Unpacking Knapsacks

I am looking forward to our privilege and leadership summit with Francie Kendall on October 17th. I really appreciate her impact on the field of Education and Whiteness Studies. She is a dynamic speaker who will engage us with critical discussions that will impact us as educators and individuals.

Whiteness Studies is one of my research interests as a Race and Gender Studies MA student, and it provides me a level of hopefulness about progress moving forward. It has often been frustrating for me to see that for many people it takes people who look like themselves saying the same things that people of color have been saying for years for important issues about oppression to resonate. It has been a struggle for me and i'm sure others who know all too well that the messenger matters because of privilege, power, and assumptions. By acknowledging this and harnessing this, many of the foremost scholars in the field of Whiteness Studies who happen to be "white" have been able to reach out to their "own" so-to-speak and pave ground that we have been unable to penetrate. I am coming to believe that this is one of the critical tools that all of us who love justice and work to fight racism and inequality (both covert and overt) need to use, promote, and support.

In preparation for our workshop, I have been reading and re-reading several articles about the subject of privilege and power. This is important work and I hope that it spreads across the nation like wild fires with no iota of ground left untouched. We will never move forward until people of all backgrounds look at our issues, face them head on, and acknowledge where we are in perpetuating and promoting the marginalization of others. We will never really make real change until we do.

This is Your Nation on White Privilege


Your Whiteness is Showing:
An Open Letter to Certain White Women
Who are Threatening to Withhold Support From Barack Obama in November

The Invisible Knapsack

The Possessive Investment in Whiteness

The ladies of THE VIEW and John McCain!

I'm not a fan of The View but it's one of the only shows where hosts can literally attack one of their guests and get away with it. Watch how they question McCain who obviously can't handle four women at once.







:) nekesa

Playing the Vagina Card?

One thing needs to be made clear--just because Sarah Palin shares my anatomy does not mean she represents me or my interests. Sarah Palin's policies, worldview, and philosophies differ from mine on almost every level. Her interests are harmful to women, specifically those who are working class, middle class, and women of color. I think it is important to make this distinction while discourses about Palin representing women permeate the media.

These two articles (below) are interesting because they speak to the distance and alienation many women who don't fit into the "hockey mom", gun-toting, male-validation driven mold. I'm praying that women of color, lesbians and transgendered women, single women, and immigrant women who can vote band together on Election Day and make our voices heard.


Two Views on Sarah Palin and Women of Color



Sarah Palin and White Married Women

9/11

New Yorker's lives didn't stop or even come to a near halt with 9/11. Instead New Yorker's lives were thrown forward. New Yorkers knew who they loved more than ever before that day. And, to that end, New Yorkers knew more clearly what it meant to live alone or without the one they loved.

While others, like myself, sat still and watched the footage replay over and over again, New Yorkers didn't have such a luxury. And, New Yorkers, before anyone else, understood the unfortunate terror-filled world the rest of us have just become to understand since 9/11.

Enjoy this link, a wonderful story by Rudy Rush about 9/11 and the value of caring. LINK