Diversity seminar examines white privilege in society
Published Oct. 24, 2006
As a part of the You In Mizzou program, sponsored by the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative, students met to discuss white privilege Monday night in Memorial Union.
Rachel Jones and Noor Azizan-Gardner of the Chancellor's Diversity Initiative facilitated the seminar and discussions.
Nanette Ward, a human rights investigator for the City of Columbia Human Rights Commission assisted with facilitation.
The goal of You In Mizzou is to engage diverse groups of individuals in meaningful and respectful dialogue in small circles.
"White privilege is a system that we live under where the norm caters to middle-class white America," Jones said. "This is a predominately white campus, and it upholds white standards and white privilege."
After introductions, the meeting leaders asked attendants to participate in a level playing field activity. The activity was created by Peggy McIntosh, associate director of the Wellesley Centers for Women at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her work deals with analyzing white privilege and male privilege in American society.
The activity lines individuals in a horizontal line and asks participants to step forward or backward in response to statements dealing with individual treatment based on race. Statements included asking students to step backward if they would suspect racially guided treatment if they were stopped by campus police, or to step forward if they felt they could live a life without daily considering issues of race.
In the activity, non-white participants are separated from white participants based on their experiences. Following the reading of a list of statements, the facilitators asked everyone to turn to the center, face one another and look in each other's eyes, in an attempt to identify with alternate experiences.
Participants described their own perceptions of white privilege as "not having to think about it," or the freedom from a double consciousness — having to constantly consider whether their treatment was based on their qualities as an individual or was primarily dependent on racial qualities.
Participants found the question, "What can be done to rectify the problem?" as pertinent to the discussion on white privilege.
Nathan Stephens, director of the Gaines/Oldham Black Culture Center, discussed recognition as a possibility to begin rectifying white privilege in society.
"When an opportunity avails itself for you to right a wrong, as simple as a racist joke, just say 'Hey, that's not cool,'" Stephens said. "It may sound really simple, but if a friend is saying, 'That's not cool,' you might pause and rethink an original position."
Small groups addressed issues surrounding perceptions of race and identity, white privilege as an entity in society and future projections of dealing with racial inequality in the hiring and job market.
Each group had a self-guided discussion, and the facilitators guided this to surround the topics pertinent to white privilege.
"The goal of the white privilege workshops will be to explore what white privilege is, to become more aware, to discuss shame and guilt and becoming an ally while opening a cross-cultural dialogue," Jones said. "Whites have been silenced for a long time regarding race issues."