White Power and Privilege

Something that I started thinking about, and recognizing in Canadian society, is the role of white power and privilege in how our society functions, or in some cases fails to function. The whole concept is something new to me, and therefore difficult to articulate, but I thought that I would try anyways because my power and privilege seems to have followed me here- much to my chagrin.

My basic definition, without being able to look at my notes or readings on the subject that I left at home is as follows. White privilege and power is basically power or privileges that are attributed to one because they are white. For example, in stores throughout the city I am basically trusted. My students who were aboriginal would immediately be watched carefully simply because of the color of their skin. They were in Gr. 3 & 4 at the time and went shopping with their mom. Simply because they weren’t in the north end, where people are used to seeing aboriginals, but rather in another area of the city where prejudice is rampant, they were subject to suspicion. That is a really simple example, but for now, it is what I got.

Once again, I cannot escape being white. Me being white gives me a different status here. I sat and talked with a man who had his masters in something chemistry related and who taught high school in Kenya while I was waiting for some samosas from the small restaurant in a near by town. He was keen to converse and, being a teacher, I was interested in what he taught, etc. He heard I was volunteering at an orphanage and expressed his desire to help with whatever I needed. I suggested that I get him in contact with the orphanage manager, Zac, at which point he lost enthusiasm. Now, I know it could be something else, but it felt like a lot of giving me respect and help simply because I was white, while the Kenyans who actually know what is going on and run this place, do not get the same respect.

I have been asked to speak to people about AIDS/HIV. I know almost nothing about the subject, but they want me to talk to people and tell them that HIV is not a death sentence. The whole country is working hard to decrease stigmatization that comes with the diagnosis as well as combating people just giving up on life when they get diagnosed. Their primary reason for wanting me to speak to people (who I have never met, have no relationship with or anything like that) is because I am white and they will listen to me more than their own doctors. So, part of me wants to say no, I will not speak to them about that because I don’t want to perpetuate the cycle of white people thinking or being always thought to know best. I am white. I know I can’t get away from that. And maybe I don’t even want to. But what do I do with that whiteness? It is like a resource that comes with being my colour that I hardly understand and don’t know how to best use it. I want to somehow use it to deconstruct the whole phenomenon (if that is right word) and build up the Kenyan doctors where they can be the experts in their field. I want to use my power to deconstruct my power so that all around the world there is a level playing field where my ideas don’t carry more weight just because of my skin colour. But then in the mean time, what about those people I could talk to?

The whole white privilege/power thing makes me cautious about giving ideas here at the orphanage as well. You can see remnants of well intentioned volunteers doing things that made sense to them that haven’t continued because they didn’t really fit into things. And I often catch myself trying to solve problems I don’t understand and thinking that I have the solution before understanding the problem and situation. But then, balancing that caution, there are legitimate skills that I have that are rare here that I could pass on. For example, some of the teaching practices that I have learned and practiced could help some of the teachers (in my opinion). But what are the ramifications of that? The teachers that I have talked to are always asking if this is how we do things in Canada and I don’t know how to be honest and give authentic feedback and still honor how they are doing things because they quickly think my way is best.

It is an interesting and challenging thing to balance and I was wishfully thinking that I would be able to leave this one at home… oh well. So the struggle continues.

In the middle of the reality of being assumed to be more able and competent than most people here (rather than actually assessing my competency) things are going well. I am working to carve out a place for myself here and have started teaching the nursery through class 2 (which is the same as K-2). I am not used to the teaching style here or the learning style (a lot of rote) or the language, so it is fairly bumpy so far. The kids are the keenest learners that I have worked with and they eat everything up- from the youngest to the oldest! I was counting by tens today with them and has the nursery trying to keep up and someone in Gr 5 (I think) enjoying doing it with everyone.

Tamara (my sister) and I went to the Maasai Market in Nairobi today and saw some beautiful things. If you ever want to feel wanted and get lots of attention- go to this market. I had so many people greeting me and telling me that, I was so special I would get a good price. People kept telling me to ‘come here’ and my instinct was that I had to listen to all of them. That got old pretty fast and I got a little bolder (or maybe it was ruder) and said ‘no’ a lot of times.

Right now, it is just Tam and I here in terms of volunteers. Tam leaves at the end of the week and then it will be just me until the next volunteers get here- although I don’t know when that will be. I have a whole list of things to write about so I will probably be trying to blog a bit more while I have thoughts percolating so keep checking back. Talk to you later!