Damian Davidson sits down and takes a good, honest look at himself. And he wants you to do the same.
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I’m not a bad guy. I’m by no means a great man, but I’m alright. I’m cordial to strangers, kind to children, duteous to my family, fair in my business dealings. I lose my temper sometimes, and I have used my gift for words to cut people deeply.
I’m not ashamed of myself, though, of who I am. I can own my weaknesses, and my strengths too. Because I’m honest with myself. Sounds simple enough, right?
Well. Reflect on that concept for a moment—being honest with yourself partly means admitting your mistakes, refusing your excuses. And a really tough one; admitting your prejudices. Being honest with yourself is difficult. It means not hiding behind flimsy justifications. It means owning up to the negative attitudes you’ve learned and retained that continue to shape your perceptions. Being honest with yourself means cross-examining yourself and rooting out the idiocy that lurks just beneath the surface. And even when you have traced your misperceptions back to their root, the work of changing how you interact and react with the world is just beginning.
There’s an upside to it as well. You can exult in your achievements. You can take pride in your strengths, admit that you worked hard and earned those accolades. You don’t have to be embarrassed about feeling good because you know it’s justified.
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I’m writing this because of this blog post by Sam Ambreen. I sat on the train and read the list; I looked back at my life and reflected on how high on that scale I could place myself. I’m a six. Honestly, no false pride nor claim to greatness, a six. I could be better than I am; we all could in some way or another.
But I can make that claim because I work hard to be good enough that I don’t feel a twinge of guilt when I cross-examine myself. I accept that there are people whose experience of life is so different to mine that I couldn’t possibly understand what they face on a day-to-day basis. And I listen. That’s one of the most important things you can learn to do; shut up, and listen.
Forget the phrase “But not all ____ are like that” while you’re at it. It’s a reflex triggered by feeling guilty by association. When you say that, what you’re really saying is “Oh but I’m not like that.” And maybe that’s true. But so what? You’re not sexist, racist, elitist, Martian, a wildebeest-who cares? Did you want a cookie? Other people are. Stop making excuses for them. Be honest with yourself, and if you don’t like what you find, change it.
I, as an individual, can’t “fix” the world. And I don’t particularly want to. But by listening to the experiences of others I can, if not necessarily help them, then at least avoid hindering them.
I don’t want to save those who are disadvantaged by their gender, or skin colour, sexuality, beliefs…I want to overturn the system that casts people in the category of “disadvantaged” over such trifles in the first place. And in order to do that I have to recognize when I am at an advantage because of my status as a cis/white/male. Yes, almost always. I have to not be too embarrassed to admit that. I have to be honest with myself.
View the 8 White Identities chart here, at Sam Ambreen’s blog.
Lead photo: Flickr/mootown
I officially self-identify as a ciswhite transracial person of color. I score that as a 10. I win!
Honestly, though, where I am on the 8-part taxonomy depends a lot on my experience that day. Did I ride the bus? Did I listen to NPR? Which news network did I listen to? I can fluctuate between 2 and 7 depending on how I’m reeling recently about people like me compare to people not like me.
Haven’t taken the test, don’t really plan to. I’m comfortable with the way I am, and the way I treat others. In fact, I’m rather pleased with the way I interact with those around me. I don’t really need any kind of reassurance.
I’m aware of racial issues, and I’m sympathetic (ALL racial issues, including racism against whites). But I don’t feel any of that pesky white guilt either. The whole “check your privilege” thing just kinda rolls off of me.
Interesting to see this article. We need more discussions like this.
When I read pieces like this I wonder just what good have these schools of thought done for the world? I prefer abolishing “assholishnes” to abolishing “whiteness.” The vast majority of human interactions are on the individual level. When I was a kid my parents donated $5000 per year to the UNCF out of their business. My dad had multiple minority men and women working for him. He hired based on qualification. When he retired his right hand man was black (and made a 6 figure income.) They also were pretty darn uncomfortable when I dated a minority. Basically they… Read more »
Big, slow hand clap for everybody who wants to continue to benefit from being white. Bravo. I’m a little surprised nobody wants to tell me they don’t see skin colour….
And a big, slow hand clap for your holier-than-thou, self-flagellating martyrdom. This is an issue that, to me, gets lost in academic over-examination. I have to admit getting bogged down for a time reading backwards to try and figure out what the hell POC even meant, before I realized it was a buzzword abbreviation. I’m taking from this that the Ambreen list is basically and attempt to place white people along a spectrum where on one side, you have out and out racists who think POC’s are POS’s, and on the other side you have white men who would throw… Read more »
One developmental model that is widely used in multicultural competency education is Helm’s White Racial Identity Development (WRID). http://mss.boisestate.edu/tunnel-of-oppression/inside-the-tunnel/helms-white-racial-identity-development-model/
I have to say that is a depressing and narrow-minded list. It appears to me that the goal is to be #8 and abolish whiteness. The problem with that is if society is to abolish a certain race identity or culture, then no race is allowed to have an identity. Are we to be a homogeneous society? I think not. I believe the true goal should be to have all races represented at least comparable to their demographic population. There is obviously a long way to go in both government and workplace representation but just in my 20+ adult years… Read more »
Maybe I’m understanding something fundamentally wrong here, but am I not right that you consider type 8 on your chart the best? In that case you lose me right here. Because I am white. It is my skin color. So I am asked to feel guilty for my skin color, apologize for my skin color, be a traitor to my skin color and abolish my skin color. Which is silly. So probably you mean something different by “whiteness”. Like, define it as an abstract term, the name of a social order, a status quo, a meme. Like “patriarchy”. Only, it’s… Read more »
I looked Hesse up, and stopped reading after “post-structuralism.” As a sociologist, I’m with Max Weber. We academics should operate “value-free.” Walter Benn Michaels offers a refreshing approach in The Trouble with Diversity.
Whoops — the above should read “Ms. Ambreen” and “her blog.” My bad.
Excellent, cogent piece, Damian. Well done. I’d like to believe I’m a 6 as well, and I may be, but I can’t quite banish the notion that I’m a 5 with self-comforting delusions of 6-ness.
My only disagreement with Mr. Ambreen’s chart is the labeling of #7 as “White Traitor.” The word “traitor” in has an overwhelmingly negative connotation that misrepresents the principle as I understand it. But I guess that’s a comment I should post over at his blog.