Cross-Cultural Conference

From February 8th through 11th I was in Savannah attending the Southeastern Regional Conference on Cross-Cultural Issues for Educators and Counselors. It was a fascinating program featuring a presentation by Derald Wing Sue on racial microaggressions and another by William Cross Jr. on Ethnic, Racial, and Cultural Identity Across the Lifespan.

Derald Wing Sue spoke about making the invisible visible. The term racial microaggression is meant to describe instances when racial undertones are present in interpersonal relations, such as calling a black man "articulate" or telling an Asian-American that "you speak very good English" - "OF COURSE I DO! I was born here!"

Dr. Sue explained that these are the most common forms of racism in our modern age and they are very troublesome. Racial microaggressions create a hostile and invalidating climate, sap spiritual and psychic energy, and can lead to depression and frustration. Those that witness or experience microaggressions must struggle with the difficult questions "how do I respond to this", "did that really just happen", and after the fact "how should I have handled that". And these situations can be even further complicated by the dynamics in which they take place... what do you do when a teacher or a boss commits a micoraggression?

The last presentation of the conference was that of William Cross Jr. He spent a great deal of time criticizing the "post-traumatic slave syndrome". He countered the notion that problems faced by the black community such as high incarceration rates and broken families are caused by the legacy of slavery. He argued that such a position is seductive and dangerous and that "blaming slavery is intellectual laziness". He had us break into groups and discuss the "legacy of slavery" - after we shared the destructive elements we saw as the legacy, he agreed with us and then went on to talk about how black music grew out of slavery - spirituals, jazz, blues... He also talked about how immediately after slavery blacks wandered the country looking for their families and set up "Sabbath Schools" to educate their youth. He showed that from the end up slavery up until the 1960's 70% of black families were two parent households. He argued that slavery is not necessarily to blame for the problems currently facing the black community, rather, he said, we should look at contemporary structural issues that have negatively affected the black community.

As an example he spoke of the drug laws in Virginia. Previous to 1985 70% of those in prison were white - reflecting the proportions in the greater population. In 1985 Virginia revised their drug laws giving stiffer penalties to crack users than to those who used pot or cocaine... since that law was passed more and more black men were sent to prison, and now there are more black men than whites in Virginia prisons. Crack, cocaine, and pot are all illegal - the biggest difference between them is that crack is most present in the poor black community and pot and cocaine are more commonly found in the white community.

I also attended workshops on "hip-hop, race and class" and "white male identity development". Below are some quotes and statistics I scribbled down during my workshops and the presentations that I found interesting, funny, and/or inspiring:

"50% of people of color terminate counseling after one session, only 30% of whites do the same".

"If you don't open up the can does it mean that the worms aren't there?"

Black Mother to Child - "What do you do WHEN you are stopped by the police/security?"

"George Bush was born on third base and believes he hit a triple."

"Power is in a group's ability to define reality"

"Rap is something that you do, hip-hop is something that you are."

"Don't say 'I'm racist but so is everyone', say 'I'm racist and I'm committed to justice'."

"When there is no clear cut answer live the question."