Letters to the editor

April 30, 2008

April 17, 2008

Describing the white allies supporting the student strike challenging Racist practices of the College, Elizabeth Gordon wonders if there is anything that white allies have to gain be supporting positions of Anti-Racist people of color….and then wonders if that is a legitimate question at all…

I find her second question amazing…..Certainly when oppressors oppress, they themselves are profoundly effected, even to becoming misshapen persons in their psyche and soul…See the returning soldiers from Iraqi, imagine the torturers of Abu Grabe….prison guards (cf. the sociological studies of Philip Zimbardo) If White allies are doing their ally thing “out of the goodness of their hearts” “ simply to support people of color” then their efforts are “generous” and suggest that they are doing something for the benefit only of people of color…

Rather, I think that white allies, struggle against Racism, because Racism hurts us all….We are all undermined by Racism….We are all less….We do it for ourselves as well as for all people of color. White people suffer from the racism we foist onto people of color…And if we don’t know that then we’re missing something essential to the whole struggle…The mistrust that permeates American society hurts us all, the fear that many whites feel when confronted by the generations of anger, hurt, rage of people of color (cf. the shocked responses of many white people to Reverand Wright,s expression of rage and anger at America, as if people of color don’t have centuries of pent up rage to express) White people have much to gain by an end to Racism, and it will require all of us for the long haul, way past our lifetimes…We’re fighting for ourselves, for our own integrity, for our own souls….hopefully, people of color will realize their goals, and hopefully we can support that….but we need to understand our own self-interest in this struggle and name it….

Mary Alice Scully LCSW-R
Pelham Family Center
Bronx, NY 10467