I find your blog entries to be articulate and compelling, and perhaps mine, followign yours will come across as a student at the peak of my liberal, political fervor, that will someday devolve to apathy, but I hope that as a participant in the group I can offer some insight as to what I gained and how this changed me in a permanent way.

The purpose of this group was not to identify how white people are innately racist and disadvantage blacks. Instead, it was about noting that being white in America is not “normal” but in fact an expression of a certain history of economic and social forces that shape family styles, speech, social interactions, pursuits such as careers and education, and myriad other expressions of cultural identity. It is not the default “setting” or means of interacting, though it is the dominant form in America. Perhaps you and the other anonymous bloggers who claim that this workshop and these studies are useless were already aware of this perception, or don’t find value in that perception, but this was a new thought for me.

I often thought as well, and perhaps other whites may relate, that “if only blacks and other minorities could just act like us, and integrate and take part like other immigrants in the states, then they wouldn’t feel this way.” I think some individuals of minority status in America do feel comfortable adopting white values and live their lives according to white norms. That’s fine, and maybe they are happier for it. A counter that inspired thought in me, at least, was the prospect of myself trying to integrate into a community that was not like my own, like the one I was raised, and one in which my skin color was different than that of the majority of people there. I would not be comfortable, and I feel confident saying that no matter how good of an act I could pull, people would notice my race. This is exactly what we demand of blacks when we tell them to act white. A black co-worker or a black classmate who is seen as “acting white” still is black, and everyone knows it. A sad reality is that a person’s outward appearance does color our judgement, and as color blind as we are there are still subconsious ways in which individuals have preconceived notions of others. (I recommend takign the implicit associations test if you don’t beleive me. here’s the link: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/)

The last thing I’ll say is the workshop did develop for me a sense of individuality as a white person and helped me recognize how my upbringing and cultural values are unique, white and not necessarily normal, an attitude that makes understanding other’s perspectives on race much easier.

And another note on Houston Baker. I had the privelege of eating lunch with Mr. Baker when he came to the college. I found that we had much to agree upon especially with regards to a shared beleif that sexism and sexual problems are problems for women perpetrated by men. Similarly I beleive that racism is a problem for minorities perpetrated by whites (though I personally beleive that race can be the basis of prejudice in the opposite direction). It makes sense then that minorities are the first to notice racism and to want it acknowledged. I think having a group like the one that Dean Guttentag co-led is a first step towards a remedy for these problems in the minds of whites.

Thanks for your interest in our group, and I apologize for my long winded entry.

No one condones college parties with strippers. But it is not uncommon at Duke and many other campuses for men—and women—to have such parties. Perhaps we now have equal opportunity objectification. This may be sleazy and sophomoric, and it certainly offends me, but it is not illegal or criminal. (In one of the many hypocrisies in this case, Duke excoriated the lacrosse players for holding a party with strippers, then permitted University funds to be used to bring to campus the “Sex Workers Art Show,” a piece of alleged performance art by sex workers, the details of which I will omit, but it makes the lacrosse team party look like nursery school.) You may be interested to learn that a special committee, chaired by James Coleman, a well-respected Duke law professor and an African American and commissioned by Duke’s president, to look into the behavior and culture of the lacrosse team, concluded, among other things, that there was no evidence that the lacrosse players were either sexist or racist, and much evidence to the contrary.

We can all sympathize with the Bakers for the horrific experience they suffered when two black men broke into their house in Philadelphia many years ago and committed rape and burglary. This experience does not, however, entitle Houston Baker to throw all concepts of due process to the wind and publicly presume the guilt of his university’s own students for a terrible crime on the basis of nothing more than their supposed “white privilege.” Baker demonstrated in the Duke lacrosse matter that he subverts the pursuit of truth to his destructive identity group politics. That the objects of his perversion of scholarly responsibility were his University’s own students, whom he demonstrably held in contempt because of their race and gender, is morally repugnant.

And, by the way, the lacrosse players apologized on several occasions to the Duke community, their families and their coach for holding the party. Houston Baker has never apologized for his atrocious behavior.

That’s were it starts.

I’m sure you’d feel differently had what happened to Houston Baker and his wife happened to you.

Let’s look at some of the kinds of nonsensical functional implications that flow from the “white skin privilege” metanarrative:

Should the immigrant student who arrived in the US from war-torn Yugoslavia with her penniless family and no knowledge of English, attended a marginal urban school while holding down a part-time job and became an academic star in spite these challenges, feel guilty or less deserving because of her “white skin privilege?”

Should Jewish students, who succeed academically in disproportionate numbers, and whose recent ancestors enjoyed their “white skin privilege” while residing in the shtetls, ghettos and concentration camps of Eastern Europe and suffering systematic exclusion in the U.S. from many colleges, professions and other economic opportunities, feel less proud of their heritage and accomplishments because of their “white skin privilege?”

And what do we make of East Asian students, who also succeed in disproportionate numbers? Are they benefiting from—let’s see, it must be– “yellow skin privilege” because they are not black or brown?

In the end, where does the “white skin privilege” metanarrative get us? Are white students supposed to find ways to oppress themselves to achieve equality?

At its worst, the white skin privilege metanarrative can lead to truly vicious politics. Please read the letter of Houston Baker, a well-known professor of African-American studies, to the Duke University administration in the spring of 2006 about what turned out to be the Duke lacrosse team rape hoax. http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/mmedia/features/lacrosse_incident/lange_baker.html. Baker’s inflammatory public rant, released before any meaningful investigation of the alleged crime took place and despite the lacrosse team’s profession of innocence, suggested no fewer than five times that the alleged crime had actually taken place, virtually convicted the players apparently on the basis of their “white male privilege,” and called for the entire lacrosse team and their coach to be dismissed. He was a ringleader of the rush-to-judgment mob that fed distorted media coverage, enabled a rogue prosecutor, and publicly pilloried and endangered innocent students at his own university. Baker’s retailing of the white privilege metanarrative trumped the pursuit of truth, the presumption of innocence, and the dispassionate review of evidence. Shamefully, Middlebury welcomed the improvident Baker to campus in late February as a visiting scholar to speak on, ironically, “rape and healing.”

Call me an old-fashioned liberal, but it seems to me that a more productive approach that might actually achieve the desired result of empathy, understanding, commitment to social justice, and community cohesion is to: (a) reaffirm, clearly and regularly the fundamental values that I daresay most Middlebury students were raised with and that parents certainly hope the college shares: tolerance and respect, condemnation of invidious forms of discrimination, judging people as individuals, and, yes, accepting personal responsibility; and (b) provide as many opportunities as possible (but especially through heterogeneous living arrangements where informal contacts and friendships most readily happen) for one-to-one and small group interactions to occur among Middlebury’s diverse population of students. And for heaven’s sake, let’s stop pushing everyone to “engage difference” and let them discover commonalities. That’s when people really engage with each other. As Bill Clinton urged in his Middlebury commencement address last year, “Our common humanity is more important than our differences.”

When asked how she manages to be an effective agent of change she said,

“Make them feel guilty, nothing happens. Empower them with the power of your heart, ah – then change is possible”

Terminology can turn people away very quickly. Shock value feels good to workshop/committee leaders who feel intensely about injustice and hate. But it clearly offends those who might otherwise be open to thoughtful listening and growth.

We can’t talk honestly about race without acknowledging differences in experience and unearned privilege. Though many uncomfortable feelings will arise during any serious work on racism, shame and self-loathing are hardly the purpose; removing blinders and seeing the realities of our society is. That Senator Obama has a real shot at the presidency is a great cause for celebration, as are communities with organic racial and cultural interaction, such as Agrees with Anonymous describes. But to believe that average hard-working, good citizens of all colors have the same opportunities in this country is sadly false. Study after study shows discrimination in hiring, home-buying, money-lending, etc. Whites, like me, have an advantage every time we walk into a bank or realtor’s office.

Indeed, active anti-racism must be pursued collectively, and no single group is solely responsible. Interracial and cross-cultural communication is essential. But Dean Guttentag and her “nine intrepid white students” have made an outstanding start in this work at Middlebury, and can only inspire more efforts in a variety of groups and settings.
Bravo.