For more about the lucrative business of having well-meaning Western young adults volunteer in 3rd world countries, also known as voluntourism, here is a piece that talks, among other things, about what happens when non-professionals get to play bricklayers. And, here is one that (possibly coins, but at least) brilliantly explains the concept of voluntourism. Both of these stories were sent to me by students, themselves smack in middle of the target group for organizations that offer ‘volunteering’ experiences.
Category: social justice
american whiteness
Here is a fun read that came to me through Facebook: The Four Cutest Ways To Photograph Yourself Hugging Third-World Children. Number 3: While wearing traditional native garb, is my personal favorite. Angelina Jolie comes to mind, obviously. You can see her moving in on a little girl above.
I’m sure lots of people would disagree with me, but I do think white women’s tendency to wear traditional garb when traveling has to do with white people’s need to be somebody. In a society that takes whiteness for granted, white people often feel invisible. As if they were the only ones without culture, they have to seek out the cultures of others to get some sense of belonging.
All of this is backwards, of course, since whiteness in itself is a ticket to the ultimate belonging, the comfort that comes with being seen as ‘normal’. But, the first sign of privilege is that you are blind to it when you have it.
Some years ago I had a student, a white young man at the predominantly white Catholic campus where I teach. His name wasn’t Patrick O’Brien, but it could have been. In one discussion he told the class that, “Had I been Mexican, my life would have been easier.” The difficulty he experienced in his life was exactly what I talk about above. He felt that he didn’t know who he was.
Maybe at this point I should repeat the basic facts: A white young man, native speaker of American English, in college on a predominantly white campus founded on the religious principles shared by his own family, had a feeling of not knowing who he was in the world. He imagined that if instead he had been Hector Gonzalez, and his skin had been brown, his speech accented, he would have known his own identity.
Culture belongs to ‘the other’. Identity belongs to the brown, the gay, maybe to the women.
Another white young man wrote in an essay last quarter something along the lines of “seeing your own life played out in the media over and over again is addicting”. He was talking about a baseball movie he had seen as a child, that had featured kids that could have been any one of his friends, or himself.
Understanding that hegemony is addicting is a huge step forward from thinking that you don’t have an identity when you are white. Maybe there is hope, after all.
a feminist
I was sitting in the waiting room at the oncologist’s, when a young kid, a teenager, came in with what I assumed to be his girlfriend. The kid talked about x-rays of his lungs with the admins, so it seemed he was the patient. They went to sit across the room from me and I couldn’t hear their every word, but it was clear the young woman had had a discussion about feminism in class today.
“Feminists don’t hate men,” she said. “Man-haters are called misandrists.”
She said they had looked up the definition of a feminist, and learned that a feminist is a person who supports equal rights, and equality in pay and opportunities. Her boyfriend said that he thought those things were no-brainers. “Then you’re a feminist!”, she said.
This is where I couldn’t quite hear his response. But clearly he didn’t like the word feminist, or the idea that he was one.
Too bad, kid. You were doing so good. I have a feeling that 18 year old girlfriend won’t be giving up anytime soon, tho.
never ever read the comments if you want to keep your lunch
I read this story about the aftermath to the hate crime last fall at San Jose State University, and I think how hard can it be to get it right at a campus that is predominantly non-white, in a city, and a county, and a state, that is predominantly non-white. But then I read the comments, and I realize exactly why. Grown-ups are racist, and why would college age kids be any different?
not about don draper
So, the current season of Mad Men, season 7, takes place in 1969. When a character in the second episode turns out to be racist, people (present day viewers, I mean) are surprised, plastering exclamation points all over twitter. Really? I wonder if today’s smartypants have forgotten that racism may include actual face-to-face discrimination in the workplace. I also wonder if they think the Civil Rights Movement was some abstract thing, that naturally just made sense to everybody. Of course it didn’t. Both Dr. King and Robert Kennedy were shot in 1968, just a year before the events of season 7.
an extended family
My friend Steve is making a movie with his wife, and their family. That may sound mundane enough, but whole point of the movie is to question and expand the concept of family: The project An Extended Family connects families who used the same Northern California sperm bank, and the same sperm donor, some 15 years ago. Right now they’re in the middle of raising funds through Kickstarter, and the link for their page is here. Watch the video. It’s wild.