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Dylan SanFilippo
10/30/2014 07:19:15 am
Chris Crass and Tim Wise seem to be in agreement upon many topics. In the video “Allies for Racial Equality Conference 2014 keynote Chris Crass part 1”, Crass addresses police brutality and how black people are automatically accused of being ne’er-do-wells. He goes on to tell a story about how his black friend was going to his graduation, and was stopped by police who suspected him to be wanting to steal and vandalize the parents’ cars while they were at their kids’ graduation. Tim Wise takes this concept to a greater extent of explanation in his chapter “They Shoot Black Men, Don’t They” in his book “Speaking Treason Fluently Anti-Racist Reflections from an Angry White Male.”
Nicole Cheng
11/2/2014 03:30:44 pm
Do you think it's possible to have power but not abuse it? It's so common to hear that power corrupts, and seems easy to see why... but how can people safeguard themselves from letting power make them lesser versions of themselves?
Hakwoo Kim
11/2/2014 03:59:53 pm
Yeah, I definitely agree with that Crass and Wise talk about how privilege is dysfunctional. I think that's why they both work so hard to let white people see of what's going on and how they actually affect them in negative ways. I like that you highlighted the part how privilege breeds narcissism and how it blocks us from bigger understanding. It just reminds me of the importance of humility and open-mind to really reflect on myself, on others, and on society.
Alexander Salah
10/30/2014 02:46:39 pm
In Chris Chrass’s video “Allies for Racial Equality Conference 2014 keynote Chris Crass part 1”, he explains the broadness of the problem we are facing with white supremacy and how we can combat this issue using knowledge and awareness. To know that we have roots, that we have people who we are connected too that there were generations before us who did work who organized who built movements with us in mind.”(Chrass video) Chrass tells us that we are the generations that previous generations worked for. Future mindfulness of generations is an important concept to take into consideration when watching this video. You cannot just stand by if you want to see systematic change in society. That’s the way it has been for centuries of movements and that’s the way it will continue to be for many for many generations to come if we want to continue to change society. One of Chrass’s friends, “Terrance” who was African American, had many experiences with racism. One of which was when Terrance was on his way to his own high school graduation to deliver his valedictorian speech. Right in front of the school he was stopped by police who assumed he was there to rob the cars of the white parents who were there to see their children graduate. If this is not a blatant act of stereotypical racism then I do not know what is. It must have been embarrassing for him to have his legs spread and his body searched in front of the school with people walking by. As the white parents and children were walking by, Terrance noticed the looks on some of the parent’s faces, saying, “Good job, (to the police) you caught him”. This is incredible to see that some parents are so naive to reading situations like this and are not more trusting just because someone has a darker skin color. “White America has been the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in history. Such preference has skewed our laws, misshaped our public policy, and helped create the glaring inequalities with which we still live.”(Wise, pg. 240) this is proof of how unequal our policies and laws have become due to skin color. One concept from Tim Wise that relates to this quote is white privilege in the sense that some white people truly see that they are more superior due to skin color and this is a sad but true statement especially in this case. Regardless of how unfair our policies and laws have become, if we do not begin to change for future generations and ourselves, we will remain in these unfortunate situations we constantly find ourselves in.
Judy Chen
10/31/2014 04:48:51 pm
The most important first step probably to combating white supremacy is to, like Chris Crass suggests, to gain more knowledge and awareness over the realness of these problems. Most white people continue to deny the negative impacts of social inequality. No one's going to take the time and energy to solve a problem that they don't believe exists, or at least believe that they impacts are insignificant.
veronica romo
11/2/2014 11:49:32 am
I found that both authors similarly emphasize the need for increased education and awareness on the subjects of racism and white privilege. it's impossible to overcome any past obstacles or inequalities without first learning the history and true unbiased story. an increase in focus and funding on education would tremendously help to empower people of all colors and positions. since we are the present generation and future leaders, workers, and citizens we should spend more time discussing the responsibilities inherited by all of us to help balance out the inequities of our society, especially for the future generations to come.
Jason Do
11/2/2014 03:23:40 pm
Definitely attacking the longstanding racism our country was built on is not going to be an easy task. Many white people are taught to ignore the issues of people of color and to take their privilege for granted as something that is totally normal, and trying to bring to light the injustices done to people of color will come across as an attack. We can see the result of the panic felt by the white students and faculty at the school when they felt like their positions were threatened. However, our generation is in the best position of any previous generation to try and tackle these problems, and the biggest proof of this is students like us are taking classes like this. A century ago, information could never be spread as fast as it does now and knowledge and awareness is key to winning the fight.
So Chun Kiu Ryan
11/2/2014 03:24:35 pm
There is no doubt that everyone must be responsible for the change and improvement of racism. Unfortunately the fact is that most people are unable to detect the inequality around them. Take me as an example, If I have never been told that racism is a kind of inequality, I probably would think that it is a natural phenomenon and I would just live with it without thinking about it. That's why education is so important. It heals and informs more people about all these misconceptions and I believe its the very fundamental factor of improving racism in the future.
Nelson Chuang
11/2/2014 03:59:14 pm
I totally agree with the idea of combating white supremacy with knowing your background. Unfortunately for many mixed race individuals, they do not have that luxury. I remember taking a class focusing on social identity that had many mixed raced students not knowing where they are from because they are 1/7 this with 5 other ethnicity's or 1/10 this with 12 other backgrounds due to the colonization of third-world countries.
Dakota Bramer
10/30/2014 03:19:55 pm
Tiffany Le
11/1/2014 09:58:44 am
The blaming technique is a method of divide and conquer; if people are too busy focusing on the idea of the welfare queen or on the idea of the model minority that supposedly take away one group's resources and allocates it to another group, then people will lose sight of the fact that the white supremacist society created these images to pit us against one another. Unification, or solidarity, is definitely important in moving forward toward equality. As more people come together to fight for a cause, the group gains more power in numbers.
veronica romo
11/2/2014 11:58:51 am
it's a shame how many of us are victims to what was described as "suburbia" or how many of us are just plain oblivious to the injustices surrounding all of our everyday lives. the simple reason for this seems to be because it just doesn't impact most of our privileged lives enough for us to fight for change. the reality is that it does in fact affect and oppress all of us except for those being empowered by these inequalities. since there are so many more of us regular folks trying to fight for an equal chance whether through occupations or even simple kindness and acceptance, we should try to notice our similarities rather than differences in order to begin the process of social unification which should hopefully allow social change.
Nelson Chuang
11/2/2014 02:56:12 pm
I like how you got unification as a point Chris is trying to make. It would definitely make a huge impact if different ethnicity's and their unions came together to combat problems that affect everyone. The big unfortunate issue with that is that many races in a unified organization will soon feel they are under-represented and then create problems. I remember one of the problems with Asian Student Union at a college I previously attended. Some ethnicity's, although considered a part of Asia, did not see themselves as Asian and wanted their own union or another ethnicity, agreeing to be Asian, felt their voice was being taken over by a certain majority of certain Asians. It was very complicated so even though I think it would be a great idea for unification, it is unfortunately near impossible.
So Chun Kiu Ryan
11/2/2014 03:43:08 pm
Maybe I am being too optimistic, but for me I actually do see the possibility of unification. I mean unification will not happen in near future, but I can see the progress of improvement of racism. Especially when I see there are more activists, groups, students coming out and fighting for justice, I feel there is some hope. As you have mentioned, unified group with multiple races can create huge impact on the society. When they come together, they can affect and influence so many racial groups at the same time and hence strengthen the power of these activists. It is a great way to gather public attention and enhances the influence our activists. Hopefully by doing so, public will be influenced and starting to change as well.
Hakwoo Kim
11/2/2014 03:53:09 pm
Terrence's story and how he told Crass about the effect of white-supremacy on whites were definitely my favorite part of the video. I like how you described that this kind of mind-set keeps us from what is important. One of the things I'm learning with the class is how some of the privileges I have are blinding me from seeing those important things. I also like that you pointed out the theme of unification. I definitely agree that Crass is expressing the need of unification, and just mentioning white-supremacy affects not only other people of color but white themselves hints the need of it as well.
Brandon Morin
10/30/2014 03:48:15 pm
The speaker in the video above, Chris Crass, discussed quite a few topics all centering around the problems that society has as a result of various degrees and levels of racism. He had a lot of opinions on the institutional side of racism and the power that various institutions have on society as a whole. Crass spoke about police brutality and the way that it shapes behavior in the public and the responses and attitudes it creates that continues a cycle of racism. Of course, a big topic was white supremacy, because for the most part a big part of society, sometimes even the victims of racism, seem to hear that word and think Ku Klux klan or the Aryan brotherhood and think that it's not a more serious intentional, highly motivated machine in our society. It's pretty clear that Wise and Crass see a lot of the issues in our society the same, being that they are both speakers and activists against white supremacy and for the equality of all. Wise talks a lot about white supremacy and institutional power in his teachings and writings. Police brutality and white privilege are also shared topics among these two men.
Dylan SanFilippo
11/1/2014 07:29:57 am
I concur with your implicit frustration of the speakers’ clarity of conclusion. It would be nice to hear the speakers state their “solutions” in plain English. It seems to me that their aim is to mainly point out the problems in our society as they see them. They may explain the origin, causes, and ongoing effects of these problems that they see, but where are the black and white solutions?
Judy Chen
10/30/2014 04:19:21 pm
One of the themes Chris Crass mentions early on in the video is the desire to make a systematic change. Systematic change (I would assume for his case) refers to the change in treatment or attitude of one specific group of people towards another, and he is speaking of changing America’s white supremacist attitude in order to create equality for all people, regardless of their race or sexuality. “Further, the selective branding of blacks as ‘perpetual victims’…suggests that at some level, white folks simply don’t believe black suffering matters” (Time Wise, Speaking Treason Fluently). Another theme brought up by Crass throughout the video was the American status quo, when he was mentioning an anecdote from his friend Terrance about experiencing racism and abuse of power by police on his school campus. He was publicly searched for weapons and accused of not even attending his school, and he recalls the look on parents’ faces walking by to graduation that day, and how they must have thought that it was a good thing that the police caught him. Chris Crass then relates this to how white people have constantly imprinted the idea of “never forgetting your place” or to people of color, ensuring that although they attend the same schools and work in the same institutions, they will never be equals, and will always be deemed inferior as human beings. This goes along with Tim Wise’s theme about the status quo in America, and about how whites view people of color more positively the further they are from their own stereotypes (example of Obama not being a “typical black person”). Another big theme brought up by Crass was the concept of white privilege, and how white people think and believe that they have nothing to learn or gain from colored communities. Of course the most obvious theme brought up is white supremacy, when Crass spoke about how the anti-racist coalition he was a part of at his school was thought to be, by the white staff and teachers, led by the small percentage of white people within the coalition, because they are the ones that are stereotyped and deemed fit to be leaders, and not people of color. This ties in with Tim Wise’s point about the status quo, because he later on goes to say in the text that white supremacist is at its most obvious and most detrimental when we can clearly see that whites prefer people of color who fit more closely to them, and deviate further away from their colored cultures. Early on in the video, Crass was explaining how being around certain people really opened his eyes to the severity and extent of racism and how it truly exists all around. This ties in with the concept of white denial, whether it was intentional or not. Similarly, Time Wise touches on this theme in his text as well. “Or that 42 percent said black have a better chance for a good education than whites, while only 17 percent said they would have a worse opportunity for a good education?” (Tim Wise, Speaking Treason Fluently). White people continue to deny the detrimental effects of racism, claiming that it doesn’t even exist, which is evidently not true. Both activists in my opinion have similar views on what’s wrong with American society in terms of racism and inequality and how we can fix the issues, but Crass speaks with more of his personal experiences, while Wise explains his theories more through statistics.
ryanso96
10/30/2014 04:47:02 pm
Chris Crass in the video “Allies for Racial Equity Conference 2014 keynote Chris Crass Part 1” discussed about racism. First of all, he mentioned about racial profiling and social injustices. He recalled the experience of his friend being suspected of trying to break into the cars when he was on the way to the graduation. His friend was supposed to give a speech in the ceremony, but then was ridiculously stopped by police just because of his skin color. The example reflects real situation of racial profiling that law enforcement judge suspects solely based on their skin color. Tim Wise in “Speaking Treason Fluently: Anti-Racist Reflections From An White Male” supported this idea. In the book, he described that “The second and more common form of racial profiling is the disproportionate stopping… of people of color in the hopes of uncovering a crime, even when there is no crime already in evidence for which a particular description available”. Law enforcement units always carry this kind of biased racial preconception into their duty and it eventually increases stopping rate of people of color.
So Chun Kiu Ryan
10/30/2014 04:47:57 pm
It is done by So Chun Kiu Ryan.
Gordon Wang
10/30/2014 04:49:45 pm
One of the big points that Crass makes in his video is the power of the media. Crass first talks about how during his war protesting, the media would manufacture consent by presenting the fewer pro-war demonstrators as equal in number to the protestors. Then later on the media begins to help espouse the idea that school costs were increasing due to undocumented individuals, which within the span of a year made his campus organization go from a paragon of social change, to a fringe separatist group on campus. This situation also ties into the idea of "us versus them". Many of the white students and faculty that had initially hailed Crass and his compatriots, now turned viciously against them. "What color is your skin?!" Crass recounts being shouted at. Wise also talks about this idea where when those in power are threatened by a united front, they seek to divide and conquer. Wise talks about the townships post-Katrina, where instead of seeing that both townships had been devastated and were in need of aid, the white township instead made their first order of events ensuring that the blacks could not live inside their township, as if somehow the destruction had been the fault of their black neighbors. Another big point Crass makes is that when he was growing up no one spoke about race. He talks about how all the progressive whites were "colorblind" and only racists brought up the issue of race in this great "post-civil rights era". This parallels Wise's idea that in each period of time, everyone thinks equality reigns. As was the case of the people polled while the civil liberties movement was kicking into full swing, no one thinks there is any inequality until they are seeing the situation in hindsight. On a personal note about the video, Crass seems to be someone that is speaking from experience in the trenches so to say. His anecdotes and concrete proofs of progress in his school leads to a very hopeful outlook for the future of progress.
Alexander Salah
10/31/2014 05:16:54 am
I agree. One of the big points that Crass makes in his video is the power of the media
Judy Chen
10/31/2014 02:29:54 pm
I think you made an important point noting how white people tend to group together to divide and conquer. It's in our nature as humans to be drawn towards people similar to us, which explains why people of color tend to stick together (also because they are oppressed). But when whites do it in a supremacist manner, they use this method of grouping up as a tool to degrade others and deem them as inferior. Nobody wants to stand alone in a crowd, and if there's a bigger group with people who share the same views, people are more likely to lump together, whether their reason is justified or not, which then becomes dangerous because in a white supremacist society, a majority of white people targeting minorities can most definitely have a negative impact on social equality.
Dylan SanFilippo
11/1/2014 04:12:50 am
I agree. The “us versus them” or “divide and conquer” method has been used as a war tactic for centuries. We’ve seen it before. It has proven its effectiveness in past centuries, and it is still proving its effectiveness today. If people ever wish to overthrow a government, or a régime of life, then they have to be united. The people in power know this and use sources such as the media to keep the people divided, and it has proven to be quite effective.
Jason Do
11/2/2014 03:30:20 pm
The media is definitely a formidable enemy to face when dealing with the masses as the first impression is most often the deciding factor on how the public will react. While Crass did publicize his cause, his organization could not compete with how quickly the media can paint their own image of him. This combined with mob mentality led to the angry crowds Crass had to fight.
Nicole Cheng
10/30/2014 05:00:21 pm
Alexander Salah
10/31/2014 05:21:57 am
I couldn’t agree more. When you stated “Crass emphasizes the importance of history for all people, because the privileges of the present day are the products of previous advocates”, it made me think of how in the video Crass describes how past generations were working towards change for our generation and generations after that. If we do not start focusing on future generations and equality for them in many cases, then we will fail our country and our world due to lack of basic universal human rights.
Tiffany Le
11/1/2014 10:07:12 am
This is a very well written analysis! I love how you mentioned the fact that people have fought for our rights before us, and we need to continue fighting for our rights and for the future generations' rights. Sometimes, we may not see the changes we would like to in our lifetime, but having a long term vision will help direct the cause for equality. Also, knowing the past will help us better understand that people did not all of a sudden become "underprivileged", but rather the dominant group has put the "underprivileged" there. This idea reminds me of one of APALI's mottos "know history, know self".
Hakwoo Kim
10/31/2014 04:45:56 pm
The video of Chris Crass was truly inspirational, and it felt so genuine that it actually shed a little bit of my tear as I could feel his passionate and struggling moments. Throughout the video I could identify his internal and external obstacles for the whole liberation movement and the importance of white organizing for the movement, and finally, it helped me think about reflecting on my own identity and importance of it.
Hakwoo Kim
10/31/2014 04:47:15 pm
(continued)
Nicole Cheng
11/2/2014 03:57:00 pm
I found your last comments "My attitude that have tried to ignored my race was probably another action of racist" most interesting. While I agree with Crass/Wise who put an emphasis of understanding who you are and taking ownership of yourself is important, I do also like the perspective of not seeing race. As much as I like the ideas of not seeing age, gender, sexuality... because a person's humanity shouldn't be defined (negatively, or restrictively) by these details. But does "not seeing" it take away from the trait's value? (eg. does not seeing culture dismiss it's value/uniqueness?)
Tiffany Le
11/1/2014 12:28:50 pm
Both Chris Crass and Tim Wise use their white privilege to discuss race within the white community. Wise mentions, “whites have been expected to fall in line, to accept the contours of racism, to remain quiet in the face of Indian genocide, the enslavement of Africans, the conquest of half of Mexico, and any number of racist depravities meted out against peoples of color” (Wise 4). Because of this, white leaders, like Crass and Wise, need to stand up and create this dialogue about racism.
Jason Do
11/2/2014 03:57:38 pm
Crass's video touches on many similar themes as Tim Wise. One of the things Crass talks about is the status quo of society, and how trying to upset the status quo leads to very violent backlash. This can be seen at how quickly Crass's "supporters" turned on his organization when they started to feel threatened by what he was trying to do. So many white people who were cheering him on the previous day crowded around Chicano students who were demanding to have Chicano Studies classes and screamed insults at them, telling them to go home. This highlights Tim Wise's statement that "colorblindness" doesn't exist and is just an excuse fore white people to not have to admit that white supremacy exists. Once white privilege is threatened, the true nature of racism comes out. This ties in to Crass's theme of white denial and divide and conquer, where white people deny their part in perpetuating a racist society and try to justify their actions by claiming in one way or another people of color deserve what they're getting. The media blamed tuition hikes on illegal immigrants and the public ate it up. Tim Wise states, "White denial has become such a widespread phenomenon that most whites are unwilling to entertain even the mildest of suggestions that racism and racial inequality might still be issues.” (Wise 34) It is ironic that white people like to pretend like a world free of racism exists instead of trying to actively achieve that world. When Crass tries to argue for Chicano Studies classes, one argument presented is that no one argues for "Irish studies" classes. Tim Wise's response to arguments like these is that any month not designated as something other than white history month is by default white history month. Finally, Crass touches upon how white supremacy hurts everyone. “White America has been the biggest collective recipient of racial preference in history. Such preference has skewed our laws, misshaped our public policy, and helped create the glaring inequalities with which we still live.”(Wise 240) This video really opened my eyes to the buried monster that is racism. It lies sleeping inside of everyone and when provoked, it comes out baring its teeth and sharpening its claws. The nastiness of white supremacy is perfectly captured in this video. Leave a Reply. |
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