The aim of this website has been to make the white ethnicity of home economics education visible, without justifying or castigating the fervent beliefs of the early pioneers.  A major problem with white ethnicity is the guilt and shame that it can produce in people like me, who have artlessly enjoyed the unearned privilege of white skin.  This section therefore offers hope for understanding through exploration of the concepts of white privilege, white guilt and criticizing with care and respect.

White Privilege
White women unwittingly benefit from racial oppression on a daily basis, through passively accepting white privilege or through internalized racist attitudes and beliefs.    In a self-reflection of the meaning of being white in Western society, Peggy McIntosh  developed a list of forty-six ways in which she benefits from the colour of her skin.  These range from being perceived as trustworthy to being able to buy "flesh-coloured bandaids" that approximate her skin colour.  A similar list can be constructed for the typical white home economics student.   

Once we accept white privilege, what can we do about it?  We can be wary of the guilt and shame that often result from learning about systemic racism.  Clare Holzman (1995) points out the ways in which excessive guilt is irrational and immobilizing.  From a psychological perspective, Holzman says that guilt and shame in small amounts are motivating. They open the doors to reparation and constructive action on the things which one can change.  We can accept our guilt, not project it upon the oppressed and work for change.

How to change?  This is an important part of "so what" as I try to understand white dominance in Canadian culture and the ways in which home economics, has promoted white privilege. In a thoughtful paper on the topic of care and respect in antiracist education, Barbara Applebaum of the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education makes several suggestions.
 

First, using the world "privilege" is more appropriate than using the word "dominance" which implies a sense of being assaulted and attacked.  "[Privilege] not only underscores certain advantages, rights or benefits that accrue to certain groups of people in society, but also points to the 'taken for grantedness' of such assumed entitlements" (Applebaum, 1996). 

Second, raising of white awareness, or helping dominant group members recognize their dominance, is an essential component of antiracist education. 

To educate the dominant towards an awareness of their dominance, therefore, necessitates a type of criticism of the most personal and potentially devastating kind.  It challenges the dominant to question what they know to be true, what they know to be right, and what they have come to enjoy as rightfully theirs (Applebaum, 1996).

Criticizing with care and respect, according to Applebaum, means constructively helping the one criticized to clarify what s/he really means, and only then attempting to add, change and build upon those ideas.    Rather than labelling a person racist, Applebaum suggest first discussing dominance in a general sense, "working slowly to show how one's own compliance with, and fear of, challenging dominant norms and standards perpetuate the status quo."

References: 

Applebaum, Barbara. (1996).  "But that is not what I mean": Criticizing with care and respect.  Philosophy of Education Yearbook. 
http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/EPS/PES-Yearbook/96_docs/applebaum.html

Holzman, Clare. (1995).  Rethinking the role of guilt and shame in white women's antiracism work.  In Adleman, J. and G. Enguídanos (Eds.) Racism in the lives of women: Testimony, theory and guides to antiracist practice.  New York: Harrington Park Press. pp. 325-332.

McIntosh, Peggy. (1992).  White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see through work in women's studies. In L. Andersen and P.H. Collins (Eds.) Race, class and gender: An anthology.  California: Wadsworth.  pp. 70-81.