Being Ambidextrous

I have always been jealous of people who are ambidextrous. How sweet is it that they have the ability to do and make things with their right AND left hand?! Just a thought I will return to later...

So this week, for my Diverse and Exceptional Learner class, I was given the task of interviewing five people about what white privilege means to them. Thinking that my family members would all provide deep and intellectual answers that would be on the same track as my own thoughts about race and privilege, I made the wonderful mistake of interviewing them. Why a wonderful mistake? Well the mistake comes in because they pretty much gave me answers that were entirely the opposite to the ones I was looking for: instead of being insightful, their answers were mostly filled with ignorance and colorblindness. But why wonderful? Allan Johnson notes that acknowledgement of privilege is one of the most important steps in beginning to unravel negative powers and oppressions. By conducting those interviews with my family, I realized that I have acknowledged, to some degree, my privilege as a white person. I am no longer colorblind, which goes against everything I was ever taught about growing up when everyone was "equal". But I actually prefer my non-colorblinded world right now: it has completely stretched my mind and caused me to think about issues that I had never acknowledged. As a result of my interviews, I recognize that I don't believe "white privilege is an archaic phrase that isn't relevant in 2009," as my mother said. I don't believe that "White privilege is something used as an excuse for some people of minority groups to not be motivated to be successful," as one family member put it. I don't believe the prediction that "The 2010 decade will be the decade of 'black privilege' because they have a ten times better shot of being hired in D.C. being black," as the 26 year old radically republican and conservative lawyer brother claimed. Instead, I believe "white privilege" is very much like being right handed, a metaphor from Bill and Otter, a gay couple from Decorah: not being forced to think about how you are 'different' or wonder if why the reason you are being treated a certain way is because of your "difference".

So I know you are sitting there thinking, "How in the world does 'white privilege' have anything to do with women and gender studies?" It has everything to do with it. By understanding myself as a young woman and therefore as a member of a group that has been oppressed throughout history, and being passionate about looking and acting for change, I can better understand and identify with people oppressed by other factors, such as race. I can better understand their feelings, their struggles, their passion, and their vision. In other words, in this aspect of my life, I get to be ambidextrous. I get to make things better and create things out of my right-handed privilege and my left-handed way in which I am oppressed.

But where do I, where do WE, go from here? A truth that I really like thinking about comes through a quote of Henry Adams: "A teacher affects eternity: they can never tell where their influence will stop." Why do I know this is truth? I have witness and experienced it. I bet any of you can look at why you are sitting in a women and gender studies classroom and attribute that reason to a variety of people in your past that have influenced you for the better. As people, we are truly like ripples, like Kim suggested. We have the ability to start something, or fight for something, and be comforted by the fact that, even though we might be unaware of it, we are influencing people. And like my favorite stanza from the last poem reads,

"Somebody may stop my voice from singing

But the song lives on and on.

You can't kill the spirit

It's like a mountain,

Old and Strong; it lives on and on."

"Being mountain. Being ambidextrous. Creating Ripples" is my artwork for the week.

Nike and The Lorax

Did anyone else feel guilty when they started reading "The Globetrotting Sneaker" and looked down at their feet and realized that they were wearing a pair of Nike's? Because I did. Which is why, in an attempt to make myself feel better, I looked into what Nike has done in the past 15 years since that article was written in order to improve their ethical and moral image.

One thing that has changed in Nike's policy since the 1990s is the allowing of random inspections by the Fair Labor Association. In addition, Nike has created a sector of around 100 employees whose jobs are to travel to supplier factories, grade the factories on labor standards, and work with managers to improve labor conditions. I also found problems that had been somewhat solved by Nike that weren't even talked about in the readings. For instance, did you know that women in Nike sweatshops used to have to prove they were menstruating before given their legally guaranteed leave? They no longer have to do so. In addition, and the article minimally touched on this, Nike workers were beaten more than once with machetes and threatened at gunpoint if they were perceived to be involved with union organizing activity. This is now no longer the case. Nike has also made tremendous progress in reducing the use of toxic chemicals in their shoemaking factories.

So should we give credit to Nike for these improvements? Jim Keady, founder of Educating for Justice and Team Sweat says absolutely not. "Nike did not make any of these improvements voluntarily; they needed to be publicly embarrassed and pilloried to make each of these changes. Congratulating Nike for discontinuing these corporate crimes would be like congratulating a thief for no longer stealing or congratulating a rapist for no longer raping.And besides that, Nike still has a long ways to go in reaching justice in their labor division. Many workers are still coerced into working 70 hour work weeks, and note that it is very difficult to take sick leave or vacation because of the pressure their under to not get threatened with dismissal. In addition, Nike still refuses to pay its workers a figure able to be lived off of. Nike workers today barely get paid enough to survive, not to mention serving the needs of their children.

So what are we helpless and powerless college students to do? Well, as you may have heard, Luther College was recently part of a boycott of Russell Athletic wear after allegations that the company fired 1,200 workers in Honduras after they began unionizing. Due to the pressure of students across the nation, on November 17th, Russell rehired the 1,200 workers. UW-Madison, after being a part of the Russell boycott success, has now turned their heads to Nike. According to The Capital Times based in Madison, WI, "Two factories Nike subcontracts with in Honduras, Vision Tex and Hugger de Honduras, closed in January without paying more than $2 million in legally mandated severance and back pay to 1,800 workers." As a result, Madison is hosting a $50,000 educational program to inform the university’s licensees about the code of conduct regarding the treatment of workers in labor shops. After seeing the power students had in the Russell case, they have faith that if they act to raise awareness that poor labor conditions of big athletic apparel companies all reflect poorly on universities, administrations will come to realize that these big companies don't deserve the opportunity to market to university students. Don't be surprised if this cause against Nike spreads to the Luther campus...and don't feel powerless in the difference you can make.