10 J u s t o u t T march 2Q. 1998
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Community organizer Adam Kahn challenges the queer movement to
tackle racism in the discussion series Hey, White Boy! by Patrick Collins
I
|
hen Adam Kahn arrived in
Portland a year ago to attend
Reed College, he didn’t
notice at first how over
whelmingly white the city is.
“Friends came to visit from out
they pointed out how white it is here,” he says.
“Plus, 1 started getting to know people of color
who told me what it was like to live here.”
Rather than sitting back in the confines of a
notoriously racially imbalanced liberal arts col
lege, Kahn got busy attending workshops and
asking community activists questions about the
W
to change the system,” he says, adding that he
considers it hypocritical that many organiza
tions in the queer movement do not directly
attack issues important to other oppressed
groups.
“Political
of town
and agendas seem to focus on accultur
ation rather than on changing the whole sys
tem,” Kahn says. “Queer movements seem to
ignore the issues concerning people of color, and
I’m not comfortable with that. Separate plat
forms only serve to divide people who could be
working together.”
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Concerned queers confront racism in the Hey, White Boy! discussion group
availability of training focused on racial issues.
Finding little to that effect, he signed up for
the Peer Leadership Program administered by
Cascade AIDS Project. The program brings
together queer youth from an array of back
grounds and trains them to organize in
Portland’s gay and bisexual community. It also
provides a small stipend for participants to run
their projects.
The result of Kahn’s participation in the pro
gram is an eight-week discussion series called
Hey, White Boy! The group convenes on a
biweekly basis at Portland State University;
meeting formats range from video screenings to
discussions of pertinent literature and sharing
personal experiences.
While Kahn is pleased the discussion is
underway, he feels a progressive and inclusive
queer movement is long way off.
“This is hard work,” he says, speaking not
only of the discussion group, but also of the
white experience in a broader sense. “There’s a
feeling of denial around the race issue among
white people. It’s very easy for me to go and have
this conversation every other week, and then go
back to my small liberal arts college that’s total
ly lacking a diverse student body. It’s very easy
for me to slip back into not noticing my white
ness, and without that recognition you’re only
contributing to the problem.”
As Kahn sees it, the problem, or a very large
part of it, is what he refers to as white privilege.
“It’s very easy for us, as white people, to deny
the whole racism issue,” he says. “People want to
start talking about it, but they’re hesitant. It’s an
uncomfortable place to be, acknowledging lots
of messy issues."
Acknowledging and discussing racial issues,
Kahn says, is merely a beginning.
“Gay white men have to realize that they
have access to the money and the power it takes
* - • i t
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who asked not to be identified by name for this
article, attended a meeting of Hey, White Boy!
after learning that a discussion of transsexual
politics was on the agenda.
“1 appreciated that the conversation was
happening at all,” he says.
He describes himself as “mid-op”: he’s had
some surgery, is on hormone therapy and hopes
to go further. Most people, he says, perceive him
as a straight white male.
“As queers, I think we’re all into gender
bending,” he says. “But when you’re actually a
transsexual there are lots of medical issues—
surgery, hormone therapies, good doctors. Going
to this group gave me a chance to express some
of my views.”
His views, not surprisingly, include looking
at the world through the eyes of a heterosexual
white male.
“I have a responsibility as a white male that
1 didn’t feel as a white female," he says. “It’s my
responsibility to tackle issues that my privilege
allows me to tackle rather than sitting back and
enjoying the benefits. White men have more
access to jobs, higher pay, more safety in the
world. The world has become a safer place for
me, and I feel it’s my job to make it a safer place
for everyone.”
Without considering this project a success or
a failure, Kahn says he isn’t sure if he wants to
facilitate another discussion group in the future.
If he does, he plans to alter the format.
“It’s become very obvious to me that to have
a good discussion about racial issues you need to
have more people of color included," he
explains. “People in this group are fairly com
fortable, and I think we need to be challenged.”
■ H ey , W hite B o y ! runs through M ay 7. It is free
and operates on a drop-in basis. For more informa
tion, call C A P at 223-5907.
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