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Lynn: Racism - Part 1

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Lynn: Racism- Part 2

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Miriam: Can you just tell me a bit about how race and class and poverty affect your work with Word?

Lynn: Race and class and poverty are --

Miriam: Anything else; gender, anything?

Lynn:

Gender and homophobia too – well, first of all, this is the structure of our society. I think that everyone knows that we live in a – I’m going to use Belle Hooks but I love the way she describes this - a white supremest patriarchy. We all know this, but we don’t talk about it. Someone described to me one time racism in Canada is covered under the snow. I was like, “That’s a good metaphor!” The dirt is under the snow! How that all plays into, it talks about the real structures and it doesn’t hide the boxes that (we) are put in by society, and race and poverty – I feel like poverty doesn’t have to be a reality in the context of North America. I feel like we live in a wealthy country, and some of the issues that we have going on in Canada and in the States – especially the States, it’s the wealthiest country in the world – it’s a crime that there’s poverty.

We are focusing so much on wealth and how important it is to have luxury, and when you watch TV where paying attention to wealthy people all the time, you don’t – and that’s what you want to strive towards.

Actually, I just got another idea too. There’s a Canadian rapper from Toronto called K’naan, right? He put it this way – he’s from Somalia, and he said the difference between coming from a third world country is that everyone is poor, so you just do your thing. Everyone’s poor – when you come to North America, it’s such a ‘bitch slap’ that wealth is right in your face. It’s another world. Poverty is unacceptable, but it is also taught in our society that it should be acceptable so wealthy people can have more cars, instead of helping each other out. It’s just about the individual. What I like to do is really illustrate the pyramid in our society, and remind people that if there was poverty, we won’t have as much wealth. The wealth really is dependent on poverty. People are really holding up people at the top, even though we like to think that wealthy people are just these individual people floating at the top – no, they actually have a base, and it’s people at the bottom who are holding it up.

Race also is important. There’s a lot of unrecognized – well, definitely as a white person – unrecognized white privilege that happens in our society. We live in a society that’s influenced so much by Euro-centric ideologies. I’ve had some personal conflicts with being a white instructor teaching stuff that is from black culture to black youth. The important thing to do is always know your individual role into the greater scheme of things, and understand you as an individual – as a white woman form a middle class – contribute to the whole picture of the pyramid; to contribute to teaching these kids.

Race is also – there’s so much. There’s so much I could talk more about white privilege, and how there’s so much about white privilege. It’s hard for black youth to see themselves in situations – see themselves on TV; see themselves in places of really great mentorship. At the same time, there is also many people who played those roles. I’m kind of touchy on the race thing --

Miriam: That’s why I’m asking!