On being white, the need to remain silent and loud, and destroying the system

I have been thinking at length about what it means to be white, today, in a class like this. Clearly, I have been thinking about it so long, I took to the last possible moment to articulate my thinking before it becomes irrelevant, however I digress. I hesitate to call it the 'elephant in the room' as that almost implies that the issue is impossible to contend with and to me that would certainly be a reductive analysis of our ability to be good writers of academic thinking (yet, I have digressed again).

As we know and as we have seen, a great deal (if not all) of the questions surrounding the prejudice against Māori, African-Americans, American-Indians – among others – are a consequence of an aggregate of social dominance, material and cultural advantage conferred in white populations who use, and depend, on the reinforcement of social inequity to maintain these aforementioned benefits.

I cast no aspersions on that thesis and I think it is an accurate, albeit damning, analysis of our world.

The question, then, turns to: how do we ameliorate this? How is an entrenched system of oppression and segregation deconstructed? Engagement and learning about these issues is a good first step. However, it comes with predications. Drawing a bit on Barry Barclay's communications marae, I believe a certain "framework" is required when you are 1) white and 2) attempting to engage critically with concept that continue to pervade society in which you, either directly or indirectly, are complicit. My framework constitutes two intertwined call-to-actions based on some of the writing of Elie Wiesel.

Remain silent

In speaking on the study of the Nazi Holocaust, survivor and Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel makes an important "plea" to humanity. Wiesel says we should not attempt to objectify the behaviour of those who lived in war or though the horrors of the Holocaust. To “speak in their name” and to confer judgement or meaning upon these individuals “is precisely to humiliate them”.

I believe a similar sentiment can be applied to the study of race and indigeneity. For a member of the dominant group (i.e. a white person) to impart meaning, confer judgement or write with determination on the lived experience of a member of the subjugated group, that is an extension of subjugation. Therefore, there is a need to remain silent. The first stage of deconstructing oppression is to hear from those who are subjugated.

Be loud

Wiesel is also famously known for this quote:

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Crucially, remaining silent has an end. To be helpful and active players in the deconstruction of oppressive systems, we are to speak out against it, using that which we have learnt while being silent. The fastest way to take part the system is from the inside. It's not about apologising and feeling sorry for oneself; for the actions that brought us here. Using white privilege to deconstruct it is what's needed.

Being white in a class like this, or perhaps, a system like this, is complex. The need to reconfigure it is very real. It involves remaining silent when hearing and learning about it and being loud when destroying it.

Wiesel, Elie. “A Plea for the Dead.” A Holocaust Reader: Responses to the Nazi Extermination. Ed. Michael L. Morgan. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001. 66-77. Print.