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Working Assumptions
For White Activists On Eliminating Racism: Guidelines For Recruiting
Other Whites As Allies
— By Ricky Sherover-Marcuse
- Assume that all
human beings desire warm, close relationships with each other.
This is also true of you and of all other white people.
- Assume that you
are a regular white person (not an exceptional white person)
and that all whites are good people, caring, intelligent,
compassionate, and hard-working.
- Recognize that
we have much to celebrate about our histories and our diversities;
we have rich traditions of music and dance, and proud histories
of struggle.
- Assume that all
white people have undergone some variety of systematic conditioning
or 'training' to take on the 'oppressor role' in relation
to people of color. Sometimes this training has been to participate
in acts of violence, or to join in racial slurs or jokes;
sometimes this training has been to keep silent in the face
of injustice. Sometimes this training has been to be 'extra
nice' towards people of color ...
- Assume that no
human being would have ever agreed to take on any aspect of
an oppressor role if they had not first been mistreated or
oppressed themselves- originally as young people, and in a
variety of other ways.
- Assume that no
white person ever chose to acquire any of the conditioning
or training and that every one of us attempted to resist taking
on any aspect of the oppressor role.
- Assume that the
history of our own acts of resistance has been obscured and
hidden from us and that many of us feel no pride in our own
heritages and traditions.
- Recognize that
most whites in the United States and Canada have a history
of immigrant oppression in which their own ethnic group has
been the target of mistreatment at the hands of other white
ethnic groups who were in a position of relative social power.
- Recognize that
all people need the acknowledgement that their liberation
issues are legitimate.
- Assume that in
spite of the material rewards and preferential treatment that
our society gives to white people, these 'advantages' do not
offset the real costs of racism to us as human beings.
- Assume that the
conditioning which white people have undergone has been hurtful
to us as human beings: it has betrayed our sense of ourselves,
robbed us of close and trusting relationships with our families,
given us a false picture of reality, isolated us from the
majority of the world's peoples, blunted our imagination,
limited our vision, enforced a sense of powerlessness, hampered
our ability to love.
- Assume that at
some level, all white people know this. Accordingly the task
of the white activist is not to persuade or convince other
whites of this truth, but to make their own buried awareness
accessible to them.
- Assume that the
elimination of racism is in the real self-interest of all
people.
- Assume that all
white people are eager to join in the project of eliminating
racism and that appearances to the contrary are the result
of feelings of despair and powerlessness caused by the individual's
own experiences of oppression and mistreatment.
- Recognize how
the temptation to classify other whites into 'good whites'
and 'bad whites' is often a mechanism for perpetuating other
forms of oppression such as classism and regional oppression.
- Recognize that
engaging in anti-racist activity commits us to the building
of real connections with all people and functioning as allies
for them.
- Assume that white
people (like all other human beings) will change their minds
and let go of deeply ingrained attitudes and behavior patterns
when
1) they feel acknowledged and appreciated as individuals;
2) they are listened to with complete respect on their own
grievances and liberation concerns;
3) they trust the person presenting the new perspective;
4) the new perspective makes sense to them;
5) they are not blamed for their prior conditioning or behavior.
- Recognize that
recruiting other whites to join us is also an opportunity
to learn from them, and that they have much to teach us.
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