The big elephant in the room: Talking about Whiteness

The constant interaction of people throughout life enables a fluid exchange of knowledge, shaping and remodeling what, when and how we learn. This process of growth, be it physical, intellectual or spiritual is a lifelong learning experience, interfering and stirring up our original (initial) ideas.  In class, professor Plumb allegorically gave the example of the river of learning.   If the river is reflective of an ever-moving learning body, then it is important that we examine what structures interplay with in it, and the historical existence of our acquired knowledge.

 Patriarchy, colonialism, and racism have founded, influenced and reinforced the White dominant ethos that we have built our educational institutions and systems on.  These structures are the cornerstones in which our acclaimed scholars and philosophers pride themselves, while continuing to pollute our learning river with inequalities and false histories.  In order for education to become equitable to all people, we must begin with a more comprehensive understanding of how power and privilege intersect with a person’s ability to learn. Carr states, “...within the Canadian context, that Whiteness must be challenged for there to be meaningful change in education: this (decentering Whiteness) means relinquishing our cherished notions of morality: how we understand fairness, how we understand what it means to be a good person, how we understand what it means to be generous or sympathetic or tolerant or a good listener. When we are challenged for our whiteness, our tendency is to fall back on our goodness, fairness, intelligence, rationality, sensitivity, and democratic inclusiveness, all of which are caught up with our whiteness (pp. 16-17).”

Whiteness has allowed white people to exist, operate and centre themselves as the normative.  Benefiting from their white privilege and power, they design and implement structures to marginalize communities of colour while oppressing and dominating them.  “Whiteness constitutes "institutional discourses and exclusionary practices seeking social, cultural, economic and psychic atvantage for those bodies racially marked as white"  asArai and Kivel (2009, p. 460) affirm.  

As we saw in class, a certain difficulty some students addressing concepts of race when the professor was White, in comparison to our previous class with a self identified Black professor. The conversations that flow in the hall or in group discussions around race, when amongst an all Black group, involuntarily welcomes the ideas and opinions of that group, yet once brought into an arena with White people where the power and privilege of whiteness announce itself, the flow becomes dampened.   If we can have difficult conversations around race/racism amongst ourselves, what is it that makes us feel silenced or depowered when White folks are participating in the discussion?  How do these barriers or inequalities interfere with the way in which we learn, or what we learn?  This is not to assume that all Black folk feel silenced or depowered, or that other power dynamics are not interplaying within an all Black setting; however, an overall silencing vibe can be felt when race becomes a focal point within a mixed crowd of White people and people of colour.  Carr echo’s this by stating, “One of the main tenets of anti-racism is to allow individuals and groups the space and voice to articulate who they are as well as being cognizant of the power and privilege to name the “other” (Dei, 1996).”

Robin Diangelo suggests that “Many scholars of multiculturalism who examine the production of Whiteness in education argue that a structural analysis of racism will not produce less racist institutions as long as the production of Whiteness is left unexamined (Castenell & Pinar, 1993; Powell, 1997; Sleeter, 1993)”.

How do we begin to engage in a discourse around whiteness if the very essence of power from Whiteness dominates Black people’s ability to discuss? These are challenging questions that throughout our time in class and within our community practices should encourage a deeper analysis of political and social inequalities.  

In Wenger's text, he argues dimensions of practice as a mutual engagement, a joint enterprise, and a shared repertoire. What is our community practice then, if not the very experience of blackness?  Further Wenger states, “But it is saying that the power- benevolent or malevolent- that institutions, prescriptions, or individuals have over the practice of a community is always mediated by the community’s production of its practice. External forces have no direct power over this production because, in the last analysis…it is the community that negotiates its enterprise.”  I would argue that outside of our community of practice, Whiteness as an external and powerful factor has great influence over Black people.  Our community of practice then, must always interrogate these external factors seen as malevolent. Wenger, neglects to acknowledge the inherent power that White systems exercise over people of colour, and the negotiation of that power will only happen when those within power recognize, and relinquish it through active anti-racist frameworks.  In negotiating meaning within such a community of practice, malleability will become a reification that is at odds with the resistance needed to combat racism. (Wenger 52, 53)

In the case of the cohort, a White professor who eneters our community practice as an external person, has an opportunity through teaching to assist in re-centering the Black experience.  Carr calls to this, when stating, “Being involved in the decision-making process to determine racial, linguistic, ethnic and cultural categories is, therefore, integral to public policy development (Carr, 1999). Avoiding recognizing difference can only compound pervasive systemic barriers (James,2003).”  Anti-racism should become a part of our human community practice as a collective agreement in attaining complete social justice. It is here, in forms of classrooms where knowledge is sought after, that we may begin to neutralize our learning river as a place for higher equitable learning.

Folami Jones