiphany" almost 40 years ago.  And it hasn't worked worth a damn.  If a 
person is predisposed to be racist, no amount of factual evidence that 
"race" itself is a construct is sufficient.  My own mother, when I dared to 
have an intimate relationship with an African-American woman, disowned me, 
thus choosing a dead and irrational ideology over the love of her only 
living child.  I spent two years trying to convince her that her racism was 
not based on anything logical or reasonable, and it was like talking to a 
stone wall.

John Wason