Vol. 2 No. 1 March 2002Greetings!!
Welcome back to The Path! This issue celebrates the second year of publication, and on this occasion we have the opportunity to learn mor= e about yet another critical topic for the evolution of consciousness and the emergence of a peaceful and healthy future: the topic of race relatio= ns. Our friend and Syntony Quest Board Member, Doug Paxton, has been engaged in collaborative inquiry on White Supremacy Consciousness and Unconscious= ness in peoples of European descent and in peoples of all colors and cultural backgrounds. He explores the dominance of certain values, ways of knowing= , and assumptions about the world that surround us that come the from histo= rical systematic privileging of Whites. His work is both thought and emotion provoking: it is an open invitation for self-reflection and for ways to make a conscious shift to modes of being and becoming that include and celebrate diversity, just as nature does. We have a lot to learn about the purposeful creation of syntony in our local and global communit= ies. With this issue of The Path, we continue to explore how we can do it toge= ther!
In syntony,
Kathia & Alexander Laszlo
Exploring how white supremacy lives in me
Did you know?
A practical suggestion...
Syntony Quest spotlight
Get involved!
We want to hear from you...=Exploring How White Supremacy Lives in Me
by Doug Paxton=
d-paxton@pacbell.netHalle Berry becomes Best Actress, the first time an African-American woman has won this award in all the 74 years of competition. In accepting the award, Berry said= , "This moment is so much bigger than me=85. It's for every nameless,= faceless woman of color who now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened." =85 I listen to an African-American woman friend descri= be her view of the state of race relations, power dynamics and discriminatio= n that is constantly impacting her life. I must either assume she exa= ggerates her story or I must dramatically expand my own view of the world to be able to make sense of her words and experience. I trust her and I believe her, but I do not comprehend her life.
A July 2000 poll in the New York= Times asked White and Black Americans whether "improving race relations" was, "one of the most important things we need to do for the future (Sack= & Elder, 2000)." Two-thirds of Black respondents answered yes, compared with only one-quarter of Whites. "Thirty five years after the dismantling of legalized segregation=85 blacks and whites conti= nue to have starkly divergent perceptions of many racial issues and they rema= in largely isolated from each other in their everyday lives" describes the same front-page story quoted above on How Race is Lived in America. = In response to the lauded series of articles developed by the New York Times on Race in America, one African-American scholar commented, "abando= ning investigative journalism for storytelling, the Times' race coverage was only skin deep. And as a result, it often trivialized racism as not= hing more than personal relations (Themba, 2000)."
What is going on here? Whi= le People of Color can be shocked with how little White people understand racism and confirm their beliefs that White people, at best, don't care about People of Color, White people can dismiss such difficulties by citi= ng over-sensitivity and reverse discrimination. The disparity in react= ion gets at what could be called the "racial reality gap." As a White person, I have only begun to understand enough about race dynamics in Ame= rica to more fully appreciate the dimensions of what remains unseen and misund= erstood in my mind. I have slowly learned that I must take responsibility for my individual actions and behaviors as well as the collective and ins= titutionalized social system of which I am a part. I have learned that the journey= requires me to pay more attention to what it means to be White.
As President Clinton's 1997 Dial= ogue on Race suggests, there is a growing awareness that White people need to come to terms with our racism and unmask our privileges. To be sure= , a minority of White people has been working to end racism dating back to the abolitionists. But for the majority of European-Americans, the race problem -- the minority problem -- is exactly that, a problem for those who are racial minorities. Gunnar Myrdal (1944) and the Kerne= r Commission (1968) clearly identified racism as a "White problem" decades ago, not to mention the insights provided much earlier by African-America= n writers like W.E.B. Dubois (1903). However, attention to the subjec= t still feels remarkably new and is perhaps a result of changing times, as the burgeoning field of "White Studies" seems to attest in bookstores acr= oss the country. As the discourse on race has moved away from segregati= on, voting rights and even apartheid, the subtleties of a still pervasive cul= ture of White Supremacy has become more difficult to identify readily in Europ= ean-American culture. For example, "White" is the one racial descriptor that has= changed the least in the past 200 years. By comparison, the change in terms from "Colored" to "Negroe" to "Black" to "African-American" in the past fifty years alone demonstrates a shift in language that correspo= nds to a dramatic shift in identity for persons of African descent. No such comparable self-awareness or conversation exists among European-Amer= icans. What now do I mean by the admittedly provocative term White Supremacist Consciousness (WSC)? The European-American Collaborative for Challe= nging Whiteness explains the importance of addressing and retaining the languag= e of "supremacy" in the following manner.
We are often approac= hed by White people who sincerely want to join a dialogue
about racism but who= are alienated by the word "supremacist." We believe it is important=
to use this emotiona= lly charged phrase. In common usage, "White supremacist" refers to
extremists who advoc= ate racial separatism based on their conscious conviction that White people
are superior human beings; these White supremacists often advocate hatred of non-White peopl= es.
We use the term "Whi= te Supremacist Consciousness" not to refer to a group of people, but to a
system of thought.&n= bsp; White supremacist consciousness describes a way of thinking that takes for
granted the legitima= cy of an American society dominated by White norms and values. In othe= r words,
White norms and valu= es are normalized, thus making their supremacy over other groups' norms and
values implicit.&nbs= p; It is this normalization that maintains the institutionalization of privi= lege based on
race (ECCW, 2002, p. 3).
The term White Supremacist Consc= iousness can be traced to Critical Race Theory (Delgado, 1995), a movement begun largely by legal scholars of Color who "view the law as complicitous in sustaining white supremacy, and, by extension, upholding similar hierarch= ies within gender, class, and sexual orientation (Isaksen, 2000)." Crit= ical race theorists seek to expose the multiple systems of race-based oppressi= on that appear to be "race-neutral" or "color blind (Parker, Deyhle, Villena= s, & Nebeker, 1998, p. 5)." Scholars Hammel, Manago, Murray and Robinson (1998) define WSC as "the socio-historical process by which the continued supremacy of people classified as white is assured in the most significant domains of existence." I appreciate the directness and inclusiveness of these definitions. One aspect of the systematic privileging that is crucial for me to understand as a White person is my own connection to the typically unconscious belief that White norms, valu= es and thinking are universal. Marlene Kerry (2001) refers to this phe= nomenon as White Supremacist Unconsciousness, to highlight specifically that elem= ent of WSC that leads to dominance over others because we are not aware of the systemic forms of racism.
I define WSC as the European-Ame= rican worldview that permeates both individual and collective consciousness, coupled with the stance that White norms, values and behavior are conside= red universal and normative. As the term applies both to individuals and to an entire cultural system of actions and interrelationships, it is a consciousness and unconsciousness that is not limited to European-Am= ericans. WSC also resides in People of Color in the form of internalized racism and oppression. As African-American scholar Cornel West explains, "I want to wrestle with this evil not over there but in me and its connec= tion to what's over there, the white supremacy of each and every one of us, no matter what color" (West, 1997). When I as a White person distan= ce myself from the racism of extremist groups, it can paradoxically make it more difficult for me to see my own participation in the racism of our country. Is there a way for me to step back and critically reflect upon how I know what I know about race in America?
Educators Elizabeth Kasl and Dea= n Elias (2000) present a metaphor by which to consider WSC. If we ima= gine a series of concentric circles, where the center represents the hegemonic= maximum, we would place those individuals who might be expected to enjoy the WSC system's greatest power--White, Christian, able-bodied, upper cla= ss, straight males--in the middle. With each concentric circle outward,= the individuals would be another step removed from the hegemonic center.&= nbsp; For example, a lesbian, Person of Color who was differently-abled would be situated in an outer circle. In framing WSC, I assume that the further away one is from the hegemonic center, the more likely that perso= n will suffer from the impact of WSC directly and, correspondingly, the gre= ater that group's potential ability to consciously see the impact of WSC on their lives.
Investigating White epistemology= is one way to begin to understand how European-Americans understand what they know. Ladson-Billings explains that it is a "system of knowing= ," where "the claim of an epistemological ground is a crucial legitimizing force (2000)." In other words, we define what "knowing" is about, and then assume the rest of the world must be judged by our own universal= definitions. Author Marimba Ani (1994) boils the European epistemol= ogical mode down to this: "Rob the universe of its richness, deny the sign= ificance of the symbolic, simplify phenomena until it becomes mere object, and you= have a knowable quantity. Here begins and ends the European epistem= ological mode (p. 29)." Examples of European-American systems of knowing inc= lude: rationality, logic and objectivity; scientism; dualism; the conviction of singular rightness (Barnhart, 1999); and the split between subject and= object that goes with these systems of knowing (Kegan, 1994, 2000). = As a White person, I must ask myself how my life is profoundly shaped by the taken-for-granted systems of knowing that permeate my every thought and perception. Can anyone be so certain of what and how they know?=
From an ontological perspective,= people living under the system of WSC believe that there is a "real" worl= d that can largely be understood through the application of science. We believe that time is linear, with past, present and future components that allow us to reify our concept of "progress" as superior. Europ= ean-Americans see logic as "synonymous with the truth=85 as the only road to reality (A= ni, 1994, p. 58)." For example, White people have transferred the respo= nsibility for addressing the mysteries of the unknown to science. We assume that this removes us from the messy and value-laden arena of using religi= on and spirituality to address the mysteries of life. It is perhaps this apparent "removal" from the way in which other cultures operate that= leads to our belief in the universal correctness of our views. What= if science has essentially become our form of religion? What if sci= ence is viewed as simply another belief system, with its own talent and biases= ? What if the way I think and define reality is more culturally based than I ever could have imagined? We assume that our way is "the" way, and it is this oft unconscious assumption, where our unexamined belief causes us to universalize our experience of reality to all "other" beings= , that makes our brand of dominance hierarchical. "White people often mask their experience (and feelings) from themselves. When that experien= ce is related to race, racism, privilege, or hegemony, the motive to separat= e themselves from their experience is strong=85 That WSC is often inv= isible to European-Americans intensifies it as a force for hegemony (ECCW, 2002,= p. 7-8)."
As I said, I am aware that using= a term like White Supremacist Consciousness can be inflammatory and provo= cative. However, until we can shift our language and unconsciousness (Kerry, 2001= ) about what we know on the issue of race and Whiteness, it is far riskier not to name and explore that which perpetuates power and privilege for one group of people at the expense of others. This term, WSC, is not intended as an indictment or condemnation of White people. Inst= ead, I think of it as an invitation to explore our own racial construction and= what it means to us as White people. All cultural groups have their= learning edges, and for European-Americans it involves expanding our cons= ciousness above and beyond the Western, Enlightenment, Cartesian, rational and mech= anistic worldview that has been dominant for much of the past 400 years. This is not to reject our capable past, but to add even richer capacities= to it. Beyond the dualistic reaction of right and wrong, I believe I have much to learn about how race operates at both the individual and institutional levels, which is the White Supremacist Consciousness I seek= to understand in myself. As friend and reviewer Suse Nakata helpful= ly challenge me to consider, how does this article itself, written in an aca= demic form designed to reinforce the validity of my message, get built upon the= structures of a White Supremacist way of knowing? Let us keep askin= g these questions together. Syntony Quest is an organization that str= ives to help me expand my consciousness. Please contact Syntony Quest (info@syntonyquest.org), the= European-American Collaborative for Challenging Whiteness (collaborative@eccw.org), or me directly at d-paxton@pacbel= l.net with further questions, reactions, or information. Thank you.[Note from the Editors: If you would like to see the list= of references to Doug=92s article, please scroll down to the end of this issue of The Path. Also, we invite you to join us in dialog= ue about these and other issues of the conscious evolution of humankind at the dedicated virtual learning space on the Internet at www.communityzero.com/syntonyquest]
African-Americans are more likely than Whites to see racism as a probl= em: 56% of African-Americans see racism as a big problem in society, while only 31% of Whites agree. (1)
While no one denies that still discrimination exists, 57% of African-A= mericans believe that blacks are seriously discriminated against in American socie= ty while only 22% of Whites agree. (2)
77% of African-Americans think that it is very important to have racia= l diversity in the workplace, while only 32% of Whites agree. (3)
There is broad-based agreement among parents that equal opportunity -- regardless of race, religion, or gender -- is an essential Ameri= can ideal (88% of African-American parents, 88% of White parents, and 82% of Hispanic parents). (4)
Hispanics are the ethnic group that is most poorly remunerated for the= ir work. The median income of year-round, full-time White male workers is&nb= sp; $29,862; of male Asian and Pacific Islanders, it is $25,124; of Black mal= e workers, it is $19,321; and of male Hispanics, it is $17,257. Women= =92s salaries are 51%, 61%, 68%, and 63% of the amounts received by their resp= ective racial/ethnic male counterparts. (5)
There was a 20% increase in the number of organized hate groups betwee= n 1996 and 1997. In January 1998 there were 163 American Web sites affiliated with the KKK, neo-Nazi organizations and other racial hate gro= ups. (6)
Sources
(1) Princeton Survey Research/ Newsweek 4/99.
(2) ABC/Lifetime 10/99
(3) CBS News/ New York Times 12/97
(4) Public Agenda, 9/98
(5) U.S. Census Bureau
(6) Southern Poverty Law Center, 1/98Two core aspects of the work of Syntony Quest are lifelong learning and community development. The former is the process of developing our potential as human beings; the latter is about creating shared purpose, connection and meaning. From our perspective, it is at the intersec= tion of these two areas where we can create the spaces for collaborative dialo= gue, learning, design and action. These are the safe spaces of authentic learn= ing communities where we can expand our sense of self to empathize with and embrace "otherness," and to activily create peace.
Doug is a wonderful example of someone actively engaged in collaborati= ve inquiry on the conscious and unconscious aspects of his "own racial const= ruction" as a White person. Wouldn=92t it be wonderful if we all were to eng= age in conversations about ways to foster unity in diversity? We inv= ite you to join us in an asynchronous dialogue about race consciousness, dive= rsity, and the personal and collective challenges of transcending ingrained ways= of thinking and being that perpetuate social injustices. Join us at our virtual learning space [www.communityzero.com/syntonyquest] where we look forward to exploring these issues ? together with you= =2E
* * *
Our friend and colleague, Yongming Tang, developed a framework for fac= ilitating the expansion of consciousness and embracing diversity. He calls it Synergic Inquiry, and it involves a four-step process. The first step calls for self-knowing: examining and making explicit one=92s own values,= beliefs, assumptions. The second step is other-knowing: learning more abo= ut the way of being in the world of another. These two steps represent= a process of differentiation. The next two steps involve a process of int= egration. The third step is differences-holding: embracing two different consciousn= ess as equally valid and able to co-exist, and thinking in terms of "both-and= " rather than "either-or" frameworks. Finally, there is differences-t= ranscending: the transformative step of going beyond the limitations of each single consciousness. It is this last step that characterizes the emergenc= e of an authentic community, or as M. Scott Peck describes it, "a way= of being together with both individual authenticity and interpersonal har= mony so that people become able to function with a collective energy even grea= ter than the sum of their individual energies." As Yongming suggests, we can only get there by transcending our differences.
At Syntony Quest, we use Synergic Inquiry as an integral part of our methodology for developing the community. If you want to learn more= about Synergic Inquiry or other aspects of healthy and authentic communit= y building, contact us at info@syn= tonyquest.org. You can also check the following online resources:
Masaji Takano
A narrative assessment of synergic inquiry: Its effectiveness in fost= ering
transformative learning in cross-cultural settings.
http:/= /www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/1997/97takano.htmYongming Tang
Synergic inquiry (SI): An alternative framework for transformative learning.
http://= www.edst.educ.ubc.ca/aerc/1997/97tang.htmlSyntony Quest has accepted a formal invitation to join the Planetary Ethics Alliance (PEA) as one of its Founding Members. Other Foundin= g Members include the Center for Partnership Studies, The Center for Intern= ational Development and Conflict Management, the Club of Budapest, The Goi Peace Foundation, The Good News Agency, The Parliament of the World=92s Religio= ns, Sister Cities International, The World Center of Compassion for Children,= and The World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality, to men= tion but a few of the International nonprofit organizations that comprise the Alliance.
The mission of the PEA is to catalyze and facilitate the evolution of the globally conscious and humanly responsible morality denoted by the concept of planetary ethics. Planetary ethics is the practical expr= ession of an evolved consciousness that enables all of us on this small planet to sustain life with dignity. A planetary ethics is already emergin= g, catalyzed in part by the tragic events of September 11 and their aftermat= h. But the task of bringing such an ethics to the attention of a critical mass of people, whether in America or in the rest of the world, and there= by facilitating its spread, is enormous ? and extremely urgent. The Founding Members of the PEA believe that no organization can successfully= tackle this task alone: any reasonable chance of effectiveness calls for a broad-based collaboration of like-minded people and organizations.
The inaugural meeting of the PEA will take place at the University of Maryland on May 22-24 of this year. If you want to learn more about= the PEA and its work, please contact us at info@syntonyquest.org.
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References for "Exploring How White Supremacy Lives in Me" by Doug Paxton
Ani, Marimba (1994). Yurugu: An African= -centered critique of European cultural thought and behavior. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.
Barnhart, Bruno (1999). Second simplicity:&n= bsp; The inner shape of Christianity. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Pres= s.
Delgado, R. (Ed.). (1995). Critical race the= ory: The cutting edge. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.<= /font>
DuBois, W.E. Burghardt (1903, 1957, 1961). T= he souls of black folk. New York, NY: Fawcett World Library.= African-American.
European-American Collaborative Challenging Whiteness= (expected 2002). "A multiple group inquiry into whiteness."
In Kasl, E. and Yorks, L. (eds.), Collaborative inquiry as a strategy for adult learni= ng: Creating space for generative learning.
New direction= s for adult and continuing education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Hammel, Roma; Manago, Cleo; Murray, Marianne and Robi= nson, Ron (1998). "Developing group capacity in a white supremacist
context: E= ntering the fire with heart." San Francisco, CA: California Institute of Integral Studies (Cohort 6 Group
Demonstration of= Competency).
Isaksen, Judy (2000). From critical race theory= to composition studies: pedagogy and theory building. Lega= l Studies Forum 695,
Volume 24, Numbe= rs 3 & 4. [Online] Available: http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop= /etext/lsf/isaksen24.htm Accessed: {February 24, 2001}.
Kasl, Elizabeth and Elias, Dean (2000). Creatin= g new habits of mind in small groups. In Jack Mezirow & Associate= s' Learning as transformation.
San Francisco, C= A: Jossey-Bass.
Kegan, Robert (1994). In over our heads:&nbs= p; The mental demands of modern life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard= University Press.
Kegan, Robert (2000). What "form" transforms?&n= bsp; A constructive-developmental approach to transformative learning. In Jack Mezirow
& Associates= ' Learning as transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.=
Kerry, Marlene (2000). WAR: Women at risk= : African-American women, white supremacist un/consciousness and the=
predominately wh= ite academy. Presented at the 12th Annual Cheikh Anta Diop Conference, October 13-14, The Afrocentric
study of African= phenomena: Challenging the traditions. Philadelphia, Pennsylv= ania: Temple University African-American Studies.
Ladson-Billings, Gloria (2000). Racialized disc= ourses and ethnic epistemologies. In Norman Denzin & Yvonna Lincoln (Eds),
The handbook of qualitative research (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: = Sage Publishing.
Parker, L., Deyhle, D., Villenas, S., & Nebeker, K.C. (1998). Guest editors' introduction: Critical race theor= y and qualitative studies
in education. International journal of qualitative studies in education, 11, p. 5.
Sack, Kevin and Elder, Janet (2000). Poll finds= optimistic outlook but enduring racial division. New York Times, July 11, 2000.
Themba, Makani (2000). How race is lived in the= media: The New York Times' misses the mark. Quotation from email:
mthemba@igc.org.=
West, Cornel (1997). The two nations of blac= k America. [Online] Available:
http= ://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/race/audio/cornelwest.html&= nbsp; Accessed: {August 28, 2000}.
Alexandria, VA:&= nbsp; PBS (Frontline).
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