Something for Which I Am Thankful

I teach a course called "Race and Ethnic Groups in Contemporary Society" and have been asked on several occasions, "what can we do to end racism?" Here is my answer, though simplified:

1. Own up to our racist history--we need to start talking openly and honestly about how America became one of the richest countries in the world through colonization, exploitation and oppressive domination.

2. Have a national discussion regarding restitution and healing of the wrongs that have been committed. I don't know the answer, but I do know we will never find one until we start looking for one.

3. Be grateful. Any wealth we Americans have, any material goods for which we can be grateful on a day such as today, was built on the backs of slaves and stolen from the indigenous peoples who were the first "occupiers." It does not matter if you came here after these deeds were done. You live here, you benefit. So those of us who were the children of the colonizers and slave owners, and those of us who were not, should never forget that the cities we live in, the food we eat, the houses over our heads, and the bounties we share were made possible by the sacrifices made by these peoples.

It is my belief that from these three steps healing could begin. We should be open to where it leads us.

I just saw this article about The Thick Dark Fog. I think it looks like a good start for a national conversation:



The film is still in production and needs contributions to help it get finished. You can contribute on the Human Arts Association website (be sure to select The Thick Dark Fog as the project, though it looks like they have a number of worthy projects to help with this national conversation.

Finally, consider Truth Out's call for United States Truth and Reconciliation Commission to begin to provide for the damage that has been done and also to provide a way for the stories of indigenous people to be heard.

So I hope, on the national day of thanksgiving, you will join me in the gratitude I feel to these sacrifices and the other ongoing sacrifices that exploited people make, sometimes willingly, sometimes under force, to others. We take so much for granted. Today, let us stop and take note of the truth. The truth will set us free.

What a Day--Stigma is alive and well

I wrote a little blog entry on Psychology Today yesterday and today all hell broke lose and I spent the day being attacked on a number of personal levels, including threats to my job at CSN.

As a description of the blog I wrote:

Judging character, work ethic, health or worth on the basis of how somone looks is ALWAYS prejudice. No one should be treated as "less than human" because of their body size.FATISM is a matter of cultural stigma. This blog is about cultural and social issues, not a health debate.

Talk about a prophecy. First controversy and the judgements about my character, my work ethic, my health and my worth were all over the place.

I think the thing that interests me most as a sociologist is that I was considered "obsessed" because I have written about this. These persons were defending themselves on the basis of credentials and a body of work, but as a stigmatized person I was considered "biased," "obsessed" and "deaf to other points of view" because I, too, had a body of work.

I have never seen a more beautiful example of what Goffman meant by spoiled identity. If I wrote and researched the topic, I am obsessed. If I am uniformed and unwilling to change, I am ignorant and need help. My body was code for "stupid," "unhealthy," "lazy," and "incompetent." It makes me wonder what they would have used if I had been thin.

I have written in other places about my reluctance to be a "professional fat person." Today was a reminder of both why I became one and why I hate it.

It remains my hope, however, that having become one, I can use the example of fat stigma to end all stigma. Stigma is a horrible cultural practice and one that hurts both individuals and society.

False Dichotomies

Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them -- and then, the opportunity to choose.
--C. Wright Mills

false (adj): not in accordance with the fact or reality or actuality

dichotomy (n): being twofold; a classification into two opposed parts or subclasses

Probably the most basic concept that keeps my students from understanding their own connectivity is this strong tradition of believing that things are "either/or." Specifically, they fear that understanding themselves as part of a group means they will lose their individuality.

I begin every semester of any sociology course with the ultimate sociological trick question: "Who's in control of your life?"

It is the ultimate sociological question because studying societies is studying power. Power is about control. In fact, the only way we really know if someone's power is by observing what that someone has control over. Power is not really something we "are" or something we "possess," though our language would suggest this. We say "she's a powerful person" or "he has a powerful personality" or more simply "they have power." But the truth is power is always a social relationship because the only way we know power is by the extent to which the wishes of one person or set of people get carried out while the wishes of another person or set of people gets ignored or resisted. In other words, power is perceived through control and control requires cooperation coupled with consequences. Understand that if the consequences are severed enough the cooperation is not freely given but rather extorted, but nonetheless if the subordinate person decides to face the consequences instead of obey the wishes of the other, the other's power is diminished.

And that leads us to the trickiness of the question. Because the answer is inevitably given with a dichotomy in mind: I control my life versus someone or thing outside of me controls my life. But both are correct. To the extent to which I can express my wishes and they are done, I determine the agenda and to the extent to which I cooperate with the wishes of others they determine the agenda.

Not only is the dichotomy wrong because it sets up an "either/or" that is really a "both/and" but it is wrong because in truth their are myriads of possibilities and complexities to the answer that are hidden in dichotomous thinking.

For example, take a simple and mundane situation like driving a car. In one sense, I am in control of the machine when I'm driving it. I have a desired agenda (a destination) and I act upon the vehicle, it follows that agenda. So I'm in control. Except that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and I usually can't get in my car and drive the shortest possible distance because I have to take roads and I have stay on the correct side of the road. I can't even get the fastest possible time because I have to obey speed limits and stop at lights and stop signs and signal and yield the right of way before turning. If I disobey these rules their are consequences. There are legal consequences because I can get a ticket and the guy in the blue suit who wants to give me that ticket, wears a gun and other weaponry, so I pull over when he flashes a light at me. There are physical consequences as well because two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, which means that if I drive into another person, vehicle or building, something has to move over. If it's me that has to move on impact, it could mean injury or death. But I could speed. I could crash. I could plow through a straight line at optimum speed and try to get to my destination as quickly as possible. There are also economic consequences because I want my car to be available for the next trip and someone designed the car with economics in mind so that it would experience wear and tear and only be able to achieve a specific speed or last a specific number of miles. There are biological consequences because I may have physical limitations in my ability to see and use muscles to interact with the car.

So who is in control of my driving? The answer is all of these factors and more are driving the car.

False dichotomies hide this complexity and give us the illusion of control and that makes them hard to give up.

False dichotomies hide the truth of our existence from us and this can cost us dearly in the long run because if we do not understand the available choices we have and the consequences of these choices, we will never be free.