Newspaper Page Text
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JUNE 17, 1999
BARBARA'’S BEAT By Dr. Barbara Reynolds
Whiteness and privilege
hat does it mean to be among
the privileged class for noother
reason than skin color.
White skin means never hav
ing to be called a token and never having
to be the recipient of an affirmative ac
tion program just to get an education or
job and then having to listen to the
debates that you shouldn’t even have it.
White skin means seeing yourself as
the major sources, anchors and talking
heads on virtually all the important TV
news shows and sitcoms. It means being
told that all angels are Whites and all
devils are red or Black.
Finally, academia is embracing White
ness, perhaps in the same way it did
African American studies. “Whiteness
studies” are being incorporated as a hot
topic in books articles and academic
courses, according to the cover article of
the May 13 issue of Black Issues in
Higher Education, published in Arling
ton, Va.
Since the staff, students, faculty and
adminjstration on mainstream campuses
are majority White and slated to become
Whiter as racist conservatives fight
agamist affirmative action the campus
culture, visiting lecturers, subject mat
ter are stifling to those who do not share
that skin color.
Aépsi\rently many college campuses do
not reeognize the importance of engag
ingand understanding different cultures.
Whiteness studies are frequently mis
understood to be White supremacist
movements or “White trash,” says Jean
Stefacic, part of a husband/wife team that
edited; the 1998 book, “Critical White
Studies, Looking Behind the Mirror,” the
authors explain that the study of White
nesd i an essential part of eliminating
racisnf and White privilege, and it fo
cusés on White pop culture.
Today, a majority of the scholars study
ing Whiteness are White. I don’t know if
they will raise the correct questions.
Fglf example, why do White men, who
are about 35 percent of the population,
believe they are entitled to almost all of
the top jobs and best housing when there
are deserving groups who have worked
just ds hard or harder for a piece of the
good life.
Why are the majority of the serial
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killers and mass murderers White?
Why do so many Whites hate Blacks
although they do not know any Black
people personally?
Why do so many Whites assume their
beliefs, traditions and insight should set
the standard for others who have a rich
history and culture of their own?
On the other hand, if Whiteness is not
going to be anything other than a syn
onym for racism, that too would be a
disservice. I don’t believe White people
need reassurance of their importance
because their skin color is a set aside by
birth. But an examination of whiteness
must move us beyond just finding ready
ethnic dumping ground.
Other than denigrate Whiteness, stud
ies offer several interesting insights. For
example, differences in immigration.
“Many Irish, Germans, Italians and Jews
were at one time treated as non-Whites,
but over the years have become Whites.
Says Stefanicic.
Some defenders of Whiteness studies
argue that the courses will be liberating
for both Whites and people of color. “In
White culture, we believe we are human
beings struggling tobe gods,” says Marion
Groot, a professor at the Women’s Theo
logical Seminary in Boston. “That is be
cause secondary by many Whites. Thatis
our spiritual disease.”
Anotherinteresting perspective comes
from Dr. Christine Clark, education pro
fessor at New Mexico State University.
She says some Whites view themselves
as saviors. “They only feel comfortable if
they are working with people of color
with a victim-focused identity. In this
society you can’t be White and not be
racist. But you can fight against it. I was
raised toenjoy privilege. Only when White
people own up to their responsibility on
benefitting from White privilege can a
meaningful struggle for equality occur.”
Black people have been studied obses
sively and almost always to prove already
preconceived negative ideas. It can only
improve things, if White people begin to
study their own assumptions, especially
those of entitlement.
:White is right and Black get back.” I
grew up hearing that and that stifling,
oppressive premise has been around far
too long.
Charles W. Walker
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Opinion
CIVIL RIGHTS JOURNAL By Bernice Powell Jackson
Some justice for Louima
ith the plea bargaining agree
ment of Justin Volpe and now
the conviction of Charles
Schwarz in the beating and
sodomizing of Abner Louima, one more
chapter of the tragic and frightening and
on going tale of New York city police
brutality against people of color comes to
a close. It’s not all over yet since offer
Schwarz’ layer has indicated that they
will appeal his conviction and since Mr.
Louima has filed a civil suit against New
York City for the injury done to him that
night. Moreover, not all of the officers
who were tried were convicted, but at
least some justice has been achieved in
one of the most horrible cases of police
brutality in this nation.
After the jury’s decisions were an
nounced in New York, Mr. Louima indi
cated his disappointment with the acquit
tal of those officers whom he claimed had
beaten them in the police car on the way
to the precinct. Incredibly, it was the
police precinct bathroom where he was
sodomized with a broken broom handle
by Officer Volpe while officer Schwartz
held him down. But, Mr. Louima said he
was gratified to know that finally those
who terrorized him that night were being
forced to pay for their crimes.
All too often in the few police brutality
cases that do reach trial, the jury dis
misses the testimony of the victim, choos
THIS WAY FOR BLACK EMPOWERMENT By Dr. Lenora Fulani
Here is 2 man I love
f you're a regular (or even not-so
regular) reader of my column, you
know that I devote many of them to
issues of politics, psychology, culture
and the Black community. I want to
make a shift this week and tell you some
things about a man I love.
Okay, hold on here. Don’t go running
to the National Enquirer with this story.
You won’t read it in the supermarket
tabloids. And you won’t see it on Enter
tainment Tonight. The man is a New
York clothing designer and manufacturer
who looks a lot like Alec Baldwin. And
he’s wealthy, too. But before you start
‘saying — “My God, has Fularii really
fallen for a rich Jewish entrepreneur?” —
let me clarify a few things.
My love for this man — his name is
Alex Garfield — isn’t the romantic kind.
(Sorry, National Enquirer!) It’s the kind
i that grows and deepens over years of
‘working together on a project that is so
‘ close to my heart — and now so close to
his — that you could say, in this respect,
‘our hearts beat as one. Alex Garfield is
‘a major supporter of the All Stars Talent
Show Network, the youth anti-violence
program I co-founded with Dr. Fred
Newman. And Alex is someone who
gives himself so entirely to this cause
that his name has become virtually syn
onymous with the program that uses
performance as a tool for development,
serving over 20,000 inner city kids each
year.
On June 9, the All Stars Project hon
ored Alex Garfield at a gala dinner aptly
named “Young at Heart” at Lincoln Cen
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ing to believe the police officers instead.
In many cases prosecutors do not even
file charges against police or the grand
jury refuses to indict them because most
Americans still find it difficult to believe
that some police officers do harass and
sometimes beat people of color. Indeed, it
is only because of cases like those of
Rodney King, where a by-stander video
taped the beating by police or in cases as
unsettling as that of Mr. Louima that
large numbers of Americans have begun
to question the reliability of the blue wall
of silencedisavowals. In the Louima case
several things happened which changed
the usual dynamics of police brutality
cases. First of all there was the horren
dous nature of the sexual attack on Mr.
Louima, which immediately drew the
headlines in the press and a public out
cry. Indeed, Zachary Carter, the U.S.
Attorney in this case, called it “the most
depraved act that’s ever been reported or
committed by a police officer or police
officers against another human being.”
And perhaps it was the nature of the
attack which brought about the second
change the break in the “blue wall of
silence.” That code of silence of police
officers, thus called the blue wall, has in
the past been almost impossible to break
and thus it has been hard to get police
officers convicted in cases of police bru
tality. In the Louima case it was only
ter in New York City. More than 500
supporters from finance, fashion, media
and industry were there. Among those
who took the stage to pay tribute to Alex
and the All Stars was Mary Wilson, one of
the Supremes (actually, an original Su
preme). She spoke so eloquently about
her own days in Detroit and how the kids
in the neighborhood housing projects
loved to perforra. The All Stars reminded
her of all the energy and hopefulness of
those days. It was a real thrill to have
her!
Motown wasn’t the only cultural form
represented on the stage. American
Ballet Theatre star dancer Susan Jaffe
was there, too. Her eyes brimmed with
tears as she spoke about having had a
difficult childhood and finding that dance
— and the opportunity to perform —
literally changed her life. She identified
with the kids. Susan also stopped by a
rehearsal of the performance that the All
Stars youth presented at the gala. It was
quite something for a prima ballerina
and hip hop dancers to be mixing it up.
That'’s the All Stars!
Dr. lan Smith, the medical correspon
dent of WNBC-TV in New York, opened
the evening by reading from I Know Why
the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou.
Wall Street and Seventh Avenue (the
fashion industry) were represented on
the stage, too. Douglas Reid, the director
of Banking and Finance of Soros Fund
Management and John Fleming, the se
nior vice president of the Department
Store Division of the Dayton-Hudson
Corporation, the co-chairs of the benefit,
after four other police officers testified
against him, and despite months of deny
ing the allegations, that officer Volpe
admitted hisguiltin a pleabargain agree
ment.
But while some justice has been
achieved in this case, there still can be no
reconciliation in this terrible case. That
is because after pleading guilty, Officer
Volpe apologized to his family but refused
to apologize to Mr. Louima. Without
apology and a request for forgiveness
there can be no reconciliation. Without
admittingguilt totheinjured party, there
can be no healing. That is true for Officer
Volpe and that is true for the New York
City police department.
It’s time for an apology, it’s time for an
admission of guilt and it’'s time for a
request for forgiveness. It’s time for all of
those from Officer Volpe and from Police
Commissioner Saffir. It’s time for all of
those to Mr. Louima, to the communities
of colorin New York and the great people
of the city of New York as well. The New
York City police department has already
paid out millions of dollarsin settlements
to victims of police brutality, but without
those admissions ofguilt and requests for
forgiveness there will be no reconcilia
tion and healing and there will be no true
justice. And the brutality will just con
tinue.
helped host the event. Dr. Leonard
Coleman, a very prominent New York
surgeon and a dear friend of Alex’s for 40
years, gave a moving tribute. Of course,
Dr. Newman and I spoke about Alex’s
extraordinary contribution to the pro
gram we founded 16 years ago, as did the
president of the All Stars Project,
Gabrielle Kurlander.
Oh, and did I mention that the event
raised over a million dollars?
Finally, the All Stars youth — whp
ranged in age from six to 31 - performed
their hearts out on the stage. A special
rap was written and performed as a trib
ute to Alex based on the great Frank
Sinatra song for which the event was
named. I wish you could have come.
But here’s the thing. With support
from Alex Garfield, who's now involved
in helping to expand the All Stars from
New York and New Jersey to Atlanta and
San Francisco, the All Stars will be com
ing to you. With it comes the pride of our
youth and their extraordinary capacity to
perform on stage and in life. And with all
of that comes a whole lot of love. Con
gratulations, Alex. I love you.
Lenora B. Fulani twice ran for presi
dent of the U.S. as an independent, mak
ing history in 1988 when she became the
first woman and African American to get
on the ballot in all 50 states. Dr. Fulani
is currently a leading activist in the Re
form Party and chairs the Committee for
a Unified Independent Party. She can be
reached at 800-288-3201 or at http://
www.Fulani.org.