Comments on: Overcompensation Doesn’t Improve Relation(s)

By: Jackie Harrison

Jackie Harrison — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 22:27:39 +0000

Yeah I also see it as being a distancing mechanism between the problem and themselves. It is almost like passing around the issue of racism through an penetrable barrier of responsibility. Between themselves and the people that they believe exhibit racism, it was like a game of “hot potato” where they could pass around responsibility without ever taking in what the problems were. The fact is, the Town Hall meeting was problematic in the sense that white students did not see how their occupation of the microphone was problematic. Many students, even still, will say “I don’t understand what is wrong,” or “how was I supposed to know?” What many fail to do is educate themselves through the opportunities that are available now (e.g. Doing Groundwork”). Instead, the system is perpetuated with everyone ignoring the racist problems that still exist.

By: Becky Goodman

Becky Goodman — Mon, 21 Mar 2016 16:02:57 +0000

I agree with Krysta. When white people distance themselves so vehemently from the racist actions of others or deny the racism that is wide spread in our institutions they are showing their own privileges and lack of engagement with these issues. The simple act of assuming individualism when condemning someone else’s actions is a sign of privilege because, as we know, marginalized groups are seen as groups, not individuals. However, I think white voices need to be a part of the conversation but they can’t be the loudest. In order to be an effective ally you need to be willing to stand up and speak out against injustices that may not be directly effecting you. In response to the notion that white students should not have been speaking at the Town Hall meeting, I think that if we had all remained silent it would have been really terrible. However, what was being said was not helpful, which is unfortunate but very telling about our campus culture.

By: Krysta Marie

Krysta Marie — Fri, 18 Mar 2016 23:36:27 +0000

Is it overcompensation for their white identity, racism or an unwillingness to recognize their aversive racism? The more I think about it, the more I consider the white voice hogging the microphone at the Town Hall meeting, the more I think that peoples’ Egalitarian views were fogging their unconscious biases, so they had a need to justify for themselves that they are good people. Maybe they were justifying or overcompensating on an individual level and did not realize that what was happening wasn’t meant to call out individuals but to call out a system of oppression working against an entire population of students?