This piece of the interview was very refreshing to read. Very often I have been/ still am surrounded by people who are ignorant and choose to not think about their white privileges. While I understand the conversation of race/ racism is uncomfortable to many, having a lived experience of countless racial abuse I can say from a fact that while we move on, it still leaves a scar behind – it affects how we view ourselves.
I am a queer, able-bodied, brown woman. I have my own set of privileges (e.g my able body, caste, education, etc). Most of my work has been about womanhood and patriarchy, homophobia in my conservative society, casteism and racism. But I didn’t start making/ opening up this conversation straight up as it took time for me to learn and unlearn – to self-reflect on my own positionality and intersectionality. It took time for me to realise that if I don’t have the hierarchal ‘power’ I will have to learn to resist them and dismantle them.
In the interview, Jones shares about practising anti-racism by being an active bystander by challenging racist acts. I have written two pieces titled Hoping for a Better World and Fear or Racism. Along with my own experiences of being surrounded by passive bystanders and hate crimes occurring because of one’s race, I wanted to share turning a blind eye to these acts is also you participating in it. I understand in some aspects that it might be uncomfortable to intervene – but I ask, are we also not human beings? What about solidarity? What about the values of humanity?
I am beyond my gender, sexuality, race and religion, but when ignorant people look at me, I have been stripped away from who I actually am. Just recently at my workplace, a cis white man assumed that I am Malayasian because I am Asian – asking ‘where I am actually from?’. He also felt the need to ‘compliment’ my English.
In the interview, Jones is self-aware of her privileges and as an ally (and to be one), she encourages people to “listen, understand and educate themselves….rather than be defensive when challenged. ” (Jones, E. 2018, pp. 85). I agree with this as the more you are self-aware of yourself and the space you take up, you will recognise ways to challenge the unjust, discriminatory system/ society.
I can use this resource by doing an activity/ session with the students where they will be able to recognise their own privileges. I also read another interview of Gitan Djeli from the TOR and this had attached an activity of ‘What is Privilege?’ which I also thought was a very inspiring and useful resource.
Resources
BuzzFeed, 2015. What is Privilege?. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ&t=34s&ab_channel=As%2FIs>
Really appreciated reading your thoughts on this article Suprina and will take a read for myself. The idea of passive/active bystanders has come up quite a bit in seminar discussions and has been something I’ve thought about a lot in my own ruminations on a sort of ‘everyday solidarity’. In our working contexts, I’d say that passive bystanders often excuse their behaviour through a commitment to ‘politeness’ – as if somehow challenging racist thoughts or actions is less important that upholding these social codes.
Your blog post focused mostly on the contexts of your wider everyday experience, your practice and at work. I wondered how this might translate to our classrooms? How do we encourage our students to be active bystanders but without creating inflammatory or potentially harmful situations in that space for students of colour?
Hi Fenella, thank you so much for your comment. For a long time I have been thinking about how can we protect our students without creating a potentially harmful situation when we are encouraging our students to be an active bystanders. I think this is because I myself haven’t really found this answer…peace within myself – especially when you face racial abuse and micragressions but they won’t understand the pain it leaves behind . I mentioned/ linked in this blog about the ‘what is privilege?’ activity which I thought was a very helpful as a starting
resource in where participants can visually see the disparity amongst themselves. This I think creates empathy and heightens the recognition/ dynamics of power – which hopefully evokes participants to at least see and understand what can they do with their privileges, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD5f8GuNuGQ&ab_channel=As%2FIs