therapy?

we had a very interesting conversation this morning in the class on psychosocial issues, which is largely being taught via black thought (aime cesaire, steve biko, achille mbembe, and franz fanon) and also some paulo friere and some augusto boal. a woman of color and fellow exchange student spoke up and argued forcefully yet diplomatically that we were spending too much time discussing white guilt and white feelings in response to the text. i think she was right. if you get a class on these writers together and there are white students who have no exposure to any of it before, that is what is gonna happen. but that doesn't mean we couldn't have resisted the urge to let it devour half a class meeting, i think. now that we are conscious of this we can stop it, and get back to the text, and let multiple voices speak.

it is not everyday you hear your teacher admit she priveleged the contribution of a white student because it mirrored her own experience and transformation from a classic white liberal (which biko does away with) to a white progressive who is conscious of power/privelege. it is not everyday you hear a fellow student perfectly apply paulo friere's notion of dialogue to what is happening right there in the room in real time. i guess being in the course as an ignorant white person is a little like going to therapy: paying big dollars to learn really obvious things about yourself and the way you think thanks to someone else's infinitely more useful perspective on you. although in this case the therapists are books.

some of these obvious things: when white liberals "reach out to help" people of color it is patronizing help, it is not true generosity. when we white people want to help we should address white racism among our own. after all our peers originated and continue to employ it. things like, no person of color has an obligation to teach you step by step what the problem is, or an obligation to correct the discourse actively and intervene every time something comes up that they disagree with. or that it's not the end of the world when you get hostility for parroting the same old White Liberal Bingo Card arguments over and over about non-racialism; folks are hostile because they're tired of hearing it. they're laughing because they're tired of hearing it. that power--and minority/majority position--is something more insiduous and subtle and pervasive than having the legal right to do something or the legal right to opt out.

this is basically a course everyone should have to take in college. we should all read these writers; at the very least know their basic arguments. we should all have to watch the power dyanmics form in an integrated group, and note who is speaking and who is silent. everyone should do this, even though it is awkward at times and confusing at other times.

i am looking forward to see where the next few classes take us and whether the discussions can be productive and not two ships passing the dark as they have been at times.



meanwhile, on the home front: if mcpain and failin' get elected and america takes a turn for the handmaid's tale, starting with police brutality, I CALLED IT, YOU GUYS. i kid you not, i am researching south african law schools and the funding options therein.