Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible

Topanga Peace Alliance First-Friday Film Night for October

Friday, October 1st, 8:00 pm

TPA will screen Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible directed by Shakti Butler. In the film, white men and women reflect on living in a world where their whiteness is taken for granted. This is contrasted with the experience of people of color, such as the African-American professor who says, “I wake up every single morning of my life and think, ‘I am a black person.’”

 

Making Whiteness Visible documents the stories of white men and women who have worked to gain insight into what it means to challenge notions of racism and white privilege. Their words reveal the stages of denial, defensiveness, guilt, fear, and shame that are often required to move through, in order to make a solid commitment to ending racial injustice.

Racial prejudice has shaped American society since our country’s inception. The election of Barack Obama has brought racial issues once again into the foreground, whether through the verbal attacks of certain individuals against President Obama in particular, or through the rising enmity against Mexican immigrants, Muslim-Americans, and the continued marginalization of American citizens of color. Do notions of white supremacy account for these acts? Are these notions unconscious, learned and internalized, and are white folks courageous enough to reflect on this question? 

The film was produced by World Trust, an organization that works to eliminate racial injustice through education, offering skills to perceive and challenge internal and external systems that reinforce racial oppression. Van Jones, an anti-racism activist calls Making Whiteness Visible “a moving call, long-overdue, coming from the heart of white people working to restore their own humanity.” Shauna Marshall, the Academic Dean of Hastings School of Law says, “Shakti Butler has managed to engage white Americans in an honest discussion of race and privilege that has eluded this nations for three centuries. This is a film that all Americans need to see.” 

Prominent in this film is Tim Wise, one of the most eloquent and outspoken proponents of raising collective consciousness concerning the obvious and less obvious effects of white privilege.  

Please join us on October 1, 2010 7:45 PM

Yoga Desa Dance Studio, 120 N. Topanga Cyn. Blvd.

A wine/cheese/veggie potluck at 7:45.

Making Whiteness Visible screens at 8:00 pm.

A discussion will follow the screening.

$10 donation is requested, but no one will be turned away for lack of funds.

Please do not disturb the yoga class in session.