The problem with white privilege and power combined is not only that white assumes right but can also justify overbearing might

The problem with white privilege and power combined is not only that white assumes right but can also justify overbearing might, as can be seen in the cop Crowley arrest of professor Gates. Mr. Crowley, a diversity instructor for the Cambridge police force, needs to seriously consider whether he understands the material he is teaching. Because had he drawn upon the material of his course he would have considered that a black man in the U.S. is going to question if it is his race that brings the police to confront him, especially if there is no crime going on at the time. Mr. Crowley could have anticipated a possible race response from Mr. Gates and applied some skills to de-escalate the situation, especially since it was possible that it was Mr. Gates own home as the caller indicated? The bottom line is since it was Mr. Gates home he should not have been arrested! I think there are all kinds of subtext going on here, Class, race, male privilege, white privilege, and obviously EGO! For Officer Crowley to not be willing, or perhaps not knowing how to deescalate the situation is a problem in a profession where confrontation and adrenalin are the starting point of the interaction between officers, suspects or victims! Because police officers are privileged with power arresting people just because they can is an abuse of that privilege and power and not in the best interest of the community in which they were chosen to protect and serve! What would have happened if Officer Crowley just said, “We’re just looking out for you and your home, Mr. Gates”, “Welcome back” and left? We would not get to speak to the problems of race, power, and privilege! But just talking isn’t enough, and in this case being a teacher of Diversity Sensitivity obviously isn’t either. Change needs to come to our white communities, the social, economic, and political institutions that create, enforce and set the tone for social justice for all and not just the privileged few!
As the LGBTQ community celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Stone Wall Riots, it is still hard to believe that the police will help you and not challenge you even when you call them!
goddessboi
www.butchculture.com

jewelz said...

WHY I LOVE BUTCHES
I love the existence of silences I find, and their mystery.

I love the ways the butch lovers I have had are emotionally and psychologically different from me.

I love their aggression. I want to channel it. It feeds me, and gives me energy.

There is nothing in the world like taking their aggression into me.

I love that it comes in strong, and that my body can transform it into something soft and full of relief.


I like resistance.

I like being overpowered. It relieves me.

I love difference and pushing up against something different, something with a harder stance.

I live for the very moments drive breaks into tenderness.

My drive meets my lovers drive in just the right way. We fit.

I love having my body and my heart be the vehicle that changes my lover’s mood.

I cherish the tenderness butches show me.. . a kind of tenderness that they can’t/or won’t necessarily bring to most of the rest of the world.

I like being a necessity.

I like that my playfulness, and sexuality, can bring them out, turn them on and turn them around.

I adore them for working-- to turn me on.

I like fitting our pieces together-- physically, emotionally, intellectually and psychologically-- to make sense of the world.

I like that they [my aggressive lovers] understand dynamics of power that are different from mine, and that mine are different from theirs.

I respect their armor, and their shells.

I like feeling safe and protected by them.

I like that I will let their comfort in and that I can fall back on it and land.

I like the trust we build.

I like that the roles we have complement each other and deepen our definitions of ourselves.

I like bringing out and discovering the ways we each more deeply inhabit our roles.

I like shaking off our roles and surprising ourselves and each other.

I like that it is safe to do that with someone who understands and respects me.

I like that the ways that we do that are our own secret.

I love they way bois, and butch women, work to polish traits (a gaze, a way they nod), manners, objects of use and things, tangible things (a pocketknife, a set of keys, a wallet), that define them. Talismans of their gender.

I like that they will allow, and privilege me, with a certain kind of vulnerability that they won’t let the rest of the world see.

I like that they have made a study of the ways to please my body, and they are masters at that. The best in the world.

I like feeling small and malleable.

I like that they make me feel powerful.

I love them for their generosity to me, sexually.

And I love them for their needs...

July 14, 2009 9:09 AM

Posted by jewelz