Dismantling The White Patriarchy
Such a small task right?
Our first action should be in educating the educators. Students, especially younger children, are easily imprinted on and the people that see kids in our society more than anyone else are our nation's teachers. Now, this next idea is purely hypothetical of course as getting a curriculum so “radical” as the one I’m to propose ever passing through a white-male-dominated political system is hysterical and a whole other issue. If we were to formulate a curriculum teaching about the ongoing negative effects of “Whiteness” and expect the brunt of our eductors (white women) to simply convey this to our children without first establishing our intentions and meanings we would have failed before we even started. In supplying information to the masses but more importantly teachers about the lasting effects of systematic discrimination and also how our current policies in education are not sufficient in combating and destroying, maybe then more will be done.
Yeah, that would be great but what can I do right now?
Each of the three major issues I addressed in the other posts have partial answers at the local level. The solution is in your own homes and local school districts.
For gender inequality and combating the patriarchy; teach our sons and brothers to respect their girl peers — they are equal beings and not so different from you after all. Girls are not be looked at in sexual ways just because they have some skin showing. Make it known that you are there to help fix the issue and not judge if your sons can’t fight the temptations to stare and fantasize. With addressing problems such as dress-codes for our sisters and daughters, stand up against the school. If you are certain that your district's policies are biased against girls say something! Call your superintendent, principal, the town's Board of Education — rally your neighbors and demand change.
In addressing racial discrimination in schools I am not proposing to tell all White children they're bad because they are White — I am a White Hispanic and I don’t believe I'm inherently evil. It is okay to address and acknowledge that we are privileged without adding in that we have somehow been discriminated against; it's typically a good rule of thumb to not compare someone else's hardships to your own, especially in this case, as it belittles the Black struggle. What I am proposing though is to give our children the truth about what has happened to their peers in the history of this country and what it still means today. It is okay for you to tell and schools to teach white children that they have a systematic privilege over someone else - it's what we follow with that matters. What I would advise is explaining that they can use that privilege to do good, to stand up for their Black peers. By teaching them that racial inequality and racism still exist and that it's wrong, we can create another generation to help slowly revise the system. Overall, schools need to stop the false narrative that everything is okay now and teach Black history in its full context.
Let's just stop idolizing people who don’t deserve it. In addition to that, stop teaching our kids to! This does not mean we only focus on the negative parts of history, rather just acknowledge and educate on it more expansively — give the fuller context of what the white patriarchy has done to our society. If we have to do our own research on every historical figure the current textbooks teach about, so be it. Teach your children the truth and fight to make your schools do the same.
The easiest way to rid yourself of a weed is to pull it out by its roots. The weed of white-male supremacy is deep, no one ever said it was going to be easy to uproot it. In uprooting it, we can later focus on advancing our world rather than fixing it. Women and men, Black and White, and everyone in between working together, not having to attempt to belong into a society that doesn't want them, can accomplish everything and anything.
Remember, always educate yourself and those around you- it’s our only way forward.
Works Cited
None. (2019, May 13). Budget vote for the Department of Justice & Constitutional Development. Insights into The Law in South Africa | Welcome to Go Legal. https://www.golegal.co.za/justice-system-development/.
