There is no getting around it. When you go to a Quaker Meeting, the demographic in attendence tends to be older, white and upper middle class.
I haven’t been attending my Meeting. It has been over a year since I went. So, I was surprised to return today and find that the second hour was devoted to finding out more about conducting an Anti-Racism Seminar For White People for Meeting members. From the conversation, I gathered that there is an ongoing exploration going on within the Meeting to find out exactly why the group is so homogeneous. I think that is all to the good.
That said, the working assumptions for this particular class were problematic. For example, one of the assumptions was that, “Racism is white people’s problem. Just as sexism is men’s problem and heterosexism is straight peoples problem.”
I don’t understand how someone who claims to have experience working with ethnic communities can pretend that racism doesn’t exist between asians and blacks. If we broaden our definition of race to include ethnicity, there is certainly prejudice between ethnic Hispanics from places like Mexico and blacks in the United States. Yet, this person wants to claim that it is a white person’s problem?
Her analogies were also bad. There are feminine forms of sexism. Think about how many feminists concern themselves with the fact that women get lighter jail sentences in the U.S. criminal justice system or generally win custody battles over children.
The article linked above quotes Sharon Martinas, “When white people organize against our own oppression, but not against our privilege — that is, against the oppression of people of color — we become oppressors of people of color.” Is this also no true if we change white people to women and people of color to men?
I believe that racism, sexism and heterosexism are topics that desperately need frank discussion and confrontation. But, we cannot do so starting with assumptions that it is all the fault of white people, men and heterosexuals. Everybody is involved, and ultimately, we need to look at all forms of privilege and oppression to the equitable treatment of all. You cannot get there when you start with the assumption that all the problems we have to work through is the fault of one group.
Filed under: Essay , heterosexism, Quakers, racism, sexism
