The Work of Whiteness

 Dear Alison,

 I was pleased to have attended the Tavi special.  (I missed most of the discussion because I dropped out early)  - Only joking, I stayed to the end. (It was noted that when the conversation became challenging, about 100 people from the 600 people attending dropped out of the call.)

 I found Helen quite esoteric, which I think fits with the analytical psychotherapy perspective, but I prefer straight talking.  It reminded me of the Delphic oracle- “The blank down the middle….splitting”,  it’s a special ‘hidden’ language.  We stroke our chins and feel inspired.  I am joining 'their' culture by listening, so I respect them for this.

 I find the subject very powerful and fascinating.  Here are my thoughts:-

 Why do 75% of parents of white children not talk about race.  But perhaps they do but we don’t like what they say. 

 Children are born into varied levels of privilege.  All children born in the UK are born into privilege (on a world scale.)  As parents we shelter and protect our children.  We would find it difficult to put them into a more vulnerable place; to give up that privileges.  The world conspires to maintain the status quo, and I, in my profession, am part of that.  Our salaries are paid for by the sweat of the empire and ongoing exploitation.  

Inheritance is the greatest driver of advantage.  How many of us were watching that seminar from expensive London houses with nice furniture and fittings?  Our ‘children’ (in the broadest sense) will inherit our good fortune.   Our qualifications are difficult to get because we want to hang on to the privilege.  We feel we have earned it.  We are ‘doctors’ (in the broadest sense) and highly experienced.    A few scholarships for expensive courses for black people equals ‘appeasement’. And do we what black people to join us white people, or to change us?

 I have always thought that when white middle class (non-liberal) professionals send their children to schools such as  New college in Leicester (in a so called deprived neck of the woods), all schools will be fine.

 Just as you can’t have a conversation about ‘blackness’ without talking about abuse of power, you can’t talk about whiteness without talking about abuse.  With power there is abuse of power.  The two reside together. 

 I think the fear of the 'other' for white people (including myself) is the horror that if the power was reversed (as in the book Noughts and Crosses), what would happen to me?  - retribution?  This is why minorities must be kept minorities, why there is a fear in the country that Leicester will become the first non-white majority city.

 Yours