The publication is go!

Pick up your copy at one of 8 convenient locations:

• Weshop
• the lobby of Olin
• Pac Lab
• the Campus Center
• the Science Library Entrance
• Pi Cafe
• the Science Center benches
• the WSA building
  

We are everywhere. It is futile to resist us.

A Conversation

For our final project we really wanted to focus on the ‘beyond the safety’ of theory aspect of the forum. With this in mind, we decided to have a conversation about some of the material we had discussed in class. Our use of we here is not meant to obscure our individual identities, but rather to highlight the collective choices we have made and the goals we share as people. We believe the most effective means of challenging whiteness are both personal and enduring and we hope to embody both in this project.

We intend both our message and our methodology are both anathema to the workings of whiteness. As such, we have made our work available as multi-media presentation that attempts to avoid self-censorship. The content of our discussion ranged from material introduced in the classroom to personal anecdotes or opinions. We have tried our best not to speak abstractly.

If whiteness occults the means by which norms are fashioned and propagated, then our work attempts reveal the inner-workings of our social understanding, especially those that are problematic. Our work is an attempt to recognize the ideals outlined in White Supremacy Culture by Tema Okun. By preserving our conversation in various digital formats we can reflect on the presence of white supremacy culture in our own dialogue.

In this specific conversation we sought to address the hidden norm of defensiveness and perfectionism by presenting ourselves in a vulnerable and incomplete format. The stark honesty of a digital recording provides no room for editorial escape; the process is transparent and collaborative. We agreed to be criticized and challenged by each other within our conversation as well as by the larger community. Our conversation is a form of communication and resistance that should be valued as much as the written word. The collaborative aspect of our work defies the individualist paradigm of whiteness observed by Okun.

We are not presenting ourselves as academics. This is a private dialogue which has been turned into public introspection. In an effort to continue our class discussions beyond the classroom we encourage others to comment on or join in our dialogue. We hope these records will provide those who wish to look into the workings of racism at Wesleyan and within themselves further with material and as such we are copyrighting our conversation with a creative commons license.

-Claire and Justin

view the complete transcript here.