Workshop 9--Whiteness

Workshop 9 Feedback—March 12 

WHAT WE FOCUSSED ON TODAY: WHITENESS

Why do most White people not see themselves as having a race?  In part, race obliviousness is the natural consequence of being in the driver’s seat.  For most Whites, race—or more precisely, their own race—is simply part of the unseen, unproblematic background.

Here is the feedback from our workshop focused on Whiteness:

The concept of whiteness and its qualities and consequences is still more complicated and harder to grasp than might have been expected at this late stage.  It’s not so easy.

Excellent workshop—pace and different exercises generated deeper discussions, I felt.  I think we are grasping whiteness and its impact on everyone’s life in America.

Today stressed out.  I feel we do a lot of speaking for others when we should speak for ourselves—I speak for me.  We can focus on one aspect to come up with a desired discussion and comments of another aspect when we could be focused upon getting to a different aspect.  I wondered about having guests, the use of the sound system and the use of mikes.  I felt lacking. 

I think that we dug deeper into whiteness but people are still resistant to facing it.  The PowerPoint and film clip were effective except for the difficulty with the sound. 

I get some sort of insight from every one of these sessions, and this was no exception.