{"id":1472,"date":"2014-11-15T08:48:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-15T16:48:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2014-11-16T08:23:20","modified_gmt":"2014-11-16T16:23:20","slug":"apparently-white-privilege-is-too-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472","title":{"rendered":"Apparently \u201cWhite Privilege\u201d is Too Much"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/anterobot\/15175640773\/player\/\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Could you maybe try to explain why the name is offensive but without saying \u201cwhite privilege\u201d? I think people stop reading when they see phrases like \u201cwhite privilege\u201d or \u201csupremacy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So began one of the more surreal questions I\u2019ve been asked by a reporter.<\/p>\n<p>Just to be clear: I was being interviewed about the power of words to hurt, to condemn, to offend.<\/p>\n<p>Particularly around an issue that focuses on the politics and <em>violence<\/em> of language, I\u2019m struck by the fact that the vocabulary necessary for discussing societal context is, in itself, too confrontational for newspaper readers*.<\/p>\n<p>I should state, here, that I\u2019ve been conscious of speaking more to the role of \u201cwhite privilege\u201d in the discussions of the name <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1455\" target=\"_blank\">Illegal Pete&#8217;s<\/a> than of a culture of \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d because the later will sound more radical and offensive to readers. Though it is language I theorize and use in my college classes and writing\u2013invoking the language of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=KLMVqnyTo_0&amp;list=PL5A99EF9376125764\" target=\"_blank\">bell hooks<\/a>\u2013I realize that \u201cwhite supremacy\u201d sounds too confrontational in a newspaper; it shuts down dialogue rather than opens it up. In case you\u2019re wondering, here\u2019s hooks\u2019s description:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0To me an important breakthrough, I felt, in my work and that of others was the call to use the term white supremacy, over racism because racism in and of itself did not really allow for a discourse of colonization and decolonization, the recognition of the internalized racism within people of color and it was always in a sense keeping things at the level at which whiteness and white people remained at the center of the discussion. In my classroom I might say to students that you know that when we use the term white supremacy it doesn\u2019t just evoke white people, it evokes a political world that we can all frame ourselves in relationship to.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>My <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1455\" target=\"_blank\">original letter<\/a> to Pete (which subsequently ran in the local paper) described \u201cwhite supremacy.\u201d And, resultantly, was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coloradoan.com\/story\/opinion\/contributors\/2014\/11\/11\/soapbox-use-words-create-division\/18818015\/\" target=\"_blank\">misinterpreted and denounced<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>However, even the language of \u201cprivilege\u201d seems too much for readers according to the reporter. As someone that\u2019s been accused of being too \u201cPC\u201d throughout this ongoing dialogue, why are the\u00a0words \u201cwhite privilege\u201d so offensive to readers?<\/p>\n<p>While I do not have empirical data, I can imagine the general demographics of the folks that have emailed me and commented on my blog and articles. Inferring from names, I suspect they are largely white and male.<\/p>\n<p>In her book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Other-Peoples-Children-Cultural-Classroom\/dp\/1595580743\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1416069485&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=other+people%27s+children\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Other People\u2019s Children<\/em><\/a>, Lisa Delpit discusses societal power and classroom life:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Issues of power are enacted in classrooms<\/li>\n<li>There are codes of rules for participating in power<\/li>\n<li>The rules of the culture of power are a reflection of the rules of the culture of those who have power<\/li>\n<li>If you are not already a participant in the culture of power, being told explicitly those rules of the culture makes acquiring power easier.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Those with power are frequently least aware of &#8211; or least willing to acknowledge &#8211; its existence. Those with less power are often most aware of its existence. <\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Pointing to power and privilege and difference (invoking another <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Privilege-Power-Difference-Allan-Johnson\/dp\/0072874899\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1416069519&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=privilege+power+difference\" target=\"_blank\">academic text<\/a>), perhaps it is the highlighting of power that makes the words \u201cwhite privilege\u201d so anger-inducing. Being asked to <em>see<\/em> how privilege still exists in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century and how it is tied to race is difficult to accept. Reading <a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/cuepoint\/nigga-please-93b5d29a615\" target=\"_blank\">Talib Kweli\u2019s problem with the \u201cN-Word,\u201d<\/a> I am reminded here that \u201cContext has consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>I should note that, in a conversation with Ally, she pointed out that much of the arguments I\u2019ve made about the name Illegal Pete\u2019s are centered on the same issues my scholarship on young adult literature and pop culture also focuses. My thoughts on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1116\" target=\"_blank\">Wreck-It Ralph<\/a>, on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1301\" target=\"_blank\">Kanye West<\/a>, and on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Critical-Foundations-Young-Adult-Literature\/dp\/9462093962\" target=\"_blank\">Gossip Girl<\/a>, for example \u2013 all challenge how invisible the privilege we carry can be. In the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Rsh0bgMT-Dk\" target=\"_blank\">words of George Clinton<\/a>: <em>It would be ludicrous to think that we are new to this\/We do this\/This is what we do. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>* There is an unspoken irony here that pertains with the readership of my local\u00a0newspaper. One aspect of the Illegal Pete\u2019s issue that I struggle with is\u00a0the fact that I only learned of the restaurant and its opening three weeks before it was to begin serving food in my community, despite the fact that it was covered by the local paper. Considering this was similarly the response of many of my co-organizers, one has to wonder if the paper is reflecting the voices, interests, and needs of its Latino community. Maybe this news wasn\u2019t delivered to us in time because this newspaper really hasn\u2019t cared about covering Latino issues (or covering them adequately as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.coloradoan.com\/story\/money\/2014\/10\/22\/residents-ask-illegal-petes-change-name\/17738197\/\" target=\"_blank\">shoddy coverage<\/a> of the <em>change the name<\/em> meeting suggests).<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1472\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1472\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-1472\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1472\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Could you maybe try to explain why the name is offensive but without saying \u201cwhite privilege\u201d? I think people stop reading when they see phrases like \u201cwhite privilege\u201d or \u201csupremacy.\u201d So began one of the more surreal questions I\u2019ve been asked by a reporter. Just to be clear: I was being interviewed about the power [&hellip;]<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled\"><div class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social sd-social-icon-text sd-sharing\"><h3 class=\"sd-title\">Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3><div class=\"sd-content\"><ul><li class=\"share-email\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-email sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=email\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to email this to a friend\"><span>Email<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-facebook\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-facebook-1472\" class=\"share-facebook sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=facebook\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Facebook\"><span>Facebook<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-twitter\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-twitter-1472\" class=\"share-twitter sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=twitter\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Twitter\"><span>Twitter<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-print\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-print sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to print\"><span>Print<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pinterest\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-pinterest-1472\" class=\"share-pinterest sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=pinterest\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pinterest\"><span>Pinterest<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-tumblr\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-tumblr sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=tumblr\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Tumblr\"><span>Tumblr<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-reddit\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-reddit sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=reddit\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Reddit\"><span>Reddit<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-linkedin\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"sharing-linkedin-1472\" class=\"share-linkedin sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=linkedin\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on LinkedIn\"><span>LinkedIn<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-pocket\"><a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-shared=\"\" class=\"share-pocket sd-button share-icon\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=1472&amp;share=pocket\" target=\"_blank\" title=\"Click to share on Pocket\"><span>Pocket<\/span><\/a><\/li><li class=\"share-end\"><\/li><\/ul><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pe04s-nK","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1476,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions\/1476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}