On Wednesday, August 8, 2001, Rebecca McLaughlin wrote:

Jeanne,
i said i'd quit tackling you, but the more i read from journals, the more i want to contribute. please forgive me. i hope i've not overstepped my boundaries when i express the following...

Your reply to Robin Hood was exceptional, as well as Pat's reinforcement. Perhaps in my empathy or recognition though, I felt it could have been said in a simpler way. that "personal" aspect that seems to make it more "for real" for us. Some of these things we learn, such as privilege and subtle racism, don't really solidify as well because we don't actually feel the result it defends.

I heard Robin Hood asking, again, about the more immediate. She seems to be thinking with a sense of "real immediaccy." This has numerous positive effects though. I think she's taking a collective perspective, if I can use that term. "Responsibility". . . though i'm inclined to infer "accountability" as synonymous, it's not. I believe what she was saying is not to be mistaken as synonymous with. If I may answer her question as well . . . Responsibility in social justice terms is the same responsibility you took at 5-6 years-old with the milk tickets. It's the same responsibility spoken of as "being there" for your biracial child and the issues she will have to contend with. It's this responsibility that spurs us to "be there" for her. Though perhaps not "identified" as a form of responsibility, it is indeed. Your expression of concern in losing hope is a reflection of a recognition of this responsibility. And just as Jeanne and Pat described, in recognizing the result of what you question, that we are not immediately and directly responsible as perpetratorsr, is in turn, to recognize our responsibilty "to do something, like Robin Hood".

Yes, sure, we didn't enslave blacks, hang them, segragate them on buses, and keep them from voting, but by Others having done so, the society in which we now have privilege is a result of that. Therefore, things like not having to consider not getting a job when you check that race box, are a result of those earlier actions by Others. The privilege extends well beyond many boundaries we may not even recognize. Indentifying THIS alone is a form of taking responsibility.

Yes, it's very hard to be told "you're responsible" for horrific things done to another race, but as your child grows, as you identify more children drinking water when they can't afford milk tickets, you will come to see that this "responsibility" is ok to have. In recognizing this responsibility, we, as a collective, can hope for the alterity and equality we so often take for granted.

mac

On Wednesday, August 8, 2001, jeanne responded:

Wow! Well said, Mac. Have forwarded to Angela.

love and peace, jeanne