(Name-mce) ListServ Racism

[Cindy Lutenbacher]

I hesitate to enter this discussion because I've seen too many e-mail 
conversations about racism that have ended up being a forum for more 
racism directed at the participants who are people of color.  I do 
not wish to encourage that trend.

However, I find myself so much in agreement with Rita that I wanted 
to add my voice to hers.  Rita, I so appreciate the vital points you 
make about the differences of experience between white people and 
people of color, the differences between hate and self-hate, the 
differences in the meaning of actions or beliefs, depending on one's 
race inside a country in which the dominating culture is so 
profoundly racist.  (At least, those ideas are some of the things I 
hear inside your words.)  For me, you speak to some of the most 
central matters.  I thank you for putting the time and energy into 
your speaking.

I encourage all people on this listserv to listen closely to what she 
is saying, even more than, perhaps, we already have.  I encourage 
white people on this listserv to listen and then ask 
yourselves/myself if your/my response has elements of defense or 
denial in it.  If so, perhaps the best thing for us to do is to not 
speak in defense, but to sit with those feelings and thoughts, 
possibly for a long time, remembering as we do that people of color 
have no such luxury to "sit with" such things for any amount of time.

What we need to do is to take immediate and dangerous action against 
the racism that is as present as air, rather than defend or deny.

Sincerely,
Cindy Lutenbacher
Department of English
Morehouse College
Atlanta, GA