A Helping Hand Up: A white valley girl's view on racism

When I married a Southerner, I must admit, I half expected he'd come out with deep seated racist tendencies eventually, because I'd never really known anyone from the South. Some Visalians do have a vestigial Southern twang, as many came from Oklahoma in the dust bowl era looking for agricultural work, but that was the closest I'd come. As it turns out, Danny is the most egalitarian man I know, but when people hear his accent they automatically assume it is ok to be a little racy around him...as in...off color jokes...as in racist. They also assume he is not very intelligent, and he almost always gets a surprised reaction when people learn he has a higher degree. I generally feel uncomfortable discussing racism, what with the whole white privilege thing. But having worked in male dominated industries, which are often among the most misogynistic of workplaces, I've experienced my fair share of discrimination based on looking like a woman, which is what I plan to be for the rest of my life so it's hard to avoid. And while I can't relate to being singled out for the color of my skin, I can relate to being singled out, as can Danny.

I think we've heard enough from the ever verbose "Get a job!" people while the ones who are working in the fields where I grew up and are harvesting the majority of the food we eat daily from the California San Joaquin Valley continue to have no path to citizenship, and yet still pay taxes. Sure, some folks are lazy and work the system, but it's a small percentage in comparison to those not making it working their asses off to try to feed their families on minimum wage. Even with a second income, when I was on disability leave and later laid off and receiving unemployment benefits, we found it hard to pull together the funds to pay our bills. 90% of Americas rely on the ever demonized "Welfare" at some point in their lives, so they can avoid losing their house, keep their family fed, or make it through a long term illness. Or, like in my first husband's case, use disability leave and insurance to recover from getting run over on the job site...while working. We relied on his work insurance benefits aka "welfare" for almost 2 years as he learned to swallow, stand, walk, and talk again. In his case and many others where a safety net is needed, demanding "Get a Job!" at that juncture would have only made us homeless and reliant on taxpayers for emergency health care.

I remember when César Chávez, leading labor leader, civil rights activist, advocate for the farmworker community, and co-founder of National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW) was celebrated in our home town every year. My dad told me Chávez had worked for farm workers rights, and one of the key things he had done was ensure laborers had tools that were high enough so they didn't have to constantly bend over in fields, as at the time it was standard practice to make tools short so the foreman could see when someone was standing up to relieve their aching back. Picking strawberries is still truly back-breaking work, and I have never seen a white person bent over in the fields laboring in the hot sun at harvest time.

And still, a friend from El Salvador told me recently even her grandson, who was born in America, is bullied daily and no longer wants to go to school because children scream "immigrante! Go back to your country!" at him. He asked his mom, "wasn't I born here?" Talk about lifelong trauma and identity confusion for our next generation!

Growing up in the South, Danny was taught about the "War of Northern Aggression", which we learned was the Civil War, as in the war to enforce abolishing slavery when the Southern states tried to secede (which sounds anything But patriotic). It's not surprising people who claim the confederate flag represents only southern pride to them (and the Dukes of Hazard), are a little confused about the flag's origins, despite that it has always represented a time when Southern states chose to wage war against their own country in order to continue to enslave their fellow Americans based on the color of their skin. Given where he grew up, Danny could have embraced racist ideals, but he kayaked and recreated with a diverse group, and upon traveling, he started to recognize his indoctrination. He actually had to leave the South to fully understand that the Civil War was about freeing black Americans from slavery.

For over 30 years, my parents served underserved populations in the small ag towns of Hanford and Woodlake trying to improve the lives of some of the most impoverished in small migrant communities. My father saw his colleague lose a daughter in a drive-by shooting in front of the elementary school where he worked. My mother had a gun pulled in her workplace on a co-worker. They could have become jaded by the poverty and despair around them. As I recall helping my dad set up his 4th grade classrooms and helping my mom with the sibling program at her UCP program which offered therapy for babies with disabilities, they were both among the few white people in their workplaces and they integrated to the best of their ability. They helped children learn in both Spanish and English. They decorated their workplaces with colorful representations of diverse local heritages. As a family, we celebrated Mexican and South East Asian culture by participating in festivals, cultural events, and always embracing the delicious food offerings. My mom helped many of her employees get degrees and training. My dad introduced many of his students to nature and the outdoors while taking troubled students on wilderness youth corp trips and serving with multiple Natural Lands preservation groups.

Why is it that some rallying racists espouse fear-based hatred for communities I'm sure they have very little personal contact with, while people like my parents continue to believe in the power of giving a helping hand up instead of kicking a population when they are down? Isn't having compassion for those who are suffering among the most basic of Christian ideals, and still ironically White Nationalism aka Racism is so often coupled with Christian ideology? Why is it that Christians are 50% more likely to Blame a person's poverty on lack of effort? (Ref: Wash post) and circumstance apparently never comes into the equation?

I will always admire Danny for rising above the racist ideals of the area in which he was raised. And I will always be proud of my parents' efforts to give back and lift up the community in which I was raised. Now, I seek opportunities to do the same in Arvada, where I am raising my family, and by joining City Council parks and recreation groups, by supporting the Arts where culture is shared, and being involved in local community revitalization, I hope someday I can make a small contribution to bringing people together to form a more perfect union. It's like that saying goes, why doesn't somebody do something about this?!...oh wait, I am somebody...