Activist speaks out about whiteness, stereotypes
Sam McManis, Chronicle Deputy Living Editor
Sunday, October 27, 2002 (SF Chronicle)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/10/27/LV172064.DTL

People sometimes feel uncomfortable around Judy Helfand, though she is a
good listener, looks you in the eye and never interrupts. Still, folks
watch what they say. They are careful, at least at first, not to tread too
deeply into the subject that is Helfand's passion -- race.
"Conversations about race, especially interracial conversations, are
difficult because there's so much history and experience of failed
communication," Helfand said. "Many people get defensive or prickly. For
whites, the fear is they may say something wrong or stupid that African
Americans may take offense to. For people of color, the fears are much
greater -- physical harm or oppression. It's not easy."
Helfand is a Sonoma County activist who has written a book, "Understanding
Whiteness, Understanding Racism" ($25, Thompson Learning). She is teaching
a six-week seminar in Santa Rosa about racial inequality, in which she
examines fears and stereotypes and how to "unpack the invisible knapsack
of white privilege" to dismantle racism.
She is, by the way, white.
And she knows what you're thinking -- white liberal guilt, right?
"Guilt can be useful," Helfand said, "if you recognize it and analyze what
to do about it. If you feel completely guilty because you were born white
with privileges, you can get overwhelmed and just sit on the couch saying,
'Oh, this is terrible what my ancestors did and here I am still benefiting
from it, ' blah, blah, blah, and not do anything. We try to get people to
make positive changes."
A big part of the six-week seminar, Helfand said, is just getting
Caucasians to realize the automatic advantages their skin pigmentation has
given them.
"The reason people don't know is that these are not questions we white
people are encouraged to ask," she said. "Look at our country's
immigration policies. Until 1952, you had the courts deciding what's white
and what's not. You had segregation shaped by federal policies, like the
practice of redlining.
"Most people of color are well aware of white privilege, but white people
just don't get it. But once whites start noticing things that made it easy
for them to live in the right areas, go to the right colleges, white
privilege makes sense."
Helfand said whites are taught to think of their lives and culture as the
norm and the ideal and to see people of color as the "other." In her
seminar, she uses a list of "50 Daily Effects of White Privilege" in
everyday life, compiled by Peggy McIntosh, an associate director of the
Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. The list details
everything from "going shopping alone without being harassed" to being
"pretty sure my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant
to me."
McIntosh writes that whites mainly see racism toward African Americans as
"acts of meanness, never as an invisible system conferring unsought
dominance since birth." Helfand says it is necessary for whites to "give
up the myth of meritocracy," ingrained in American consciousness.
"I guess-lectured at Sonoma State last week and (meritocracy) came up,"
Helfand said. "One student said, 'I always felt I was really smart and
that's how I got into college. Does this mean I'm not that smart and I
just got into college because I'm white?' It's not an either/or
proposition. It's not that white people didn't do good work to move up the
hierarchy. All of those things could be true, but what also is true is the
fact that being white is an advantage -- where they're born, what school
they went to, the expectations of their families, affording college . . ."
Helfand said whites can work to change white privilege first by
recognizing it exists, then by taking action.
"Make a commitment to reading books by authors of color, make a real
effort to intervene in school politics and race issues in your community,"
she said. "One of the women who took the course was a librarian in Novato,
and she organized a whole month of white-awareness activities that
centered on whiteness and focused on racism in the community. It got a
good reception."

Effects of white privilege
Sociologist Peggy McIntosh has identified "50 effects of white privilege"
in her life that have more to do with her skin color than her
socioeconomic class, religion or ethnic status. "As far as I can tell,"
she writes, "my African American co-workers, friends and acquaintances . .
. cannot count on most of these conditions." Here is an excerpt from
McIntosh's list:
1. I can, if I wish, arrange to be in the company of people of my race
most of the time.
6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and
see people of my race widely represented.
17. I can talk with my mouth full and not have people put this down to my
color.
20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit
to my race.
25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I
can be sure I haven't been singled out because of my race.
34. I can worry about racism without being seen as self-interested or
self- seeking.
46. I can choose blemish cover or bandages in "flesh" color and have them
more or less match my skin.
50. I will feel welcomed and "normal" in the usual walks of public life,
institutional and social.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle




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