Whiteness Discussion Questions
Hiya!
Thought I'd post a discussion question from the whiteness readings. I thought this one might spark some discussion since we've talked about it in class some:
I was fascinated by the discussion of white, female students crying in the classroom in “(Un)hinging Whiteness.” I’ve heard of this phenomenon before, but I’d never considered the way that it functions to re-center whiteness in discussions of racism. Rowe and Malhotra talk about the role that guilt plays in this phenomenon and express their disdain for guilt because of its inherent stagnation (when they are interested in movement). How does guilt differ from shame? When is crying a move to bring embodied grief into the classroom, and when is it a stagnating cry for affirmation? When is it both or neither? What other roles does or can crying in the classroom play?
Shara
posted by Shara @ 12:24 PM
1 Comments:
oooooh i am sad that i missed this. what a cool picture. and i missed the discussion of whiteness; it must have happened when these people i work for took over my life a month or so ago. (the audacity of the people who pay me, you know?)
Anywhirl, I don't know that I have an answer for the guilt/shame question. I don't think that my definition fits everyone, but I often feel like guilt, for me, comes from a place of privilege, that is it is a feeling that is usually associated with my concern for folks whose circumstances differ tremendously from mine due to very little of their own influence. whereas shame is often connected to my internalized stuff, so for me it operates primarily around money, appearance and being enough, doing enough in the world. the everlasting list of shoulds I shoulder and obsess about.
as for the crying, I've played around with this alot, because i am differently affected depending on the body that is tearing up. As a conduct officer, white women's tears rarely give me a tight feeling inside. Women of color's tears provoke a greater sense of urgency in me. And forget it when men cry. I feel like I must actively work against my own socialization process not to fix whatever problem is currently producing an emotional reaction that would result in tears. So, what's that got to do with your question? I don't know, but I think I have figured this out: I want a space for grief in the classroom. And I want white folks to have talked about race and grieved it with other white folks before they ever set foot in a classroom. and so sometimes that means I, as a person who experiences white skin privilege and internalized white dominance, have to reach out to other white folks and be invested in thinking and working through what it means to bear privilege in society based on my presentation.
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