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April 10, 2007

Readers speak out on race and 'white privilege'

Calling your attention to a particularly good discussion thread ...

By Chuck Taylor

A post earlier this week by Knute Berger has prompted some pretty thoughtful, if at times uncomfortable, discussion among readers. It's impassioned and mostly critical of the Seattle School District and the notion of sending students to a "white privilege" conference, but those critical posts don't go unchallenged.

Someone named Yarrow seems to slice it down the middle:

Judging by what I've seen of the "White Privilege" conference materials, I have to agree that it could represent an exercise in bullying and groupthink, which can happen around any touchy issue, after all. I do get the point about academic discussions sometimes getting pretty heady or Stalinist in spirit, trying to change the world with ultra-rationalistic, linear solutions which usually seem to amount to telling people what to think and feel.

But I think the conference organizers are probably hoping to inspire people to reject racism and to try harder to come up with something better, and even if I don't love their methods I can find some common ground there. One point that seems really clear to me is that racism hurts us all, even if the impact is more subtle on those of us who are seen as "white." I think "whiteness" is dehumanizing, in all kinds of ways.

Chuck Taylor is formerly editor of Crosscut. He has also worked for The Seattle Times and Seattle Weekly. You can reach him at chuck.taylor@newsdex.net.

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Topics: Culture / Ethnicity, Education, K-12 Education, Seattle, Seattle Public Schools, Washington

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Comments:

Posted Tue, Apr 10, 6:23 p.m. inappropriate

Get it on...: Mossback's article was reasonable and pointed out some serious issues about which too many people in Seattle are unwilling to talk. Here's another example: it was fascinating to watch the dog and pony show surrounding the two candidates for Seattle School District Superintendent. So structured and rigid, it gave the illusion of openness all the while being as tightly scripted as an Iranian hostage release.

I sit over here on the Eastside and watch the lunacy and I shake my head. What's everyone afraid of? Honest, open questioning and debate is at the heart of freedom. It fascinates me that many of the same people who demand the right to criticize the war in Iraq (Fair disclosure: I have two sons in the military, and a very strong POV on that issue) in shrill and divisive terms yearn to impose speech codes that only an Iron Curtain apparatchik could love.

Here's a thought: quite trying to be "nice," and start seeing after truth while according respect to those who hold a different opinion. When I learned that from my mother, she called it civility.

Until then, all this jumping at shadows is the best entertainment game in town…

The Piper

PS: Thanks for drawing attention to the message stream occasioned by the original article.

— Scott St. Clair
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