illiteracy – Engaging Peace

Of course nobody wants to talk about this. At least most white people don’t. It’s sort of like admitting to some shameful disease you don’t want anyone to know you have. Or worse, it’s like admitting maybe you don’t deserve the great prize you got or even some of the little bitty ones that cost you so much time and effort.

The great prize for most white people (although some of them have a lot more of it than others) is white privilege—what Peggy McIntosh identifies as “an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day….”

Dr. McIntosh sees the resistance of most white people to the very idea of white privilege as similar to the resistance of many men to the suggestion that they have an advantage over women solely because of their sex, not because of any inherent superiority.

McIntosh shares her own journey to awareness of white privilege: “I began to count the ways in which I enjoy unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its existence, unable to see that it put me ‘ahead’ in any way, or put my people ahead, overrewarding us and yet also paradoxically damaging us….”

To illustrate the advantages she can take for granted as a white person, she lists 46 privileges, including:

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

* 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.

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

No matter how good, honest, trustworthy, or deserving they may be, there are millions of people of color for whom these commonalities are not true, for no reasons other than the color of their skin and the racism degrading all of us.

Kathie Malley-Morrison, Professor of Psychology

First in a series by guest author Mbaezue Emmanuel Chukwuemeka

Some schools of thought maintain that force or violence can sometimes be an effective means of resolving conflicts. The reality, however, is that violence breeds violence. The perceived enemy whom you beat down today may rise up tomorrow and obliterate you.

African wars and conflicts--map — African wars and conflicts 1980-1996. Image in public domain.

In cases of civil wars and insurgencies, the warring parties may believe that violence is the only way to either maintain the status quo or protect the rights and interests of a perceived marginalized or isolated group.

The bitter truth remains that it is the ordinary men, women, and children who are plunged into unimaginable suffering. Most of these civilians become Internal Displaced Persons (IDPs) or refugees in their own homelands.

Most civil wars or crises happening in Africa today are manifestations of the “greed and grievance theory”—that is, it is the corrupt practices of many government officials that give rise to conditions of poverty, unemployment, and illiteracy. These conditions in turn give rise to feelings of exclusion or marginalization, both of which are recipes for disaster and potentially violent confrontations.

Governments have the bulk of the blame for the under-developed state of most African countries. Therefore, it should be their responsibility to remedy those conditions through dialogue with the aggrieved parties and developmental projects.

Unfortunately, what most African governments do to silence or discourage any form agitation or protest is to engage in indiscriminate killings, unlawful incarceration, and torture. African politicians would rather die in power than take responsibility for their failures and resign. When the government responds with violence to political/economic issues, radical groups, more often than not, equally counter with force.

Thus, the cycle of violence continues until the power elite can become convinced of the benefits of nonviolence.

Mbaezue Emmanuel Chukwuemeka has a Masters of Science in Conflict Management and Peace Studies from University of Jos, Jos, Plateau State. He is a member of Institute of Chartered Mediators and Conciliators, and works as a paralegal counsel at the Legal Aid Council for the Federal Ministry of Justice in Nigeria.

Let’s face it, these guys get a lot of handouts. Part 1.

Violence in Africa