I was at an anti-racism training weekend for the past three days. It was there that the instructor told us that, from time to time a little self-flatulation was a good thing. I think she meant self-flagellation.

The weekend was long, difficult, exhausting. In no way am I prepared to say it was a good thing, either. For me, it was not one of those experiences where I can look back on it and say, "Yes, that was painful and tough, but it was worth it because of all I learned" (like CPE). If I learned anything at all, it was a few interesting techniques for manipulating a group of people and the fact that no mater what I do, where I go, whom I serve, or how ever many trainings I attend, I will, always and forevermore, by virtue of the fact that I am white, be a racist.

Apparently being able to say that is a good thing. Cause the next thing I'm suppossed to say is that I am also an anti-racist. Well, I always thought of myself as one. I've always (in my adult life - in my youth I made a grave error for which I learned a hard lesson) held to the belief that a way to increase equality is not to take away privilege from those who have it, but to extend privilege to all.

In any event, racism is, in my firm opinion, a generational problem that will only be "solved" through the passing of generations. No matter how good or how bad any 2.5 day training session is, those alone will never "solve" racism. The good ones may help (and what those look like, I don't know). The bad ones...well, I'll let you know what their effects are after I figure them out.

-R