View From My Porch
True
or false? Most men and women will agree that sexism continues in one
degree or another. True or false? Racism flourishes no matter how many
letters to the editor, anti-racism workshops, or directly challenging
another’s actions or words - how does one get inside another’s head or soul?
Now,
consider ‘rankism’. Rankism, as described by Robert W. Fuller, the
coiner of the term, is “using one’s real or perceived power to hold the
balance of power in a relationship”. In the context of a neighborhood, a
person might translate simple social position into power. It might
be the person who has been a resident for the longest time; a
homeowner over a renter; a resident who participates in community
activities over one who doesn’t; a child whose toys are boxed, spendy,
and off the shelf rather than makeshift or built from scraps; a
privileged youth (whose free time consists of travel, leisure and
organized/costly sports) assumes or is given the role of ’boss’ over
other youths (most often youths of color), whose free time is spent
working to supplement the family income; the person with a college
education over the one who didn’t finish high school; the person who
‘knows’ and uses governmental ‘connections’ over the neighbor who barely
makes it through life’s system and tends to avoid anyone ‘official’.
The list continues. Some of these examples can be labeled as classism;
some, upon closer examination, as racism. Rankism encompasses virtually
all other ‘-isms’ and can help introduce the other ‘-isms’ into
conversation with less fire than perhaps racism, which needs to be
faced, but creates eerie quiet or spitting anger when brought up in most
conversation.
Robert W. Fuller, author of Somebodies and Nobodies states: “Rankism is
what people who take themselves for ‘somebodies’ do to those they mistake
for ‘nobodies’." Whether directed at an individual or a group, rankism aims
to put targets in their place and keep them weak so they will do as they're told
and submit to being taken advantage of.”
Not
wanting to see a ‘problem’ where there isn’t any, yet seeing a system
that rankled me, I talked with a colleague whose career and personal
life are steeped in addressing and examining racism, classism,
relationships, attitudes, and systems.
In
the case of youths: my hope is that parents who recognize that their
children are privileged, whether by color of skin,education, or economic
status and the luxury of costly or fee-based extracurricular
activities, or easily replacing a stolen bike instead of having to
rebuild one from parts; that these parents will teach not only
‘tolerance’ (whatever that means) but also why their children are very
fortunate to take for granted what others must eke out; why they have
access to and can expect financial/time based activities. My hope is
that parents - ALL parents - teach their children that when they do live
a privileged life with its benefits, that the children share the gifts
of privilege much as they might share their toys: if privilege assumes
being ‘boss’, share that role; if it is the gift of a job that you
neither need nor want, share the opportunity; if you have more
off-the-shelf toys than you need, stash them away (or give away) and
experience playing only with the cardboard box. Last, do all this
unconditionally and without the pride of being ‘tolerant’. Do it with
the knowledge that life often offers some a bigger stage than it offer
others....share that stage.
Do it without the arrogance of ‘tolerance’.
As
often happens when I question behaviors in a ‘system’, I end up
challenging my own beliefs and actions. I was reminded that the beauty
and truth of a youth having to build his bike from parts, or making the
cardboard box the all-purpose toy: playhouse/fort/sled/
dollhouse/airport, or finding jobs through his or her own inventiveness
and resourcefulness does not make one ‘disadvantaged’. That youth
may not be the most privileged as societally defined, but certainly is
one apt to have learned resourcefulness and creativity and to find and
name his or her own success because of recognizing what defines
tolerance, entitlement, privilege, and being named ‘the other’. I look
forward to knowing that person when he or she is an adult. As always,
youth in our neighborhood open my eyes and teach with great depth.
sage holben 3/2013
