Nice White Parents

 My PTA is hosting a program on the podcast Nice White Parents. This is a five part program from New York Times investigator, Chana Joffe-Watt. It sits nicely within my current exploration on social justice, so I was excited to listen. As I expected, this is a sometimes disturbing listen. One thing that resonated with me was the idea that it is offensive for white folks to go into a program and declare that they are there to fix the problems of the minority school. I had not considered this, but it makes perfect sense. Someone labeled it as white knight syndrome- a great description

Another thread that resonated with me that until privilege people decide to fight for change, change will not happen. It was not until the white families fought for change that change happened. White families did not fight for change until it benefited them. We like to think of ourselves as community minded, working toward the common good, but until and unless it positively impacts us, change will not occur. This is a startling revelations. JFK did not fight for the Civil Rights Act until the chaos in the South had become too much negative press.  Johnson finally moved toward the Civil Rights Act when he saw that the black community was creating an uproar that could no longer be quelled. Negative press was bad politics. Trump did not change his mantra because his people supported him in spite of the lies and bigoty he spouted. 

Self-motivation, it seems is the path to change. So the question is, how do we motivate a large enough group of whites to give up some of their power so that marginalized people will gain equity? I have no answer to that call..