Growing up in the suburbs
of Vancouver as a middle class
white woman, racism was not
something that I was often forced
to think about. Almost everyone
around me was white; and to me,
racism was something that hap-
pened in the US, or Toronto, or
maybe even in Salmon Arm, but
not in my community. As far as I
could tell, it had nothing to do with
me. I certainly wasn’t racist—af-
ter all, I espoused the typical lib-
eral view that everyone should be
treated the same way regardless of
race, sex, etc...and heck—one of
my best friends was Japanese. .

Once in a while, I might
have gotten uncomfortable itching
feelings that maybe something
wasn’t quite right, but it would
quickly pass or be negated by TV-
induced stupefaction or by govern-
ment propaganda that frantically
waved the banner’ of
multiculturalism as proof of our
Canadian niceness.

After moving out of sleepy
suburbia and living through a few
years of painful learning experi-
ences and reflection, I have come
to the conclusion that I most defi-
nitely am racist. I believe that
many of the luxuries and benefits
I am able to access as part of my
lifestyle are the products of sys-
tematic and institutionalized rac-
ism and unearned white privilege.

I have also decided that
these are things that I would like

MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

Campus Concerns

On Racism and White Privilege

to change—telationships based on
domination are dehumanizing to
both the oppressor and the op-
pressed.

In order to start dealing
with this in my life, I have felt it
necessary to examine the ways in
which racism and my unearned
privilege as a white person affect
my day to day existence. (This
examination has been heavily in-
fluenced by Peggy MclIntosh’s
“White Privilege Papers” which I
would encourage anyone to read.
They are available in the PGPIRG
office.)

Here are just a few ways
that I can think of:

Food: Many of the fruits
and vegetables that I can buy
cheaply are the result of exploit-
ative labour practices that pay
landed immigrant workers (most
often people of colour) less than
minimum wage. Items such as
bananas, chocolate, and coffee are
produced in countries where the
majority of the people are people
of colour who are forced by an
economic system of European ori-
gins (industrial capitalism) to work
on export rather than subsistence
crops for the benefit of the rich,
white-controlled western nations.

Clothing: Much of the
clothing that I can buy is produced
by women working for slave
wages in inhumane conditions
around the world—these women

are almost always women of

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Information and applications now available from:

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aarpae

colour. The garment industry of
Montreal is a Canadian example.

Housing: When | look for
affordable housing, I am not dis-
criminated against because of the
colour of my skin, or because the
landlord once had a bad experience
with tenants of my race.

UNBC: Every security
guard that I have seen on this cam-
pus is white. Every senior admin-
istrator at this university that I have
met or seen is white. The Univer-
sity structure itself is based on
European models of education,
and a university or college educa-
tion is often the only recognized
and validated form of education
and qualification in Canadian so-
ciety. While living in residence
last year, I heard many racial in-
nuendoes that were accepted by
several of my peers as joke or as
fact. In my course work (Environ-
mental Studies), I can expect that
most of the readings and theories
that are discussed in class are writ-
ten by people of my race.

Personal Beliefs and Atti-
tudes: For the first eighteen years
of my life, I didn’t think of myself
as belonging to a “race”—white
was the norm and everyone else
was of a certain “race”. I used to
think of racism as nothing more
than nasty acts carried out by in-
dividuals of one race with the in-
tent of harming individuals of an-
other race. I now realize that rac-
ism includes the unearned privi-

o+a re he vr 4

overtheedge 21 Feb, 1996 Pp r= F se

lege and dominance that is auto-
matically conferred to me as a
white person. I did not understand
that the land I live on was stolen
rather than peacefully negotiated
(myths of Social Studies 11) from
the First Nations. I believed in
treated everyone the same within
the boundaries of a white-con-
trolled white culture (same does
not mean equal!) I find. French

accents intriguing and Asian ac--

cents difficult. I still think of Eu-
rope as a separate entity from the
Asian continent. When I close my
eyes and visualize a map of the
world, England is at its centre, and
Africa is not much larger than
Greenland. I notice distinctions in
the facial features of white people
more than I notice them in people
of colour.

These are just some of the
ways I can think of in which rac-
ism and white privilege affect my
daily life. They are not very hard
to understand once you have
thought about them— interesting

that it has taken me twenty-two

years to see them.

When I first began to come
to some of the aforementioned re-
alizations, I was very defensive. I
was also paralyzed for a long while
by guilt, which is often a very use-
ful emotion. There are much more
constructive things that I can do
towards reducing both my un-
earned privilege and the racism
that is a consequence of it. Some

is

of these include speaking out about
racism, listening to and working
in coalition with the people who
deal with racism on a daily basis,
boycotting products that are pro-
duced under inhumane conditions
(Guess Jeans and Sears are two
examples), and demanding that
racist government policies change.

Jenny Biem

RIP (Racism Interferes with
Peace) working group

The RIP (Racism Inter-
feres with Peace) working group
of PGPIRG meets every Thursday
at 2:30 pm in room 5-125 to dis-
cuss issues of racism and to think
of creative ways to deal with them.
We would like to start by raising
awareness and creating dialogue
about racism on campus. To this
end, we are planning several
events this semester, including
deconstruction activities on
Multiculturalism Day, and popu-
lar theatre skits. Everyone is wel-
come to get involved! For more
info, drop by the new improved
PGPIRG office in room 7-234b or
give us a call at 960-PIRG.

PS: RIP is looking for anew
name, so if you have any sugges-
tions, please give us a shout!

Photo Paul Berard

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