Taking our consciousness home
Given much of the talk in our recent Bb forum surrounding privilege and how we take our evolving consciousness home, let's also open up a space here to share some of our holiday discussions--strategies, experiences, ways we'd say things differently next time, etc.
hooks claims that if we cannot confront these issues within relationships where there is love, there is little chance we will be able to take them up elsewhere, effectively. [Her challenges sound so simple, but are so complicated.]
hooks claims that if we cannot confront these issues within relationships where there is love, there is little chance we will be able to take them up elsewhere, effectively. [Her challenges sound so simple, but are so complicated.]
posted by adam at
1:50 PM
3 Comments:
I’ll begin as a reflection of what I posted recently in Bb regarding my plans to take this work home over the holiday. Any chance to discuss is a chance to more greatly clarify your position, hone your script, and deepen your consciousness. I, like many of you feel excitement, anxiety and anger around trying to confront others with our evolving grasp of such slippery concepts as privilege, oppression, sexism, social justice, etc. I wish I could say I feel differently after 10 years of seriously engaging this stuff, but I still feel these things And, I still feel like I am continually clarifying my position, honing my script, and deepening my consciousness. If I wasn't, than I couldn't claim to be critical any longer. And, I wouldn’t be authentic or ethical.
Recently, I had a chance to re-confirm/identify where such closemindedness comes from on the west side of Cincinnati, where I’ll be visiting over the break. After a gig on this west side last weekend, I witnessed one of the many laboratories in which these feelings of parochialism, racism, and paternalism are cooked up, as I sat in a working class bar sipping my Red Stripe and chain-smoking my Camel lights. Mind you, the bar was mostly working class white (many hailing from the high school I attended several years ago), but it was a racially mixed crowd. As just another white guy (although an interloper) sitting among the crowd I was privy to more than one discussion of racism, sexism, and heterosexism, and more than one display of sexism; oh, and one guy rolling a joint (but that's another story...). The narratives they've woven are nothing short of sad, if also despicable. Everything that surrounds them reinforces their plight and justifies their circumstance (in their eyes). They (we, really) were the product of a rigid socialization that had carved out a nearly/neatly non-pliable niche that had little alternative or opposition. Wish I could tell you that I challenged them all around their stuff, but, then, I probably wouldn't be here writing this post at the moment.... What it did, though, was help me recognize and reinforce that we've got to come up with more creative and heretofore unforeseen entryways into systemic change
What it also did, though, was suggest, as Audre Lorde (feminist, anti-racist, and anti-heterosexist) did, that the master's tools cannot dismantle the master's house. This is why it is so difficult to confront others verbally around these issues. We do not have a language of social justice; thus, the words we are left to use are the ones that have been constructed to support the status quo and the socialization we seek to resist. The formation of this language, equipped with its own spiritual set of actions, is crucial to this struggle if we are to overcome parochialism, fundamentalism, and, frankly, capitalism [in its current (any?) form]. This language will emerge through our own dialogical action and will form the bridge/translation between seemingly incongruent tongues. For sure, we need to hear these voices in this working class bar and learn from them. They understand a class oppression that is important to understand in the overall struggle. They can free us (me) of our (my) own limited thinking surrounding working class whites. And, perhaps they can help in the formation of this language toward linking various kinds of oppression (race, gender, sexual orientation, etc.)
In the short run, before we come up with this social justice language, we'll need to work with what we have. Issues I've decided to focus on, while listening to where my family is coming from, include helping people to view issues from another perspective, which Christine Sleeter conceptualizes as the "minority perspective." This is more than “walking a mile in someone else’s shoes” (because we can’t, in fact, do that)—this is respecting the possibility that folks have had other experiences that help them make sense of the world that might be different than the way we (my family) do (does). If your family is like mine, this also gives me an opportunity to inquire with them about their (fundamentalist) Catholic views (Catholo-fascist views if Rush Limbaugh was a Muslim, if you will) and get into that whole WWJD business. There is a wonderful strand and rich history of Liberation Theology that winds its thread throughout Catholic social teaching that focuses on the gospels as a social commentary and, really, a recipe for class revolution (which Che Guevara, in part, subscribed to, by the way). Let’s see, would the Christ be hanging out in the rich suburban churches castigating young women who have had abortions, attempting to justify the dropping of megaton bombs on the children of Iraq, defending the disproportionate and unjust sentencing of poor men and men of color to death, and blaming the poor for their own poverty? There is a more refined and innocent way to ask these questions of course (but I lose patience at times and stray from dialogical inquiry ), but perhaps they provide an avenue of exploring the contradiction of supporting a racist, patriarchal, and classist system while claiming to follow the teaching of one of the foremost revolutionaries of the last 2000 years.
At the very least, our struggle is one for moral dignity and the improvement of the human condition. There is little that I consider black and white or so cut and dry—but we’re either working for social justice or we are not. The gray is how we get there and is dependent upon our consciousness.
I wish you the possibility of a holiday that is spiritually enriching, filled with deep love and caring, and strengthening for the continued struggle.
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adam, at 1:59 PM
For me, I wanted to come home and show the family that my education is finally paying off. But it's a lot easier said than done in my family.
The one night that I really had a chance to talk with anyone (I was in bed sick the rest of the weekend) consisted of me questioning statements other people made. Like why is is that we have to differentiate when we say "prositute." My uncle works with prositutes who are male up in Chicago - one of those outreaches you don't even think about - and he had made a comment saying they were "male whores" (pardon his bluntness). He knew what I was saying, and went on to talk about his new doctor and how when he saw him for the first time, he was taken aback because he was black. He knew there was no reason to be startled, but he found it interesting that he was still somewhat surprised that the man was black.
Other than that I was unable to really get through to anyone because my family (as lovely as they are) has a tendency to talk over me. Oh! But I was called a commie pinko (sp?) and told I was probably on a watch list when my books about/by Subcommodante Marcos arrived.
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meghan, at 2:53 PM
Why am I not having a hard time envisioning you standing on the display table, Katy?
Sounds like Thanksgiving was interesting at both your places, Meghan and Katy. You provide us with perfect examples of just how challenging dialogical inquiry is--whether it is trying to shout over someone else or not being able to get a word in edgewise. I'm glad, though, Katy, that you were able to have that one on one time and feel like you could be heard. But, it also sounds like you were able to really listen as well--listening through an evolving critical ear, no less. I had a similar experience with my grandmother this holiday--perhaps hearing each other on a different level for the first time. This was, however, the extent of any serious engagement, as most people avoided/tip-toed around any potentially controversial topics around me. That's no different than most times, since folks have a peculiar idea about my degree, which, unfortunately, sets me apart--not necessarily by my choice, but, perhaps unconsciously, by choice. Difficult to pin down.
Nonetheless, we're beginning to see some of the potential angst a budding consciousness offers--as so few others are willing to engage this stuff, seriously, as they have too much invested in everything they believe and the way they live. But, who can blame them/us--the socialization leading us away from asking questions, seeking equity, building caring and conscious communities is powerful. So, this is our work—finding those times (humbly, as Ryan suggested in one of our small groups) when a challenging question is appropriate and choosing those times when it is appropriate to put our stuff out there (letting us see what our consciousness sounds like out loud). Moreover, it will be important to also listen, reflect, and continually reshape our consciousness toward even more critical potentialities—a more probing question next time, a more refined argument in another situation.
If we do this, we will not be pinned down by any particular dogma, linked to any particular school of thought, or overly influenced by any theory/author/teacher. We will be able to carry our process anywhere because it will be ours. This is not to say, however, that we do it alone—which is why this blog or our developing underground university (un)club is so crucial for emotional support, spiritual strengthening, and intellectual growth. It is here that we can hone our dialogical inquiry skills, be who we are, and both learn and teach. I know I speak for Dr. Brown when I say we are really looking forward to it. See you Monday and/or Tuesday.
(Meghan, I’ll ask Secretary Gonzales to take you off the watch list—I’m sure he is reading this revolutionary blog, anyway!)
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adam, at 6:03 AM
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