XC

I have been running with the OSU Running Club since the beginning of the academic year.  I've enjoyed the camaraderie on some of the runs, and especially during track workouts.  The group is a varied mix of seasoned Varsity and Junior-Varsity athletes, recreational runners, and marathoners.  It makes me feel energetic and lively to be running with a group of skilled and passionate runners, and also old since the vast majority of the runners are in their third year or less at OSU.  I've made some new friends within the club:  Tough Mudder and Red Runner.  Tough is a Navy veteran returning to higher education.  Red is a graduate student from China studying computer programming. 

This weekend I volunteered at the Otterbein Invitational by taking splits and cheering on the team.  Being at a meet brought back many positive memories of high school and college XC meets.  I've missed the team atmosphere as well as the giddy nervousness you get just before a race begins.  I also missed the feeling of running in XC spikes and splashing through mud and puddles and dirt.  Volunteering was a lot of fun.  I'm not used to being on the spectator side of a race, but it was empowering to be able to cheer on my teammates as they ran the final 50 yards to the finish chute.  For those who weren't tanked at the end of the race I could see their stride and kinetics change as I yelled for them to pump their arms and legs, or to catch the runner in front of them. 

Being a part of the club has given me a shared sense of purpose that I think I have missed in the cohort.  Although the members of the club vary in their reason for being present we all enjoy running and the feeling that comes with running and a good, sweaty run.  I don't know if I will race this year since I am trying to focus more on climbing, but I would like to get a few 5K's and 10K's under my belt again, though I think all the rest of the races this year will be road races with the exception of the Tough Mudder event in April  (www.toughmudder.com)


 

On being bi-racial and having/losing white privilege

Sometimes I say really stupid things.  Most of the time in the moment in which I speak I believe my words are enlightening or poignant.  During a diversity class I tried to explain to the class that being proud of being White and being proud of white privilege cannot be separated simply becuase one of them makes us uncomfortable.  I made the example that as a Japanese-White person when I say I am proud to be Japanese that that means to someone I am proud of the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I actually uttered in class:  "If I say that I am proud to be Japanese then it means--and I can't believe I'm about to say this--that I am proud of the attack on Pearl Harbor."  Honestly, I am ambivalent about Pearl Harbor.  It happened.  It was a desparate and tactically foolish maneuver on the part of the Japanese.  It is history.  It had huge impacts on my grandparents and shaped their lives. 

Part of me regrets using the example of being Japanese and discussing Pearl Harbor to explain how white privilege and being White are inseparable.  I'm sure better, less inflammatory examples exist, and I've already received some correspondence from my peers asking "if I really am proud of the attack on Pearl Harbor."  I've always had high expectations of my cohort, even when they've proven me wrong.  It is still discouraging to hear that some of them just don't get it.  It has prompted a bizarre sense of otherness.  It's frustrating to hear my peers say that they are proud of being White but aren't proud of white privilege.  Obviously it's distressing to say that one is proud of sytemized oppression, but to say that the two phenomenons can be separated is dillusional.  At best, saying they are different things is a euphemism to make people feel better about themselves. 

White privilege is an assumption on behalf of the majority culture.  This is not to say that it is insidious, simply that when one is White one is able to operate on assumptions that go unrecognized.  Peggy McIntosh's examples of white privilege are all assumptions of behavior or treatment that Whites do not expect or even consider because they are assumed or taken for granted.  As an Asian-American male I can assume some of these privileges but not all.  My run-in with the cyclist last week showed me that I can't assume I'll always be taken for a domestic student or an American.  Using the Museus and Harris reading it's possible to see how the assumptions that are white privilege establish White values and norms.

That white privilege confers its own set of values and norms for Whites isn't an unbelievable phenomenon.  White priviliege and the omnipresence of the dominant culture enables particular values over others.  In particular, those values reinforce ideas and norms held by Whites.  One salient example of values is the value of diversity.  Within the dominant paradigm diversity is a celebration of difference and the other.  Within the minority paradigm diversity may be seen as the opportunity to be learned about or understood, as though the differences or even deficiencies of the other imply that they are in need of repair or renovation. 


Last week I was out running with my Chinese friend Han Econ.  Han Econ is a friend from Wuhan who lives in Columbus and is pursuing a doctorate in Economics.  We were returning from a run and crossing a busy street when we went in front of a cyclist who I honestly didn't even notice until he started saying things to us.  His epithats included that we were "puppets of the [Chinese] government," and the insinuation that we were less than him.  I overreacted, which I'm sure he enjoyed.  Eventually after I told him that I was American born he called me a traitor, a coward and a blasphemy of God.  Until he made that last comment I had been calculating whether or not I could outrun his bike and kick his teeth in.  The last comment made me realize that he was something of a loon since the logic leading from "American born Japanese" to "blasphemy of God" is pretty sketchy.  


Looking back on my run in with the cyclist I can't help but consider my bi-racial identity.  I am White and Asian/Japanese.  Does this mean I benefit from white privilege?  Certainly as an Asian-American or model minority I belong to a relatively more privileged race when compared to the stigmas or stereotypes that Blacks and Latinos must overcome regarding their work ethic, education level or aspirations, or even the possibility of gang affiliation and whether or not they are "safe" people to be around.  I can't help but to ask myself if in assuming that I was an international student that, that cyclist took my Whiteness or white privilege away from me.  Going back to what I wrote in the beginning about being assumed to be American or domestic, I think I experience a moment of losing white privilege.  Dr. Strayhorn asked the class if white privilege can be shared or conferred.  In talking with Meg after class I know she has an excellent example regarding the treatment a friend receives in a store when Meg is or is not present.  But given the large bi-racial population of the class (Blossom, Maddie, Ashley, Chris, Danielle) I have my own question about white privilege.  Can white privilege be taken away?