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Paul Crebar's avatar

Thank you. 🙏

Just a heads up this link is broken:

Understanding Whiteness.

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Susan Gale's avatar

I always have issues with the one about seeing race. I am in a very diverse family. if race were seen first, I would have to introduce people as my Korean niece, my biracial nephew, my African American son, or my biracial son. Then does my Lebanese nephew by marriage count as yet another race/ethnic group or my Mexican daughter-in-law?

One of our favorite family silly stories is when someone asked my sister what she was going to do when her six-month-old daughter got older and started speaking Korean!!

I spent a full ten years immersed in the black culture, which I must hasten to say, is very different from the street culture. I also worked with children who lived in a street culture. I have also immersed myself in an indigenous culture. I am acutely aware of the struggles mainstream society places on all these groups. I work hard to remove the victims by believing in them and providing opportunities to be heard, seen, and valued within the community they know. I do not help people; I just value them as they are.

Do I have a culture? No. I am simply Susan who has visited a lot of groups and gained a deep understanding of them. I would stand to the side sometimes for years to gain an understanding before venturing forward. I would often hear "You get it."

I have created a culture through my work wherever I go. But it is a culture based on actions towards others that come from a place of love.

Perhaps we are speaking of apples and oranges here, but these are the words that came to me.

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