Week 2. Day 4. White Supremacist/Dominant Culture (Part 1): How does this show up, prevail upon and impact our work and our lives?? FSNE suggests this continuum as a reference.

I like the continuum for the way it organizes behaviors and thoughts. The problem I see is place-based. I cannot change the fact that many cities are very isolated and very white, or very isolated and very non-white. This means that people there may work on racism in place without firsthand knowledge. I’ve seen people, especially teenagers, go through an attachment of themselves to oppressed groups, use their undeveloped and unorganized thoughts (which are amplified by hormones in teens) to work out their own frustrations through a misplaced identification with the oppressed group they’ve adopted.

The white supremacist / dominant culture is present in many institutions, but again, my thoughts go to all the well-meaning and sincerely non-racist people – they can’t change their skin color and that prevents them from being perceived as genuinely open, accepting, etc. by minorities. I have seen plenty of relationships bloom between majority and minority, but getting that initial contact and trust is the hurdle. My own role in this would be to 1. use great relationship skills 2. enable events to cause intersection between minority and majority and 3. pray when I feel that I am powerless and pray for humility and thanksgiving when I feel powerful.