The Clackamas print., March 01, 2017, Page 8, Image 8

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ALASKAN NATIVE
8 Clackamas Print MARCH 1.2017 thedadamasprintcom
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W hich box would you check? W hy?
You m ig h t say i t ’ s based o n your eth n ic
background or the color o f your skin. But for
those o f us who check the box marked “ w hite,”
I wonder if, subconsciously, it feels like the best
answer.
This section, asking people to indicate their
race, is com monplace on many documents and
form s. But why?
“ Fact: racially, we are almost com pletely the
sam e. A sk an anthropologist. We are all, every
people, less than .1 percent d ifferent,” said Y.
Jelal Huyler in a documentary called “ Cracking
the Codes.”
It’ s true. When the Human Genome project was
com pleted in 2000, it was found that hum ans
have 99-9 percent of the same genetic code. So
where did race come from?
“ Race is the child of racism and not the father,”
writes Ta-Nahisi Coates in his book “ Between the
World and M e .” In other words, race was born
from the need to place people into a hierarchical
system where some have more advantages than
others.
Racism in America began during colonization,
w hen European settlers enslaved both Native
Americans and Africans. Then they developed a
system to determine who could obtain citizenship,
w hich was based on whiteness.
“ To be white was to gain full rights as American
citizens,” said Torey Browne during a lecture at
Marylhurst University.
The status came w ith b enefits. It still does.
C urren tly in th e U .S ., Fortune 500 C E O s,
C o n g re ss, th e POTU S c ab in et, m ayors and
governors are com prised m ostly! o f w h ites,
according to guest speaker Robin D iAngelo at
the staff in -service at Clackam as Com m unity
College on Feb. 10. These are the people who
have the money and power to make decisions.
It’ s called privilege. You didn’t create it. You
didn’t ask for it. You may not even be aware of
it. But, if you can check the white box, then you
have it. I believe accepting this truth is the first
step toward positive racial change in our country.
And where there is a privileged and dominant
group, there m ust be a subordinate, oppressed
group. O f course, this group is made up of those
who do not call them selves “ w hite.”
“ Racism still exists. Period,” said Erich Pfeifer,
Clackamas sociology instructor, in an em ail. “ So
many w hite people, when they see a person of
color, consciously or unconsciously, see their
‘race’ more than they see the ‘ person.’”
In her presentation to C C C sta ff, DiAngelo
told the crowd about a study that the University
of Chicago conducted. They sent out resumes,
some with stereotypical white names and others
w ith stereotypical black nam es, but otherwise
identical. There were 50 percent less callbacks
on names that “ sounded” black.
“ W ho people are is on the in sid e, not the
outside,” said Pfeifer. “ People o f color deserve
the right to be judged for ‘who they are’ and not
‘w hat they are.’ ”
So, checking the white box m eans more job
opportunities. Checking the w hite box means
having the com fort o f know ing that those in
power share, and will look out for, your “ race.”
And those who check the other boxes have a right
to feel threatened.
But we have com e a long way from the time
w hen b ein g w hite w as th e o nly w ay to gain
citizenship and w hen blacks were enslaved in
fields. So why can’t we just get over it?
The way in w hich white ancestors plowed over
people o f other colors does not just go away.
Joy Angela DeGruy, a Portland-based educator,
calls it “ post-traum atic slave syndrom e.”
So what do we do?
In order to rebuild a society where the colors
are equally beautifu l, we m ust tear down the
hierarchy w e’ve spent so much tim e building.
“ As white people, we have to learn to look past
our lim iting views of race, and instead see and
respect the ethnicity and culture of the unique
people we share our society w ith as eq u als,”
Pfeifer said.
DeGruy described a situation at a grocery store
in w hich her sister-in -law , who is mixed race
but appears w hite, spoke up for DeGruy as she
was being harassed by the cashier.
“ Kathleen knew that she walked through the
world differently than I did,” said DeGruy, “ and
she used her white privilege to educate and make
right a situation that was wrong. That’s what you
can do, every single day.”
So if you check the w hite box, I urge you to
acknowledge your privilege and use it to help
build equity for people of every color.
1 BLACK/AFRICAN
1 AMERICAN
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HAWAIIAN NATIVE/
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HISPANIC OR LATINO