[Seattle-editorial] Feature Fodder: Fwd: [pcj] Fwd: 3 daily articles on white privilege week (fwd)

[Joseph Eisenschmidt]

Eds,

Practically features itself. Just add formatting!

Joseph

----- Forwarded message from Delila Leber 
<delilaleber at prodigy.net> -----
    Date: Mon, 8 Mar 2004 12:21:08 -0800 (PST)
    From: Delila Leber <delilaleber at prodigy.net>
Reply-To: Delila Leber <delilaleber at prodigy.net>
 Subject: [pcj] Fwd: 3 daily articles on white privilege week (fwd)
      To: pcj at lists.riseup.net


--- megansw at u.washington.edu wrote:
> Date: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 10:41:07 -0800 (PST)

Here are 3 articles about the white privilege week that we just 
held at
the UW.  They were all on the front page of the daily!!
MTT is a big coalition of ECC student groups that attended a UIR 
training this winter.  Alonso, Francesca, Chris, me (Megan) and a 
lot
of 
other people are a part of it.
Thanks to Martin, Margey and Tami for helping out with the forum!!!!




Forum educates whites, minorities alike

Katie Shaw
2004-03-04


Students set out last night to show others that white privilege, 
the 
institutional advantages granted to whites, needs to be 
acknowledged.

About 40 gathered at the Ethnic Cultural Theater to educate 
minorities 
and whites alike about white privilege. 

Forum coordinators showed a video of UW students defining white 
privilege and organized a panel of people from the People's 
Institute 
Northwest to discuss white privilege. UW group formerly named
Minority/Majority 
Think Tank, now called MTT, organized the forum.

The forum is part of White Privilege Week, the MTT's three-day 
attempt 
to create awareness in the UW community.

The opening video featured people of many races who defined white 
privilege as everything from higher-education access to the ability 
to
be 
"invisible," as well as some white students who had never heard the
term. 

Megan Wilbert, a white sophomore and a member of MTT, has noticed 
the 
phenomenon that white people often separate themselves from issues 
of 
race.

"When these issues aren't talked about within the white 
communities, it

doesn't give people a holistic history," said Wilbert.

White Privilege Week began with a demonstration on the HUB lawn 
yesterday and will continue through today with a Unity Circle, which
will 
illustrate social and racial togetherness, and a "Die-In." The 
events
will 
start in Red Square at noon.

Another MTT goal propelling the week's events is to communicate 
that 
white privilege is not an accusation, but a reality.

"People feel like they're being attacked," said Marc Robinson, a 
MTT 
member and black senior. "Some people haven't even heard this term.
Take 
a moment. Watch a video. Read a book. Get educated."





'White privilege' takes UW forefront

Matt Ironside
2004-03-04


Students gathered on the HUB lawn yesterday to make a point to show 
why

white privilege was still prevalent in 2004.

The MTT (formerly Minority/Majority Think Tank), a campus 
organization 
devoted to raising awareness of racial issues, held a demonstration 
in 
front of the HUB yesterday afternoon.

According to Mark Robinson, a senior in history and one of the 
organizers of the demonstration, the purpose was to promote 
discussion
on the 
topic of white privilege.

"Mostly this was about awareness," said Robinson. "It's a subject 
that 
has been written about in scholarly journals, but I was passing out 
fliers yesterday and people had never heard of the term before."

The demonstration started at 12:30 p.m., and before long a large 
crowd 
gathered.

"I got in [to the UW] because I'm white," was the loudspeaker 
statement

by Tony Rivisto. As supporters circled around, Rivisto, a junior in 
American ethnic studies, opened the demonstration with a short 
speech.
It 
was followed by a group activity to show how life experience can be 
used to demonstrate racial division.

The activity started with participants in a line on the HUB lawn. A 
series of questions about life experience was read and participants
were 
asked to take a step forward or backward depending on if the 
experience

applied to them. The questions covered a variety of situations from 
economic to educational.

At the end of the activity, several participants spoke about why 
they 
ended up where they did.

Not all onlookers agreed with the results of the activity, which 
ended 
with a number of white males standing near the front.

"I think there are disparities that exist," said Charles Brunner, a 
senior in mechanical engineering and economics, from his viewpoint
under 
the College Republicans promotional tent. "I don't think there is a 
system of privilege that creates them."





Students 'die-in' Red Square protest


 
Brian Stryker / The Daily 
 

By Amy Rolph
2004-03-05


Bodies littered Red Square yesterday as more than 20 students
participated in a Die-In to commemorate the deaths resulting from 
the
war in Iraq.

Most of the students playing dead on the bricks were members of the 
UW
student organization MTT (formerly the Minority/Majority Think 
Tank),
who believe racism is too often overlooked as an aspect of 
international
war. The Die-In was the final demonstration of MTT's White Privilege
Week.

"[Racism] is what this country was founded on," said MTT member
Jaebadiah Gardner, a junior in English and American ethnic studies.
"Forty thousand people die when our white president says, 'Let's go 
to
war.'"

Gardner said a disproportionate number of minority soldiers go into 
the
military because of the limited options open to them. He also 
expressed
concern for the Iraqi people dying overseas.

The cluster of prostrated protesters remained on the ground for
approximately 10 minutes. During that time, a small group of 
onlookers
gathered. A few people bent over the demonstrators and asked what 
they
were doing, but most hovered on the outskirts, some with hands in
pockets, some mouths hanging slightly agape in wonder.

"I think it's admirable that people are trying to make a 
difference,"
said Jen Ghidiu, a senior English major who happened to be passing
through Red Square.

Senior Matteo Tamburini made a lively speech before the Die-In 
commenced
regarding recent events in Haiti and the country's troubled history 
with
racism.

Tamburini brought up Haiti's struggle with slavery in the past and 
the
influence of the United States. He also said he believes the media
coverage of Haiti's true problem is biased. 

According to Tamburini, racism is the biggest problem Haiti faces 
today.

"Rich people in Florida don't want Haitian refugees to seek refuge 
in
our country," he shouted to other MTT members.

Gardner summoned his fellow club members to their feet by leaping 
to 
his
feet, yelling, "We're dying every day."

After demonstrators stood up again and let loose with a crowd-
rousing
battle cry toward the sky, they formed a Unity Circle involving the
spectators who had gathered. Approximately 45 people took part in 
the
circle and listened to student Regent Daya Mortel talk about the 
group's
views on racism.

Mortel, a senior in political science and American ethnic studies 
who
works with MTT in an advisory role, later said she was pleased with 
how
the event went.

"Even though there weren't a huge amount of people, it was large 
enough
to make an impact," she said. "[MTT's] greatest challenge is to keep
people fired up, keep people making a social change."




----- End forwarded message -----


Joseph Eisenschmidt