Daily Effects of White Privilege

(Technorati Tags: Race, Privilege, Social Justice)

Many are confused when we talk about white privilege and what it entails. Akin to my previous discussions on targeted groups, the privileges of being white go mostly unrecognized and unacknowledged, and so making a conscious effort to address them is imperative if we want to work toward eliminating institutionalized racism.

I found this resource that gives a good summary of the daily effects of white privilege, and explains how simple -- yet how elusive -- the concept is to many of us. I will list them here for reading pleasure:

Daily effects of white privilege

I decided to try to work on myself at least by identifying some of the daily effects of white privilege in my life. I have chosen those conditions that I think in my case attach somewhat more to skin-color privilege than to class, religion, ethnic status, or geographic location, though of course all these other factors are intricately intertwined. As far as I can tell, my African American coworkers, friends, and acquaintances with whom I come into daily or frequent contact in this particular time, place and time of work cannot count on most of these conditions.

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

2. I can avoid spending time with people whom I was trained to mistrust and who have learned to mistrust my kind or me.

3. If I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in an area which I can afford and in which I would want to live.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

7. When I am told about our national heritage or about "civilization," I am shown that people of my color made it what it is.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

10. I can be pretty sure of having my voice heard in a group in which I am the only member of my race.

11. I can be casual about whether or not to listen to another person's voice in a group in which s/he is the only member of his/her race.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser's shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

16. I can be pretty sure that my children's teachers and employers will tolerate them if they fit school and workplace norms; my chief worries about them do not concern others' attitudes toward their race.

17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my color.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

19. I can speak in public to a powerful male group without putting my race on trial.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

22. I can remain oblivious of the language and customs of persons of color who constitute the world's majority without feeling in my culture any penalty for such oblivion.

23. I can criticize our government and talk about how much I fear its policies and behavior without being seen as a cultural outsider.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the "person in charge", I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children's magazines featuring people of my race.

27. I can go home from most meetings of organizations I belong to feeling somewhat tied in, rather than isolated, out-of-place, outnumbered, unheard, held at a distance or feared.

28. I can be pretty sure that an argument with a colleague of another race is more likely to jeopardize her/his chances for advancement than to jeopardize mine.

29. I can be pretty sure that if I argue for the promotion of a person of another race, or a program centering on race, this is not likely to cost me heavily within my present setting, even if my colleagues disagree with me.

30. If I declare there is a racial issue at hand, or there isn't a racial issue at hand, my race will lend me more credibility for either position than a person of color will have.

31. I can choose to ignore developments in minority writing and minority activist programs, or disparage them, or learn from them, but in any case, I can find ways to be more or less protected from negative consequences of any of these choices.

32. My culture gives me little fear about ignoring the perspectives and powers of people of other races.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or self-seeking.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

37. I can be pretty sure of finding people who would be willing to talk with me and advise me about my next steps, professionally.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

40. I can choose public accommodation without fearing that people of my race cannot get in or will be mistreated in the places I have chosen.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

42. I can arrange my activities so that I will never have to experience feelings of rejection owing to my race.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

45. I can expect figurative language and imagery in all of the arts to testify to experiences of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them more or less match my skin.

47. I can travel alone or with my spouse without expecting embarrassment or hostility in those who deal with us.

48. I have no difficulty finding neighborhoods where people approve of our household.

49. My children are given texts and classes which implicitly support our kind of family unit and do not turn them against my choice of domestic partnership.

50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

"Expanding The Circle: End Racism" (in the links section) has more information.

I've more to say, but not now. This school thing is killing me lately.

Open Thread: Identity

Posting will be at a standstill until this weekend; it's been a long long long week. And it's only Wednesday morning.

Let's try an open thread in the meantime. Question:

"IDENTITY: What defines YOU? How does your identity affect your interactions with others and the perceptions made by others? Knowing who YOU are, what impact will you have on the world?"

Response?

REGISTER TO VOTE!

Hey All,

TODAY (Monday, October 23rd) is the VERY LAST DAY to register to vote in
the California elections!  If you want to also vote in the city council
race and city measures that directly impact Berkeley, you ABSOLUTELY MUST
(re-)register HERE at your Berkeley address.

(Re-)Registering takes about 5 minutes: student groups are tabling on
Upper Sproul and elsewhere to get students registered.  All it takes to
make sure you can use your voting power is to fill out a simple form with
contact and address information, SSN, and the address of where you've
previously been registered to vote (so they can switch you to Berkeley).
It takes 5 minutes, no joke.

Remind your friends/coworkers/residents about this important deadline!
For more information about the issues and candidates, check out:

http://www.easyvoter.org/site/evguide/
http://www.acgov.org/rov/documents/press_release081706.pdf
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/elections/measures/2006/bmindex.htm
http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/elections/candidates/default.htm


Once again: TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO REGISTER TO VOTE!  Do YOU have a
voice?  USE IT!

Who's Texas?

The University of Texas at Austin recently mailed me a booklet on their graduate program in cell and molecular biology. Printed on the envelope and perched at the top right corner was the US postage that read:

State of Texas
Official Business
Penalty for Private Use
WE'RE TEXAS

Yeah you are.

Confidence is still k*e^y

(Technorati Tags: Math, Education)

A recent study claims that students who enjoy math aren't very good at it:

The nations with the best scores have the least happy, least confident math students, says a study by the Brookings Institution's Brown Center on Education Policy.

Countries reporting higher levels of enjoyment and confidence among math students don't do as well in the subject, the study suggests. The results for the United States hover around the middle of the pack, both in terms of enjoyment and in test scores.

In essence, happiness is overrated, says study author Tom Loveless.

Personally, I neither enjoy variables (unless they spell out words) nor excel in math, but I'm still finding a very hard time buying this argument. It defeats all common sense to say that a student who doesn't believe in himself can outperform a student who loves the subject-- particularly if the subject is math, because math is the Devil.

Loveless states that those "colorful photos, charts and stories to please kids" found in American math textbooks are hurting our youth's chances to learn mathematical concepts, and they are a reason for why American math students are not on the same level as students from other countries who use books stuffed cover-to-cover with, I suppose, millions of equations. Like my college textbook, which worked so well for me.

In response to this study, we do need to ask, 'How was the data gathered?' What is the reason for such startling results?

His findings come from the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, a test of fourth-graders and eighth-graders across the globe. Along with answering math questions, students were asked whether they enjoyed math and whether they usually did well in it.

Yup, standardized tests. I get it now.

The problem here is that the test tries to answer two questions that are unrelated: what math skills does the student possess, and what is the student's interest in math overall?

Mathematical skill is dependent on previous courses the student may have taken, the quality of teachers at the schools the student attended, and the strength of examples found in the student's textbooks, among many other things. This dependency can be analyzed through the results of the test, because we have a dependent variable (student's ability to solve problems) and independent variables (efficiency of educational tools), as we've been analyzing for some time.

Where does a student's confidence in oneself and interest in a subject come from? If you enjoy math, it's not because of the multiplication tables you learned in 3rd grade; it's because of the math you currently have been studying. Enjoying a subject translates more or less to enjoying what you're doing, not what you may have learned prior.

If a student is currently learning a higher level of math than the test is standardized for (by grade level), it would be likely for the student to admit to (1) not doing very well in math and (2) not particularly liking math that much, while still nabbing a stellar grade on the test itself. Similarly, if a student is at a lower level of math, he would fail the test even though he may be a brilliant (and confident) student with the math skills he has previously been endowed.

Skill does not necessarily equate with interest, confidence, or outcome on a standardized test, and the study does not account for this.

And on the topic of math, I admit I have none of the above.

*DIVERSITY*

Listed here are my past entries on the topic of Diversity:

(*NOTE: per the new blogger Labels feature in January 2007, this entry will not be further updated but will instead be transferred over to the Diversity and Social Justice sections)

Take Note of Black Lightning, DSP (January 20th 2007)

A Noose in the Workplace (January 5th 2007)

Racism? In America? (December 12th 2006)

Daily Effects of White Privilege (October 30th 2006)

Leaders and Language Use (September 10th 2006)

Dominant and Subordinated Groups (August 26th 2006)

Retreat 1 of 1 (August 16th 2006)

MTV and 'social satire' (August 11th 2006)

HST: Race (August 8th 2006)

Hall Staff Training I (August 8th 2006)

Canada fighting "marijuana forests," losing

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants

War on terror meets war on drugs...?

Work

It's been a long week, to say the least. Will post again soon. In the meantime I'm chatting it up with some fine honeys:

Taking Action for Victims' Rights

(Technorati Tags: Melinda Duckett, Marc Klaas, Nancy Grace)

The tragedy of the Ducketts encompasses the full account of that family’s tribulations: the pains of divorce, the grief for a lost son, the shock of a mother’s suicide. And we’ve yet to reach the denouement: where, now, is Trenton?

“The Media is Always a Friend”

In the month that these previous acts have played out, the media establishment has been far from kind in its analysis, particularly from the likes of proclaimed victims’ rights advocates Nancy Grace and Marc Klaas, who both have been closely following this story. Unlike Grace, Klaas has actively committed himself to making a difference in protecting victims—our children. His daughter, Polly Klaas, was kidnapped and murdered in 1993; he now works to "give meaning to Polly's death,” and to “create a legacy in her name that will be protective of children for generations to come by pursuing the singular mission of stopping crimes against children,” as quoted from BeyondMissing.com, a nonprofit Klaas began to help parents find their missing children.

But viscerally similar to his CNN counterpart, Marc Klaas recently had choice words to say and hateful assumptions to strew concerning Melinda Duckett and the Media:

“In these kinds of cases the media is never the problem. The media is always a friend…. It’s about working with the media and it’s about getting over that hump that people are looking at you. And quite frankly, Melinda is not doing that very well at all.”
(Nancy Grace 9/8/06)

“I’m beginning to think that this was an extremely evil woman who was diabolical, vindictive. She seemed to cause great damage to anyone who came anywhere near her. She told her parents that they didn’t understand her. She let her grandparents find her bloody corpse. She did those things to her husband. And this little boy is absolutely missing.…
She may very well have sold that little boy for $900 that she left to her grandparents. She might have traded him.”
(Nancy Grace 9/26/06)

“Well, and you have a crazy woman, too, an evil, crazy woman.”
(Nancy Grace 9/28/06)

Evil, crazy, diabolical, vindictive, able to cause great damage, and she’s apparently also a saleswoman.

Marc Klaas: Intent and Impact

While we are proud of Klaas for his commitment to protecting our children, we do need to fault him for his indecency in defending the media’s role in the onslaught of the Ducketts and in further terrorizing Melinda. We need to fault Klaas because we want to see this media parade stopped; we want him to change his ways, and to continue focusing on helping the victims instead of victimizing the helpless.

But it follows that we now need to be on the defensive: for someone to hold such moral convictions, but in the same breath to also display such truly despicable and dehumanizing contentions, is a sign for concern. What exactly is going on in Marc Klaas’s head?

We need to be concerned that his convictions to help the victims—our children—are translating into effective efforts to stop criminals. And we should start concerning ourselves with his programs, beginning with BeyondMisssing.com.

BeyondMissing

Marc Klaas founded BeyondMissing.com, a nonprofit public benefit corporation based in California, in 2001, with the intention to “provide law enforcement agencies with a secure, Internet based system to create and distribute missing child flyers to law enforcement, the media, and public and private recipients.” This technology provides victim and abduction information immediately to law enforcement departments in the proximity of a child’s disappearance, as well as to businesses along routes of possible escape. Klaas’s nonprofit has secured over $1.5 million in grant money from the government just in the period of 2002-2004 to do this, but where exactly is the money ending up? 50% of it went to compensation and employee benefits. The other half is a little harder to pinpoint (PDF: 1,2,3).

BeyondMissing itself states that its technology has “assisted law enforcement in the search for a total of 221 missing children,” and “as of April 2006, 186 children have been found, and 35 children remain missing.” But the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) cites studies showing that, in a 1-year period of time, 797,500 children are reported missing. That’s 2,100 children each day on average.

In a total of 5 years, Klaas’s nonprofit has assisted 1/10th of the average number of missing children reported in one day.

Moreover, BeyondMissing has only 95 children listed as missing in the United States today.

Compare this with other endeavors implemented without a dime in donations or funding: the National Voice For Children (NVFC), for instance, gives another forum for families to post information about their missing children. The NVFC offers a system able to be updated by users via comments where families can communicate news directly and efficiently to the public domain regarding their case. The simplicity and ease through which families find use in the NVFC shows in the numbers: it has assisted 2153 children in coming home safely since inception in 2005. NVFC had 93 missing children listed in only the first 2 weeks of operation, and with time and effort it has only expanded the options available to help victims.

It was even through the NVFC that Melinda Duckett first made attempts to deposit case information for Trenton on the internet, on September 4th, 2006.

NVFC exemplifies the power of grassroots activism, and makes one wonder what exactly is being done for the children with the funding from Klaas’s nonprofit. Indeed, while the dissemination of information to law enforcement agencies and local businesses is a great idea, it is seeing a paucity of use and, sadly, is wasted potential.

KlaasKids Foundation

Marc Klaas’s other endeavor, the KlaasKids Foundation, was established in 1994 to also “give meaning to the death of twelve-year-old kidnap and murder victim Polly Hannah Klaas, and to create a legacy in her name that would be protective of children for generations to come.” Initiated with a meager $2000, its pockets are now lined almost entirely with donations made from the general public: $778,682 during 2000-2003 alone (PDF: 1).

But looking at the KlaasKids website does not necessarily fill one with assurance that much is being done with that money. Portions of the website have not been updated for years, such as the “New” newsletter of Summer 2004, or info sheets copyrighted in 1998. Basically, the website offers detailed information about child safety that need not ever be updated, as it currently stands. One of the only interactive activities offered on the website is the “Child Identification Packet (PDF),” which acts as a bare outline for fingerprinting one’s own children and encourages parents to keep samples of their children’s cheek tissue, blood, and baby teeth. Somehow, asking parents to keep blood and teeth in the freezer does not appear to be the best use of ~$200,000 in donations per year.

KlaasKids is often not even in charge of any event planning; instead, the foundation will ask for sponsors (community-minded businesses) and will then assist the sponsors in brainstorming for their local events, and will offer ideas on how to advertise and how to find volunteers. The community is the one putting in the effort, the planning, the location, the volunteers, the advertisements, and when the hard work is done Klaas comes in with his “Sentry Kids SK3000” machine that fingerprints and takes pictures of the children. For the latest fingerprinting-bonanza, “Print-A-Thon”, businesses are encouraged to “earn the respect of customers, community leaders, peers and employees for less than the price of a direct mailing.” Why shouldn’t the foundation defray the costs?

Promoting Action through Communication

Klaas’s two programs, BeyondMissing.com and the KlaasKids Foundation, suffer from inaction. They’ve both successfully accrued a large pool of funding, yet both seem unsure of what exactly to do with it. Active communication with law enforcement and the greater community would greatly assist their goals.

One need only look toward another Nancy Grace episode to prove this point:

On December 28th, 2005, Nancy Grace pleaded with the nation to help find or to offer information regarding a missing 13-year-old from California, Diana Gama, and informed viewers to contact the local police department or BeyondMissing.com with any information they may have had. This puzzled Steven Eckmann, founder of NVFC, who had recently contacted the PD and received the information that Gama was recovered on November 26th of that same year, after being missing for a total of three days. It seems Grace was slightly misinformed, and in turn misinformed the entire nation.

The worst part? BeyondMissing.com, where we assume Grace received her information, listed Diana Gama as missing for 9 whole months before the case was correctly updated. Of the few children that are listed on BeyondMissing, it’s quite possible that there are other situations similar to Diana Gama’s.

A program which exclusively provides “high speed communication tools” does not sit on its hands for 9 months. Open lines of communication between Klaas’s project and law enforcement would have easily prevented this situation, and for the tax dollars that are supporting it, we should expect nothing less.

But Klaas needs to also reach out more to the community for his ideas to be implemented. Why are there only 95 children listed as missing? Why haven’t more families of the 2100 children reported missing each day flocked to BeyondMissing? Why isn’t KlaasKids doing more than fingerprinting our youth, doing more to reach out to our communities nationwide, and doing more to get the information out and into our reach? Instead of actively pursuing our interests and our concerns, both programs idly wait for us to find them, and it is not effective.

What's Next for Marc Klaas?

Marc Klaas has great intentions; we definitely cannot fault him for wanting to do good in our communities. But the impact he has leaves a lot to be desired. We ask these things of Marc Klaas:

* Use the money in both of your projects’ coffers and some ingenuity to foster active communication with law enforcement agencies, and to keep your database of missing children up to date.

* Reach out more to our communities. Update your websites with current newsletters and actively pursue our interest.

* Utilize your influence and spotlight in the media to stop value-based assessments that destroy families, and stand up to Nancy Grace when she wants to make and encourage them.

* Help the Ducketts find Trenton. Set up a center to aid in the search. It’s the least you can do for Trenton after the pain you and others caused his family.

Marc Klaas, the Ducketts deserve better, the victims deserve better, and our children deserve better. We want better. And we are waiting.

Teachers Lock and Load to Preempt School Violence

Republican state lawmaker Frank Lasee suggests arming teachers to deter school violence:

A state lawmaker, worried about a recent string of deadly school shootings, suggested arming teachers, principals and other school personnel as a safety measure and a deterrent.

...

"To make our schools safe for our students to learn, all options should be on the table," [Lasee] said. "Israel and Thailand have well-trained teachers carrying weapons and keeping their children safe from harm. It can work in Wisconsin."

...

Lasee said he planned to introduce legislation that would allow school personnel to carry concealed weapons. He stressed that it would hinge on school staff members getting strict training on the use of the weapons, and he acknowledged he would have to work around a federal law that bans guns on school grounds.

Since guns, of course, solve the problem of the public school system's failure to provide for students. How about we arm our teachers with better resource management and funding so school and student needs can be actually addressed?

Stanfurd Takes Chemistry

Wow.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today awarded Roger Kornberg, PhD, of the Stanford University School of Medicine, the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in understanding how DNA is converted into RNA, a process known as transcription.

...

Kornberg, who is also the Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine, is the School of Medicine's second Nobel Prize winner this week. On Monday, Andrew Fire, PhD, professor of pathology and of genetics, was a winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on RNA interference. Together the two awards serve as a clarion announcement of RNA’s arrival in the scientific and medical spotlight.

I know where I need to go for grad school.

Berkeley Takes Physics

While the Nobel Prize in medicine yesterday went to a Stanfurd geneticist who just happened to be a Golden Bear in disguise, today we're privileged to have LBNL receive the award in physics:

Americans John C. Mather and George F. Smoot have won the 2006 Nobel Prize in physics for work that helped cement the big-bang theory of the universe.

Mather, 60, works at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and Smoot, 61, works at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

...

"The very detailed observations that the laureates have carried out from the COBE satellite have played a major role in the development of modern cosmology into a precise science," the academy said in its citation.

Modern cosmology! Us! Tomorrow the prize in chemistry is announced. 3 for 3? We're all anxiously waiting.

ASUC + Residence Halls = ?

With few notable exceptions, the Berkeley Residence Halls and the ASUC, Cal's student government, are completely seperate entities with their own management, ideas, and goals. One could argue we also have unique student bodies that we represent (first-year residents versus student groups). The Halls and the ASUC mainly interact only when it involves campaign violations during ASUC election seasons or illegal solicitation by ASUC-funded student groups on Res Hall property-- not a great basis for a relationship.

Knowing this, one may feel a little uneasy to read the Daily Cal reporting today that this will be changing very, very soon:

Earlier this month, UC President Robert Dynes issued a clarification to UC policy on university property that will now allow nonpartisan student-government organizations access to residence halls and dining commons to pursue potential voters for registration.

The clarification will allow campus organizations such as the ASUC to pass out voter registration forms and encourage voting practices in campus residential areas without being subject to solicitation restrictions.

Previously, policy regarding voter registration activities in areas that are not generally open to the public- such as dining commons and residence halls-was unclear, and campuses could have classified voter registration activities as a type of solicitation, said Valery Oehler, associate director for undergraduate and graduate campus life in the UC Office of the President.

...

This year, ASUC officials plan to take full advantage of the policy changes by working with and educating resident assistants in the UC Berkeley residence halls on how to register students, said sophomore Andy Kelley, director of campus mobilizing within the ASUC Office of External Affairs.

My stomach turns a little when I hear that the ASUC plans to "work with RAs", but I'll set aside my assumptions and watch how this voting season unfolds.

Stanfurd Nets the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Science transcends school rivalries today:

Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine Monday for discovering a powerful way to turn off the effect of specific genes, opening a new avenue for disease treatment.

"RNA interference" is already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and it is being studied as a treatment for infections such as the AIDS and hepatitis viruses and for other conditions, including heart disease and cancer.

Fire, 47, of Stanford University, and Mello, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, published their seminal work in 1998.

...

"Science is a group effort. Please recognize that the recent progress in the field of RNA-based gene silencing has involved original scientific inquiry from research groups around the world," [Fire] said in a statement released by the Washington-based Carnegie Institution.

Well put. On the Nobel Prize website there's also a link to an interesting and comprehensible narration of the flow of our genetic information, explaining how an intricate chain of molecules only 1/1000000000 meters thick gave you your 10 fingers, your 2 ears, and your smile.

UPDATE: I missed the most important part: Andrew Fire, the Stanfurd University geneticist who took the prize, is a Golden Bear at heart!

Work

School and work are biting into me hard as of late, but nothing new to add yet about the Ducketts--I'm still holding my breath though.

Here's a good time waster for everyone: an episode on "The Business of Love" from Penn and Teller: Bullshit!

Love that Google Video.