Moore: Way beyond diversity, the issue
is white privilege
by Marian Fredal, CTA AntiRacism Team
If you’re a typical CTAer, you are an active Catholic and white. That is exactly who we were when we came together for the Friday Pre-conference seminar to talk about white privilege. We were typical: active Catholics, and (mostly) white. We had many questions, “Why is White Privilege a topic of concern at the CTA Conference? What does this have to do with me? What can I do about it anyway?” Early in the seminar, some questions were asked of us: “What is diversity? What do we think about it? What would Jesus say about it? Would diversity stop for Jesus at simple awareness? Is diversity enough? Along the way we wondered, “Is this work about bashing white people? Do we as white people know enough? Where do we start?”
Eddie Moore Jr., PhD spent part of the day with us to explore these issues. Moore received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in Education: Social Foundations. It is his second year with us at the CTA Conference. Moore is the director of diversity at the Bush School in Seattle, directs his own multicultural diversity consulting team, and is the founder of the White Privilege Conference (WPC). The annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) serves as a yearly opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy and oppression.
Moore proposed that the concept
of diversity has been “dumbed down,” which we could see after being
asked to come to a consensus on defnng it. Instead, Moore asked us to participate
in exercises that would address the discomfort we feel in talking about, and
even thinking about diversity and white privilege. It can be uncomfortable and
unnerving at first! But, we were surprised that as Eddie assisted us, the exercises
became easier and less stressful. So it is with our grasp of the concept of
white privilege.
Eddie shared statistics with us that made us all take notice. The white population
in the U.S. is going down, and the percentage of people of color is increasing.
By 2020, white people will be 49 percent, down from 72 percent in 1999. We will
need knowledge and skills to deal with this. Where will we get them? We must
leave our comfort zone. And we must practice: start where we are today, and
work to address the segregation in our own lives. Using his own upbringing as
an example, Eddie stated, “We are not conditioned for an environment of
integration.” Yet, it is possible, and soon required!
Eddie did not just talk about personal change, however. We talked about racism and the institutional aspect of white privilege as well. Our country was started by white people and for white people: white supremacy was and is a driving force in our country. In this context we asked, how do we measure progress?
The 40 of us in this seminar learned a lot, and were engaged and excited about new possibilities for our lives and our world. As Eddie left us, he said we need a personal action plan. I’m glad that it is possible for us, individually, as CTA, and as a Church, to start working toward an action plan that will lead to a world of true justice for all.
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