Being a state university, raises are very tough to get. That’s why she seeks a presidential or provost job. I don’t want to move at all, but we may have to in order for her to make more money. She still more than doubles my salary, lol. It seems we agree on a lot. I do agree that white women wield more power then white men, but I disagree that white women are anywhere near the prestige of having say, a black female in a higher role. Black women are in the power position atm in both influence and hire ability.
As for the influence, look at 2020 as an example. Black women were pushed and celebrated for “leading the social reckoning” and even credited highly with electing biden. Whether accurate or not (I lean the latter, especially in electing biden) but if you had to lead a protest in 2020, the pole position went to black women, followed by black men.
Hell, white people were told to protest but take a back seat everywhere. At that time, I was fresh out of retirement. I took a job as a youth crisis response team member. In that very long six months, it was right smack in the middle of the pandemic, so everything was remote- I had to attend a fucking shit ton of zoom conferences. It made me sick because it was so fucking focused on white people, ESPECIALLY white men, taking a back seat. I had to attend several conferences that focused on “being an ally in the fight for social justice.” I took notes and pictures of the slides because I didn’t think people would believe me when I told them how bad it was.
I spent an 8 hour day zooming a conference on how to elevate black voices and specifically told to “yield my white privilege” and wait for black people, especially women,to speak first and last. To allow them to come up with solutions and give them all the credit for any team ideas or accomplishments.
I got super pissed off when they spent one of the hour long sections to specifically discuss what to do, as an ally, in the fight to protect black lives and voices when dealing with police. I watched and listened in horror as I was told it was my duty to the human race to film any and all interactions with police when a person of color was being detained or even traffic stops. I was instructed to announce “I am recording this interaction for the safety of black bodies and voices and will report and post this incident.” Then, to my horror, we had “break-out groups” in which you were assigned to a group to discuss various issues. Of course, a poc was appointed as the leader of the group and to present our findings to the conference at the end. In one break out group, I kept my shit on silent and if I was given the choice, I would have kept my camera off but we were instructed to keep both active and to participate (by my supervisor).
. I was specifically addressed by the group leader and asked “as a privileged white male(I was the only one) what are you prepared to do to protect black bodies from police violence and are you prepared to get in between a poc and a police officer and to protect them even if it causes you to get arrested and to truly be an ally.” I initially said I would like to remain silent. She kept prodding and finally, I said that I might observe, but I wasn’t sacrificing myself or my freedoms to interject myself into a situation that I didn’t know all the facts. She then told me to accept the challenge of discussion. I then told the group that if I saw something truly disturbing, I would probably get involved to protect any person’s life but I also said that if I saw a police officer getting attacked or struggling with a suspect, I was helping the cop. She then said “but you don’t know that the cop isn’t violating a poc’s rights simply because they can and you probably don’t understand the dynamics involving cops and poc or understand what initiated the interaction or the ramifications of what police violence does to poc and their communities.” I then told her that I knew way more than she could imagine. She then stated “ sorry to point out the obvious, but you’re a white male that benefits directly and indirectly from maintaining the status quo.”
I finally dropped the bomb and told them I was a retired cop and when I said I wasn’t interjecting myself into a situation I didn’t understand, you told me it was my duty, but then you said I should until I stated I would help a cop being attacked and you told me that I shouldn’t interject myself into a situation I didn’t understand. I said you don’t see the hypocrisy in that.
She told me I don’t understand the trauma caused by police violence, especially because I was a cop. I then stated that maybe she didn’t understand the violence in their own community and how that threatens poc more than cops ever could. I also mentioned how I had been shot at by a poc and in my 18 years, I had responded to dozens of murders and probably 100 shootings and there was never a white suspect and only a few white victims. She actually told me I needed to check myself and my privilege.
At this point, my supervisor got a call from her supervisor and was directed to tell me to apologize log out of the conference. my supervisor told me I could go home if I wanted. I was so pissed off I was almost in tears. I quit the next week.
The regional director of the company called me at home after I quit and told me they put a lot of money in training me and invested a lot of time in me. She admitted I was good at responding to calls(the few calls we got to respond to peoples homes) but I had a lot to learn about social work. I told her I learned enough in that one conference to know I wanted nothing to do with socialism work. She tried to correct me that it wasn’t socialism and it was honorable and honest work.
It was such a disgusting work and life experience.
