THE BLACK AND WHITENESS OF IT ALL

In “Precarious Life,” Judith Butler talks about the rise of anti-intellectualism, which I understand as meaning: the growing acceptance of censorship. She demonstrates this phenomenon by discussing the implications of widespread media censorship, which occurred during 9/11. She points out the dissonance, between those in society who wanted to examine the root causes of the situation, and those who simply wanted to retaliate and go to war, without the benefit of deeper analysis. In asking us to consider “what politically might be made of grief, besides a cry for war”, we are challenged to think about what it would look like for America to suspend our “first world privilege” in order to begin to “imagine a world in which violence might be minimized.” She shines a light upon the global world as being “interdependent” and that the willingness to self-reflect acknowledges this interdependency as the true “basis for global political community” (XIII). Critical thinking and self-examination then, allows for wholeness, through a process of being open and looking at our own history, as well as being willing to embrace complexity. The black and whiteness of the “either-or” method does not allow for serious public discussion to occur. In fact it serves to divide.

In working with my community partner, Parent Services Project, I am challenged to see that I may be part of the problem that exists in creating a world that is inequitable to all members of society, or to all members of my community. If I am able to recognize my own “first world privilege” by looking critically at my own history and conditioning, as well as that of others, it is clear that I would see the larger more complex story of co-existence and interdependency between all of us (both in society as well as within my community). It would cause me to ask myself…what is my life about? What am I in service to? What difference does my presence in this community make in terms of what I contribute to the greater whole? What are my morals and values, and what part do those constructs in my life lead me to play? Is my identity within this society in alignment with my inner values? If I am not able to go beyond myself, my world, my comfort…who and what am I for then? The problem that I see in my community work centers around invisibility, and why it’s okay for some, no, many, members of society to disappear into that realm. Working with immigrant families, especially those who are undocumented, means I have to try to understand what role fear has in the daily lives of many of the individual families, and how precarious the line is between visibility and invisibility is in San Rafael.

I appreciate Butler’s point of view from the otherside, regarding those who have privilege and what theylose, when collective responsibility is not taken or considered. By not looking deeper at root causes and disparities, we deprive ourselves of the “very critical and historical resources needed to imagine and practice another future (10). This is indeed the larger more complex story of co-existence and interdependency that society does not recognize, but that is very much in play. In terms of San Rafael, or Marin County, this means we deprive ourselves of a society of greater inclusivity and equitability that moves us beyond the limits of homogeneity and income disparity that exists at present. There is so much that we can learn from one another, but first we must have a level of understanding about our conditioning, and our responsibility to society, as well as our own personal actions. Butler asks pertinent questions about what “the conditions are that form” us, what those conditions do to “constrain” us, what we can do to “transform” them (16). Critical thinking and self-reflection is necessary for both the individual as well as society as a whole.

I believe that loss, vulnerability, grief, and mourning are integral to Butler’s thesis because they are the shared experiences that make us human. These are the ways in which we are inextricably tied to one another. No one, for example, is immune to loss. In “Violence, Mourning and Politics” Butler captures the theme of this humanness when speaking of the loss we feel toward a place, or a community, or another person. When we encounter the loss of what matters to us, it reveals something about us “that constitutes what we are and the ties and bonds that compose us” (22). She does not let us forget for a moment, that these are the fundamental ways in which we are all human, and that the way toward “reimagining the basis of community (is) on the basis of vulnerability and loss” (20).