Lynn: How does it affect the mandate of our workshops?

Miriam: Well, how does it affect how your workshops play out, and maybe more importantly roles?

Lynn:

Well, what I really like about it is that you bring students, like our volunteers who are working on their degree are going to this high school where kids have this stigma of maybe even dropping out. That bridges a gap, to some degree. You have a white woman teaching hip-hop, which is predominantly black male culture. That also adds another twist to it, and it bridges a gap to some degree. We talk about it. We’re not scared of talking about it – we’re not trying to hide under the snow. Race is --

Miriam: Does it get uncomfortable? Do you find it’s a moment of great comfort, or great moment where people learn a lot? Or neither of those – maybe it’s something else.

Lynn:

I felt like for sure there are definitely race issues with the students sometimes. I was really impressed with the kids – sometimes when they were talking about race, they kind of refrain themselves from saying certain things because of me. I really wanted to show them that I was very comfortable with talking about race.

One thing that is also part of a white privilege is that when it comes to race, there’s a tendency to always make white people feel comfortable in situations. Like, if you’re in a situation where people want to talk about the white man, and ‘down with the man’, and all this other stuff; if there’s a presence of a white person, sometimes there’s tendencies to refrain from saying certain things to accommodate the white presence. Which is oppressing – it goes back into oppressing and censoring, and keeping the voiceless voiceless.

I like to unpackage that by saying things myself about where I fit in, and then listening. I don’t want to be a person who talks about, “Oh, poor me with white privilege”, and then put myself in a place where people should feel bad for me, or nurture me. I just want to say it as a matter of fact, this is what it is, and I like to keep on my toes. I don’t like to exclude myself from racism, or sexism, or homophobia. I’m very aware of it, and I do my best to not contribute to those things. However, I don’t exclude myself from it. I always consider myself of being potentially racist or sexist, or all that other stuff.

Race has been interesting with the volunteers too. There were two white women in the classroom: myself and this other volunteer; one black woman; two African-American males; and one, I think he was mixed backgrounds, from Canada. It was interesting because the African-Americans live in a very racist society – it’s in their face, and race is a very big issue. Not that it’s not a very big issue here, but it’s very obvious. Race issues are very tense in the States. He always brought that to the table. The white woman fitting into a black culture – insecurities about that and then my friend the black woman, who’s the only one that was there. It was interesting, the dynamic. We all brought our own opinions about race to the table, and at our curriculum board meetings that we had, we all had very interesting conversations.

There is also a lot of common ground, despite the different backgrounds that we came from. It all came down to the better of the program – that was the glue.

Miriam: And hip-hop.
Lynn: And hip-hop, exactly.