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06.01.2001
questions about deconstructing racism..
be safe on your journey mom and jim.. let me know when you get there..
i have sent kelley, of the rop, my choices for the 2001 western states center community strategic training initiative.. the rop is one of the organizations that is being given preferential treatment for scholarships.. i have the time off and i hope i get approved.. hopefully i'll be there for 3 days.. 1 day of fighting the anti-queer agenda, and 2 days of deconstructing racism, or popular education..
i really hope i get to go to the deconstructing racism workshop.. its an issue i don't know much about really.. i know that i am racist to a point.. i think we all are.. there are so many stereotypes that are proliferated through our society and, sigh, i know i have taken in many of them without even knowing it..
its just been in the last year or so that i have started to confront myself with my own white privilage.. i am making a concerted effort to understand what it might be like to not be able to hide... you see, being queer and all, i can hide. i can hide my minority status, whenever i want. i've got long blonde hair, blue eyes.. i'm not obvious.. there are women who are obvious, but me, i'm not. so, whenever i feel the need to chameleonize myself, i can.. but someone of a different race, well, they can't. and though i'll never truly be able to understand what its like, i can start to understand the kinds of things i get to experience because of my white skin.. i can start to understand my privilage...
the next step, it seems to me, is to understand what i can do with that privilage to help folks of different races.. oh goodness, am i making sense? because i really see it as an issue of taking it a step further, what can i do to change the system that i have become aware of? how can i help the fight for racial equality? how can i help to break down stereotypes? what can i do?
to be honest, i really don't know what i can do. i got to hear morgan ahern speak about the roma folks, she gave me some suggestions about what i can do to help the romani.. but i want to know what i can do as a part of the human dignity movement.. what can i do in my position with the rural organizing project? what can i do as a queer activist in eugene around racial issues?
so, its the answers to these questions that i'm hoping to find in the workshop.
