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Unlearning Racism: Edorah Frazer University of Vermont

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Unlearning Racism: Edorah Frazer University of Vermont University of Vermont ScholarWorks @ UVM Graduate College Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 2011 Unlearning Racism: Edorah Frazer University of Vermont Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis Recommended Citation Frazer, Edorah, "Unlearning Racism:" (2011). Graduate College Dissertations and Theses. 85. https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/graddis/85 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate College Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ UVM. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNLEARNING RACISM: A CANDID SELF-STUDY BY A EUROPEAN AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL LEADER A Dissertation Presented by Edorah J. Frazer to The Faculty of the Graduate College of The University of Vermont In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Specializing in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies May 2008 ABSTRACT Racism damages all of us. It degrades the lives of some, it diminishes the integrity of others, and it saps our resources and threatens our peace as a nation. Racism in the United States takes place on multiple levels: within and between individuals, in our cultural milieu, and in our social institutions. In this dissertation, I describe ways in which I have both encountered and perpetrated racism personally and professionally as an educator. I then explore ways in which racism can be unlearned by individuals and dismantled institutionally, particularly in the arena of education, so that our nation can be liberated from this most crippling disease. As a European American woman raised in affluence, my story is about unearned privilege on several levels, and my research asks the question of what I can responsibly do about that. However, my upbringing and the ongoing influences of mainstream America ask very different questions about dominant status; namely, what can one do with it? And how can one get more? This tension between power and responsibility forms the context for an examination of privilege in this scholarly personal narrative about unlearning racism. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I am grateful to my advisor, Dr. Robert Nash, for his inspiring example of personal transformation, and for his leadership and advocacy for scholarly personal narrative as a research methodology. My dissertation joins dozens of others that could not have been written if Robert hadn‟t been there creating respectful arenas for all kinds of people to draw forth their deepest and most instructive stories. I am also grateful to the additional members of my dissertation committee, Dr. Emily Bernard, Dr. Cynthia Reyes and Dr. Jill Tarule, for joining me on this journey with warmth, courage and wisdom. Peggy Silva was the angel who planted the idea of doctoral work in my mind. She has also offered me stories, both oral and written, that have illuminated our common experience over many years. Thank you for waving your wand over this one, Peggy. My friend and colleague, Dr. David Leo-Nyquist, helped me figure out how to complete this dissertation. Over our years of learning together, I have come to rely on his kindness and wisdom as an essential guide in my professional life. Elizabeth Comolli‟s careful reading and astute structural analysis of this dissertation came through a cold mental fog one morning, and my sister Marion‟s computer troubleshooting calmed the heat on another day. ii I am deeply grateful for the doors that were opened and the mirrors that were held up for me along the path of identity development by Rita Wonders-Rhoades, Augusta Sumrall, Jevon and Uneda Sears, Steven Hilsabeck, Susanne Leggett, Hal Colston, Barb Backler, Joey Corcoran, Sherwood Smith, David Shiman, and the trainers of the Equity Institute, the National Coalition Building Institute and the People‟s Institute for Survival and Beyond. Thanks and love to my neighbors in the Ten Stones Community, who housed my messy research, fed me soup and cookies, inquired as to my progress with kindness and encouragement, shared their computer expertise, and most essentially, cared for my family in myriad ways as I submerged myself in my research. A dissertation is a family affair. I am grateful to my husband, Michael Rubin, who picked up my household responsibilities when I let them fall and shared his energy when mine ran short, and to my daughter, Molly Feng Rubin, who kept me playing throughout. Finally, I am grateful for my mother, Mardean Frazer, my first and best teacher. No matter whether our understandings align or diverge, she always honors my voice. iii DEDICATION For Molly, Jevon and all the young people who call me to create a just and engaged society For African American men and boys ~ each one of you matters to me In memory of Augusta Sumrall iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................ ii DEDICATION.................................................................................................................. iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 1 Rationale ........................................................................................................................ 5 Audience......................................................................................................................... 8 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 10 Language ...................................................................................................................... 13 Dissertation Structure ................................................................................................ 16 INTERLUDE: Immersion .............................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2: THE EUROPEAN AMERICAN NARRATIVE IN CONTEXT ....... 19 Race IS the Issue ......................................................................................................... 19 Reading about Race .................................................................................................... 22 White Privilege ............................................................................................................ 24 White Supremacy ........................................................................................................ 25 White Identity.............................................................................................................. 28 INTERLUDE: Three Images ......................................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 3: CLEANING OUT MY RACE CLOSET ............................................. 32 Two Boys and a Man .................................................................................................. 34 Seeing and Unseeing ................................................................................................... 38 INTERLUDE: Chi Kung ................................................................................................ 46 My Birth Narrative ..................................................................................................... 47 Gussie ........................................................................................................................... 52 Alternative Narratives ................................................................................................ 56 Rita ............................................................................................................................... 58 Playing at Intimacy ..................................................................................................... 60 v Wealth .......................................................................................................................... 62 INTERLUDE: Addie Gray ............................................................................................ 77 CHAPTER 5: FROM SPECTATOR TO ALLY TO INTIMATE ............................. 79 Contact ......................................................................................................................... 80 Professor ...................................................................................................................... 84 Friends ......................................................................................................................... 86 Jerone ........................................................................................................................... 89 Molly........................................................................................................................... 100 The Way Forward ..................................................................................................... 108 Reprogramming .................................................................................................... 108 Mentors and Prophets .......................................................................................... 109 Doors ...................................................................................................................... 110 Cultural Competence ............................................................................................ 111 Self-Reflection ......................................................................................................
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