Classic Glassock

“46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.”

Tip of the hat to Declan.

This could very well be a historic year of how America deals with race. An excellent piece by Peggy McIntosh, cliff notes version (full version here) that disentangles everyday institutionalized racism into practical statements is below. By no means is it meant to instill guilt or shame, it is merely a vehicle to look through a different perspective:

I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring dominance on my group.

As a white person, I realized I had been taught about racism as something that puts others at a disadvantage, but had been taught not to see one of its corollary aspects, white privilege, which puts me at an advantage.

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege.

My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture.

Elizabeth Minnich has pointed out: whites are taught to think of their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average, and also ideal, so that when we work to benefit others, this is seen as work that will allow “them” to be more like “us.”

Daily effects of white privilege (a sampling):

1. I can if I wish arrange to be in the company of people of my race most of the time.

4. I can be pretty sure that my neighbors in such a location will be neutral or pleasant to me.

5. I can go shopping alone most of the time, pretty well assured that I will not be followed or harassed.

6. I can turn on the television or open to the front page of the paper and see people of my race widely represented.

8. I can be sure that my children will be given curricular materials that testify to the existence of their race.

9. If I want to, I can be pretty sure of finding a publisher for this piece on white privilege.

12. I can go into a music shop and count on finding the music of my race represented, into a supermarket and find the staple foods which fit with my cultural traditions, into a hairdresser’s shop and find someone who can cut my hair.

13. Whether I use checks, credit cards or cash, I can count on my skin color not to work against the appearance of financial reliability.

14. I can arrange to protect my children most of the time from people who might not like them.

15. I do not have to educate my children to be aware of systemic racism for their own daily physical protection.

18. I can swear, or dress in second hand clothes, or not answer letters, without having people attribute these choices to the bad morals, the poverty or the illiteracy of my race.

20. I can do well in a challenging situation without being called a credit to my race.

21. I am never asked to speak for all the people of my racial group.

24. I can be pretty sure that if I ask to talk to the “person in charge”, I will be facing a person of my race.

25. If a traffic cop pulls me over or if the IRS audits my tax return, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race.

26. I can easily buy posters, post-cards, picture books, greeting cards, dolls, toys and children’s magazines featuring people of my race.

33. I am not made acutely aware that my shape, bearing or body odor will be taken as a reflection on my race.

35. I can take a job with an affirmative action employer without having my co-workers on the job suspect that I got it because of my race.

36. If my day, week or year is going badly, I need not ask of each negative episode or situation whether it had racial overtones.

38. I can think over many options, social, political, imaginative or professional, without asking whether a person of my race would be accepted or allowed to do what I want to do.

39. I can be late to a meeting without having the lateness reflect on my race.

41. I can be sure that if I need legal or medical help, my race will not work against me.

43. If I have low credibility as a leader I can be sure that my race is not the problem.

44. I can easily find academic courses and institutions which give attention only to people of my race.

46. I can chose blemish cover or bandages in “flesh” color and have them more or less match my skin.

50. I will feel welcomed and “normal” in the usual walks of public life, institutional and social.

Disapproving of the system won’t be enough to change them. I was taught to think that racism could end if white individuals changed their attitude. But a “white” skin in the United States opens many doors for whites whether or not we approve of the way dominance has been conferred on us. Individual acts can palliate but cannot end, these problems.

This weekend, Americans will be rushing out to buy millions of flowers for their mothers to make up for all the labor pains, teenage angst, and the lack of phone calls you placed to her over the past year. Usually when ordering flowers online or at the store you’ll look for a bouquet with the most color, or a rose with the least amount of thorns, or even a dozen of the best smelling variety.

The last thing on anyone’s mind is usually where these flowers are coming from. Most likely, the answer will be South America. In fact, in 2004 Columbia exported $1 billion worth of flowers to countries all throughout the world…that’s a lot of @#!@$#@ flowers. 64% of the flowers sold in the US are from Columbia. Flowers are big business in Columbia; the industry employs an estimated 100,000 people who routinely work 15 hour days in order to fulfill huge order from suppliers. Workers are paid minimal wages, and efforts to form unions are informally denied, many times with physical force. Since the industry is such an important facet of the Columbian economy, certification and enforcement of socially responsibly companies is merely a gimmick for the media. Growing operations regularly cut corners that ignore workplace health and safety. Pesticide use, improper ventilation and protection, as well as a whole host of ergonomic dangers have caused many workers in these operations to become permanently maimed and scarred as a result of their hard work. Not only are they affected, but the surrounding water supply is subject to contamination introduced by harmful chemicals and agricultural waste (that is if there is any water supply left…these companies take over the water table in areas which they are operating, taking away the precious resource from surrounding villages and communities). Uncontrolled exposures to pesticides in these fields have been shown to negatively affect workers’ bone marrow, liver and in kidneys. The chemicals also cause genetic damage that can result in cancer or birth defects. The War on Want, an organization demanding corporate responsibility, said in a recent report,

…Colombian women, forced to breathe in toxic chemicals, have above-average rates of miscarriages and children born with birth defects. Exposure to pesticides often results in fainting spells, chronic asthma, eye and breathing troubles, skin complaints, allergies and headaches. And though Colombia’s cut flower industry employs less than one in 100 Colombians, flower workers account for one in three cases of carpal tunnel syndrome, which causes pain and muscle weakness in the hand and forearm.

The International Herald Tribune cites a Harvard study that,

…examined 72 children ages 7-8 in a flower-growing region of Ecuador whose mothers were exposed to pesticides during pregnancy and found they had developmental delays of up to four years on aptitude tests.

“Every time we look, we’re finding out these pesticides are more dangerous than we ever thought before and more toxic at lower levels,” said Philippe Grandjean, who led the Harvard study published last year.

Because the economic incentive for companies to produce so many flowers is so high many workers experience similar feelings as Esperanza Botina:

“I am always short of money. The supervisors were very harsh. If anyone was sick, they would send you a memorandum or a sanction. Right now I feel like a cripple.”

Below is “The Human Cost of Flowers” by Pacha Films for War on Want.

To buy certified flowers that ensure safe and healthy workplaces and communities OrganicStyle.com has a selection of flowers for Mother’s Day. Get 20% off when typing GIFT20 in the coupon code box.

The Fair Trade Certified Flowers program can be found here. Fair Trade Certified Flowers can be purchased here.

A Frontline Video Report on a flower company working to change the status quo can be found here.

A report from Ecuador about the flower industry by a local reporter is here.

Another video about the Columbian Flower Industry.

The War on Want Cut Flower Campaign website

Boycotting flowers is not the solution. Columbia, and other flower producing countries, are in desperate need of jobs and an export economy. The key is for receiving nations to formally pass legislation about importing flowers from uncertified workplaces, or informally by creating a market for flowers coming from companies that demonstrate safe and healthy workplaces.

*Picture from War on Want.

UPDATE: Here’s a CurrentTV Vanguard Journalism special on Blood Flowers

Watch CurrentTV mini-documentary on where exactly all those beads come from