White Privilege, Race, Power and the Bigotry of Low Expectations

Over the past week, I've had the pleasure of being on a panel as a guest speaker at the University of Detroit and at the Detroit Food Policy Council's Race to Good Food Summit both in the World's Greatest City. In preparing for my guest speaker conversation, I had a revelation: many of my experiences around race have been repressed and pushed out my memory. As I began to unpack my own experiences, being told I was "sun-tan" by my white mother as a child or being nearly arrested while sitting in the passengers seat because "I fit the description" of someone the police were looking for I thought deeply about the ways in which I was forced into notions of race, privilege and identity. I asked myself "Who else has pushed such memories aside and what can we learn from each other?" There were great questions from our UDM brothers and sisters such as "Isn't race more entrenched in ideas of power?" and "How much of race has to do with conditioning?" I was honored to share space with two Ph.D's who were well versed in the topic but I've had some lived experiences that sometimes trumps academic credentials. I shared I never necessarily chose to enter into notions of race and class and growing up I frequently had to answer the question, "What exactly are you?" Those questions birthed my life-long quest to answer questions and identify my passion for serving people in so-called marginalized communities. How does this notion of race and power effect our schools and our students? How do these notions effect our food system? I'm only beginning to understand how I might begin to answer each of these questions; as our food and schooling systems depend upon our work to create equity and justice.