People Listen Because I Am White

There are many reasons by I am passionate about doing social justice education, but only a couple reasons why I am pretty good at it.  Not every facilitation or presentation is a home run, but after years of hard work, dedicated learning, and significant practice most of my efforts are successful.  I do still screw up my fair share, usually due to ego depletion, ignorance, or poor decision making.  When I am at my best as an educator I am informed, engaging, communicating clearly, listening intently, a bit humorous, and displaying vulnerability that the audience can connect with.  The other secret of my social justice education success is that I happen to be white (also Christian-raised, heterosexual, middle class, and  male) and only saying and teaching what member of oppressed populations have been doing since before I was born.

My race, gender, and other dominant identities make it easier and more comfortable for people who share my identities to learn from me.  This is a lesson that I probably first learned from a person of color or woman, but the two people I remember saying it best are white guys: Tim Wise and Dr. Keith Edwards.  That is part of the problem, it is just as likely that they did not say it best or first, but because they are white males I heard it and internalized it differently than if they were women of color or individuals from other oppressed groups.

I am working towards a world where my voice is not provided greater credibility or heard more clearly, but for now it does provide me with an opportunity and responsibility to help create the change I am seeking.  I have the chance to stand with oppressed populations and to be heard, facilitate learning, and impact in powerful ways the hearts and minds of people who look like me.  This is not a responsibility I take lightly nor one that I execute with perfection.  I will likely never stop learning how to wrestle with what it means to be a person with great cultural and institutional privilege who deeply wants to eliminate both.  As a result, I do and say the wrong thing, intentionally and unintentionally gain benefits from my privilege, and sometimes fail to live up to the ideals behind my words and teachings.

I was once again reminded of these realities this week.  While I was in the midst of preparing to spend my tenth Martin Luther King Jr. weekend leading a social justice education retreat with dozens of college students, the video above was shared with me by an African American man I deeply respect.  I had never seen this powerful and thoughtful video before, but I was struck by the presenters honesty and vulnerability.  It In addition to being impacted by what she said and the feelings she expressed, I was struck by the second comment under the video:

"funny how women of colour have been saying these things for decades, but people only pay attention once a white woman says them."

That is exactly right, but in the face of that frustrating reality I am still glad the presenter said what she did because we need as many people as possible, especially white people, to say something and do something about ending the system of oppression in this country.  We also need to be reminded that most of what white educators say and do in the name of justice has been said and done before and that many of us did not listen the first time we heard it from someone who did not look like us.  As I head to my retreat this weekend I will once again be standing on the shoulders of those people of color and others who have come before me, who were no more or less human or imperfect than me, but whose voice was probably not heard in the ways mine is.