White Supremacist/Dominant Culture (Part 2): What can we do to de-center and dismantle white supremacy?
Picking up from yesterday’s prompt, another important step is to understand how white cultural norms dominate many of our workplaces, communities and public institutions. Here is one take on what that can look like.
As you read through the standards and norms in the left column, what are your reactions? What currently shows up problematically in your workplace or community? Which antidotes (in the right column) resonate with you or have you seen implemented?
If you are a person of color working to de-center whiteness in yourself, check out Chapter 5 of this resourceto explore the impact of internalized racial inferiority and oppression on people of color at the internal, interpersonal, institutional, and cultural levels.
There are many ways that white people can show up as “accomplices” (as opposed to allies) in the struggle for racial justice and work to de-center and dismantle whiteness. See some ideas on this site. Which have you used or seen used? What else would you add?
The left column reminds me of Corporate structures that don’t consider the well being of all employees. It implicates working in cylos, whether its me against everyone else or simply becoming possessive over the work knowledge to ensure job security. It does not promote true teamwork but teamwork will be listed as a company value. One thing I have been able to do is create common ground and shared purpose in order to feel more comfortable about working inside these structures. The common ground of helping each other mutually is a partnership and that is built over time. Learning each others work culture is a good place to start since many times asking directly about family or birthplace culture is too personal.
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Thanks, Angel. I agree that learning about work culture can be a good place to start these conversations, and allows us to see more clearly the systemic racism embedded in dominant culture. I’d be excited to hear more about how you have been able to create common ground and shared purpose within these structures. Are there specific practices you would recommend?
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I see a lot of comprehensiveness, but not a lot of clarity and alignment for action. A history of 30+ years of reports with no substantial change or plan of action indicates an unwillingness for the dominant culture to change, to me. I am working on myself, but I am impatient with my organization for its fear. I try to understand why there is so little progress, but decisions are cloaked in secrecy and while there are lots of events happening, it doesn’t seem like there is any cohesive thread through it all that we can all understand and support. Sometimes I think we use having a speaker in or doing a two-hour workshop as a way to ameliorate our guilt for a while, or to be able to point to and say, “see we are doing something”, when in fact, we are only skimming the surface and not addressing the underlying culture that causes the problems to begin with. This can only be done when all are united in a common effort to dig deep and make necessary changes.
On another topic: when this challenge is over, will all this documentation go away? Will I still be able to access it? Or do I need to start downloading things? There is a lot here that I would like to be able to go back to and read several more times…..
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Hi Deb, I’ll let the moderators chime in re general discussion, but logistically, these resources will not go away and we will keep this forum site open for the rest of the year. We might just not have comments remain “open” as our moderator resources are kind of focused on these few weeks for the moment!
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I think you’re right that building alignment and commitment organizationally is a key to creating real impact. Do you have ideas about how your organization could begin to build this alignment? What do you think it would take to get beyond more surface-level actions?
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I think you have to have upper-level administrative leadership, faculty leadership and buy-in, and a multi-year, comprehensive plan to make change. I also think you have to have people who have worked with organizational transformation of this sort and know what to expect and how to handle it, both the positive and negative reactions that are bound to occur. This requires a captial investment as well, which is where most things fall apart. “We just don’t have the money for this” is not an excuse or a reason for not doing it. If it is important to a global world view, then we need to make it a priority.
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Today’s reading made me think on the definition of accomplice and an experience last weekend, when I was explaining some work I’m doing to someone, and they said, “Sounds like you’re an accomplice.” My first feeling was pride that I was doing a thing that was working towards actively dismantling racism. Then my second feeling was how that feeling of pride was still coming from a place of individualism, and how, in feeling pride, I was still missing the point because the work that I’m doing isn’t (and shouldn’t be) about making myself feel good. It’s interesting how norms of dominant White culture are so deeply imbedded that they even impact my relationship towards social justice work.
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“It’s interesting how norms of dominant White culture are so deeply imbedded that they even impact my relationship towards social justice work.”
Yes! Becoming more mindful of our internal responses and processes is a daily practice. Thanks for sharing this reflection and joining us on this journey!
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This list of actor, ally, accomplice is fantastic! I teach students about racism, white supremacy, structures, institutions. Students want to know WHAT they can do to do to dismantle racism………And as white folks, we talk about the work we need to do ourselves, the work we do as white folks together, and the work we do in community. This list helps to frame the community piece through its comparisons, ideas for thought. Thank you.
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I have a suggestion for the children’s list:
while thinking about how to make change from the dominant culture- expose children to difference. Read and have available, books on different cultures.
We are made invisible, because of the adamant dominance of your visibility. Everything has to be, reflect, be accepted by, approved by white standards. Dolls in the store now have different hues….yeah! But, look closer…look at her features (body/facial) they are not reflective of her ethnicity. What is the message? Cartoons ( even animals) reflect the white culture…unless you’ve seen a horse in real life with blue or green eyes….I haven’t. Spirit, the movie about a horse who didn’t wish to be owned, and was on a mission to be free….blond haired, beige, blue eyed horse. What was the message? Messages and erasure by the dominating culture is intentional and purposeful. If children are constantly exposed to these things ( as educational or entertaining) what I ask, is the message?? As one of the articles said, have your children around others that are different than they are (religious, linguistic, ethnic) then the children, who will grow into adults, won’t see difference the way it’s currently seen, they see someone the like or dislike based on knowing the “person”. Toys, books, events should be available and reflect other cultures; it’s through observation, encouraging conversations, answering questions, participating in different fun and educational activities that children learn about human rights and or social justice. If the primary focus is on reading a child stories about human rights and social justice, while they watch television that continues to reflect social and human injustices, what’s the real message? Felicity Huffman knew paying $500K for your child to get into college ( and it’s not the tuition) was wrong, she ADMITS that she knew it was wrong, did it anyway. Why? Because she could, and said at best “get a slap on the wrist” for it if she got caught. I guess she was right, because the court system that’s devastating Black and Brown lives daily, is asking for her to “serve” 4 months (which will most likely be “time served”) for money laundering and fraud sounds about right… while Kelly Williams-Bolar was made to serve 3 years and had to pay $30K for sending her child to the wrong district..is it justice, or just-us.. Changing the dominating culture, is going to be long, hard, painful work; we know because we didn’t get this far since that ride through the middle passage, with land still not yet on the horizon..
p.s. I had the same question as Deb; so in the beginning I started cutting and pasted some of the articles because any good resource is worth saving and sharing.
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