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Oppression Harms the Oppressor
I am a member of several oppressor groups. I am white and heterosexual. I am a man. I am temporarily able bodied. Am I harmed by oppression? You bet I am. In this essay I will attempt to outline how oppression harms the oppressor. Be prepared for personal examples. I have existed for most of life as an oppressor. Thankfully I have begun a personal paradigm shift that has allowed me to take on dialoguing about oppression as well as my own personal position within the dominant paradigm. My experience is wrought with examples of homophobia, heterosexism, racism, and sexism. I believe that I have been harmed by my participation in these “isms.” The harm that comes from this experience is a soul sapping, slow dripping obliteration of my humanity. Fortunately, I have had two experiences that have jogged my oppressor identity into an anti-oppressor self-awareness.

Homophobia
The first experience that illuminated to me that oppression harms the oppressor happened when I was working in Chicago. The Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues (CCSLGBTI) was sponsoring an open microphone event in the quad. It was UIC’s Day of Speaking Out. It was a sister event to the Day of Silence. I sat in the quad and reflected on my journey from high school to work force. In high school I would frequently describe things as being “gay.” My high school thrived on homophobia. Less than sixty kids were in my graduating class and some of them were gay. Of course, no one was out or openly gay. It would have been too dangerous. I remember picking on a classmate who we thought was gay. I myself was not macho by any means and I think making fun of Adam deflected negative attention from me to him. My homophobia definitely came from my environment. It was part of the culture of my home town. A few years later, a friend would end my homophobia. It seems like she was able to make me realize that I was oppressing people. I had unknowingly “othered” homosexuals. I realized that my self-identity as a “nice person” did not allow me to continue to be homophobic. As I walked up to the microphone at UIC, I knew exactly what I needed to say. I apologized to Adam and to all of the other “Adams” that I had oppressed. It felt good to regain a part of my humanity that had begun to erode away. I continued to plan events, volunteer, and be an active ally to the LGBT community at UIC. When I oppressed folks who were gay, I hurt them and I hurt myself. I was destroying multiple humanities. In fact, I think I regained some of my dignity that had been lost during my high school and college years. I’ve also benefited from relationships with people who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender. Oppressors lose when they cause harm. We lose knowledge, love, and support.

Sexism
I have been raised in a patriarchal culture. I am a man and thus part of the patriarchal oppressor group. I have been cut deeply by my contributions to patriarchy. My marriage lasted for more than four years. We married young and like most men, I was a raging vat of sexism. Sure, I never said anything blatantly sexist, but I was still extremely sexist. Looking back, I feel that the biggest reason that my ex-wife divorced me was that I was sexist. I would talk about “helping her with housework” and say things like, “I can’t cook as well as you can so you will have to cook instead of me.” In my patriarchal mindset, I believed that it was completely normal to talk in this manner. The women in my life had all been the primary cooks, cleaners, and house keepers. I did not know any better. I was a nice guy but I was still a patriarchal bastard. My divorce was finalized during the summer. In the fall, I took a class called Feminist Philosophies. It was like a roadmap for my soul. I learned why my ex had left me. I had oppressed her and she had done the right thing. It was the epitome of oppression harming the oppressor.

Parallels
I think my experiences with homophobia and sexism parallel other scenarios that confirm that oppression harms the oppressor. For example, a White man who engages in racism loses out on the breadth and depth of experiences that an all encompassing anti-racist identity can provide. A racist White man turns into something that cannot be full of dignity. The humanity of said person is silently removed.

Lessons
My personal experiences have been almost completely framed by my self-awareness. Being an oppressor is not easy. It takes away your soul and harms someone else. I have learned that it is much easier on my soul, humanity, and dignity if I am an ally, an anti-racist, and a feminist. White supremacist patriarchy would like me to believe otherwise but I resist/persist because I do not want to harm myself or anybody else anymore.

Identity Immersion Paper (15%)
This paper will allow students to explore how one personal identity characteristic impacts her or his life experiences. A student will select and focus on one identity characteristic for an entire week. She or he should be constantly cognizant of how that identity trait impacts personal decisions, prejudices, stereotypes, and personal past experiences. Students should also consider how that identity characteristic affects other people’s perceptions and attitudes towards her or him. Students can focus on race, gender, ability, or sexual orientation. A different type of identity characteristic than those in the previous sentence might be appropriate with prior instructor permission.

white

White. It is the identity that always comes first. I usually say that I am a white-heterosexual-man. My journey to clearly identifying as White started in Iowa where I used to state quite emphatically that I was German. Of course I knew I was white, I just did not have my identities clearly defined. (Please note that I will use white or White depending on the sentence for purposes of clarity. The capitalized version is a necessity based on sentence structure while the preferred — lowercase, is a simple gesture in giving up a bit of my paradigm by subverting its written status!) As a 28 year old graduate student/professional student affairs practitioner, I have decided that white will be the identity that I will select as the identity for my identity immersion reflection.

Having read Helms, Wise, Tatum and hooks, my whiteness is something that I am cognizant of on a minute by minute basis. I feel like my social justice radar has been created by my ever present sense of self-awareness. I used to say that I advocated for diversity and that I was an ally for multiculturalism. (I still advocate for diversity and multiculturalism. I just have a better understanding of myself and how that affects my advocacy. It’s all about knowing your privilege and power.) I thought I was aware of myself and my whiteness. I wish I knew when I realized that I was white, but unfortunately, I existed as someone who thought they were only German, Irish, and Cherokee (the fact that my Native American heritage was completely repressed and oppressed was invisible to me) until I was twenty-seven. I do know that the second time that I found out about my whiteness was indeed a life changing event. I read Janet Helms’ White Identity Model and it changed my life forever. Helms’ writings affected me like a slap to the face. I was completely unprepared to deal with white privilege, white guilt, and the question of “what’s good about being a white person?” I have been able to address my privilege, the extreme amount of negativity that comes with the acknowledgment of that privilege, and to move towards a white anti-racist identity.

Why did I not choose my gender or sexual orientation as identities for this reflection? They are indeed part of my trifecta of identities. However, I feel that my gender (I’m a man) and my sexual orientation (heterosexual) have been fairly defined throughout my life. I do identify as a feminist and as an ally. These are important to me as well as the fact that I realize that I receive unearned privileges because I am a heterosexual man. I am well aware that sexism and heterosexism will only cease to exist if folks who have the same identities work towards the eradication of these “isms.” But, the enormity of white privilege as a complete system of unearned advantages overpowers or at least takes priority over my other identities.

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Google is offering Gmail as an alternative email system for universities that do not have the time/money/etc to internally host student email accounts. The new service will allow students to have their .edu emails with all of the added features of the Gmail service. It’s all beta, so who knows how long this will last…the first victim client is going to be San Jose City College. Good luck SJCC!

Update: I wonder if Google will serve up advertisements on .edu Gmail accounts? How would this be in line with a universities policy on third party vendors and advertising?

Inspiration for individuals who want to affect change and shift some paradigms…

The Hundredth Monkey by Ken Keyes, jr.

The Japanese monkey, Macaca fuscata, had been observed in the wild for a period of over 30 years.

In 1952, on the island of Koshima, scientists were providing monkeys with sweet potatoes dropped in the sand. The monkeys liked the taste of the raw sweet potatoes, but they found the dirt unpleasant.

An 18-month-old female named Imo found she could solve the problem by washing the potatoes in a nearby stream. She taught this trick to her mother. Her playmates also learned this new way and they taught their mothers too.

This cultural innovation was gradually picked up by various monkeys before the eyes of the scientists.

Between 1952 and 1958 all the young monkeys learned to wash the sandy sweet potatoes to make them more palatable.

Only the adults who imitated their children learned this social improvement. Other adults kept eating the dirty sweet potatoes.

Then something startling took place. In the autumn of 1958, a certain number of Koshima monkeys were washing sweet potatoes — the exact number is not known.
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An interview with Dr. Lani Roberts, “What is Diversity?”

Turn up your speakers or plug in your headphones. This is an audio interview with Oregon State University Philosophy professors, Dr. Lani Roberts and Dr. Joseph Orosco.

It’s part of ENGAGE.

ENGAGE is the podcast program of global culture, transformative concepts, and engaged philosophy produced by the Department of Philosophy, in collaboration with the Grassroots Learning Project at Oregon State University in Corvallis, Oregon.

Each podcast presents a conversation with innovative thinkers about the ideas and values that constitute contemporary life. ENGAGE seeks to understand the challenges that face our society and the solutions that offer hope for a better world.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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This is a test of the Eric Stoller blog email broadcast system. Please let me know if this worked

Today’s class discussion was a mixture of white privilege, racism, heterosexism, institutional power, rape laws if written by women, rape as defined by men, the Kennedy’s and their whiteness, the rampant heterosexism-racism-sexism in the textbook, and a general sense that 50 minutes is just long enough to get everyone thinking before the “bell” rings. We talked about the fact that everyone in the class is a TAB = Temporarily Able Bodied individual.

I could tell that there was plenty of resistance from the white students in the classroom. The nonverbals were telling me a lot. I saw several double crosses = arms crossed & legs crossed. We talked about the institutional privileges that advantage white folks. The class came up with a list of institutions — Legal system, Medicine, Education, Government, Corporations, etc. One student said that his family had institutional power. I illustrated that his family did have power but on a small scale and that families did not have institutional power. Then I was struck with a great question: What about the Kennedy’s? We then talked at length about the Kennedy’s and how they could affect change on a large scale. I asked my students why the Kennedy’s had institutional power. They said things like, history, traditions, etc. No one said anything about the Kennedy’s being white. I wrote “white” on the chalkboard and one of my students erupted “WHY DOES WHITE HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT?” I calmly proceeded to say that the Kennedy’s power and influence is in large part because they are white. They benefit from all of the other institutions that benefit white people. The Kennedy’s have advantages because someone else has disadvantages. To further prove my point, I referenced the fact the President and the majority of our government leaders are white and this has been the case since the beginning of this country. My students agreed that this was indeed an issue. I asked my students how many presidents of color we have had in this country? or how many openly gay supreme court justices? or how many textbooks reference the “discovery of America” by Columbus.

One of the most difficult parts of today’s class was when a male student said that rape was essentially a term that had been given a bad rap and that only men could rape women. I kept thinking to myself as he was talking that I needed to figure out a way to preserve his dignity while at the same time affirming to all students that rape was 1) awful and 2) could be perpetrated by both men and women. I offered up that violence against women is why women are afraid to walk alone at night on campus and that he would most likely never, ever have to worry about being raped and that I felt that it was wrong that women have to prove that they are raped – which can lead to victim blaming. (How do you squash dominant-ignorant viewpoints, maintain a safe classroom, and still allow this student to feel like he can voice his opinion?) It was probably the most challenging moment I have ever experienced in a classroom.

On Wednesday we are going to watch a clip from the OSU Voices Project about diversity and discrimination. I plan on having the students write a one minute reaction paper and then we will gather for a large group discussion. Wish me luck. 18 students and a guy from Iowa, what a wild ride!

By the way, the class is an academic success class. We are covering time management, note taking, goal setting, learning styles, wellness, diversity, critical thinking, communication styles, and more! I’m taking a holistic approach with this class. Academic success is made up of many dimensions and I hope to cover as much as possible.

Wendy seems to think that this is too pink. What do you think? I was getting a little bored with the red, blue, and gray.

Wendy and I went to the OSU LaSells Stewart Center this evening to see/hear Pink Martini. They are an incredible band that is from Portland, Oregon. Their music has been used in films, television shows, and commercials. Tonight, they played with the Corvallis Youth Symphony Orchestra. I was a little skeptical that high schoolers could hang with Pink Martini, but these kids could play! It was a great night. Here’s a link to the Pink Martini online radio. (Flash-based)

Or you can listen to Pink Martini from within my blog!

By the way, describing the music of Pink Martini is practically impossible. It’s eclectic. Its creators graduated from Harvard. The band lives in Portland. Tonight’s songs were in Spanish, English, Italian, and Russian. Hang on Little Tomato, a song from their second album makes me emotional every time I hear it.

From the Pink Martini website:

Somewhere between a 1930s Cuban dance orchestra, a classical chamber music ensemble, a Brasilian marching street band and Japanese film noir is the 12-piece Pink Martini.

Part language lesson, part Hollywood musical, the Portland, Oregon-based ‘little orchestra’ was created in 1994 in Portland, Oregon by Harvard graduate and classically trained pianist Thomas M. Lauderdale to play at political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, affordable housing, clean water, and public broadcasting. The group made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival and in the years following went on to tour throughout Europe (including France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland and Monte Carlo), Greece, Turkey, Taiwan, Lebanon and the United States.

Pink Martini on NPR: Pink Martini Plays It Cool, Shaken and Stirred by the Music of Pink Martini, A Second Sip of Pink Martini