Recognizing Neighborhood Rankism

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

Saturday Workshop

It’s Saturday and I’ve attended one more racism workshop - facing racism, dismantling racism,
undoing racism - so many titles, so much frustration in working through feelings, truths, facts,
dialogue, perceptions, and attitudes. Today’s ‘Building Awareness of Race and Culture in
Inclusive Community Work’ was sponsored by our St. Paul District Councils. My frustration is
not with the workshops; it’s a testament to need that such workshops keep going and that they
are well attended. I’m frustrated that the SYSTEM of race is so slow in changing.

Systems - ones that work and don’t work; formal and informal. Computer systems and sewer
systems. Social systems. How often do we even think of the systems in which we live and
work? At work I have much less power than most other colleagues, but I have a little. In my
neighborhood, I have more. Why? Because I’m white; and even though I live paycheck to
paycheck and yes, I rent in a city that wants us to own. Being white with a European white
name gives me an edge. Even with all the vacant houses in my immediate neighborhood, I am
or am becoming a minority in the several blocks around me with Karen, Latino, Somali, Hmong
and African-American, but my visible whiteness gives me an edge.

A couple years ago, a neighbor heard that I had been attacked by the same person who had
attacked her a month earlier. Why, she asked me, was the legal system and news pursuing
my case (5th degree misdemeanor assault) when hers (3rd degree felony with substantial
bodily harm) received almost no attention? Though I’m forever grateful for the assistance
I’ve received, I’ve always felt somewhat guilty. I’ve wondered if it was helpful to be connected
with my community, or if it was because I am white and my neighbor African-American. The
assailant was African-American. The reasons for being attacked are different, but they should
not matter. The seeming inequality of treatment stays with me in a way that the physical attack
has not.

How do we change a system in which too many people are not represented by people who
reflect them - in values, color, culture, ethnicity? I reason that the most solid changes come in
increments, one person, one step at a time, building relationships and going to where people
shop, meet, worship, play, celebrate and mourn. It’s not necessarily comfortable.
I sometimes feel discomfort when I am a minority, attending a meeting where I’m the only
one not familiar with the format; in being invited to a Mexican family celebration and being
unsure of when to leave, having obviously arrived too early; attending a Latino political caucus
and not needing a translator because the anger at the table speaks very clearly; inviting new
Karen neighbors to use our community dumpster, only to find that with our language barrier,
they think that I’ve invited them to straighten it up; offering them a ride to a clinic, only to have
them break out in warm, wondrous smiles of surprise (and likely answered prayer) at the clinic
entrance, that this strange woman wasn’t kidnapping them!

My hope is that some people I’ve met this way will, with several invitations, become regulars at
our first Thursday community meetings, council committees, or our district council board. If they don’t participate at the community table, it is their loss and, to a greater extent, mine. Until
then we still smile and exchange pleasantries (I think) as we meet each other!