final
r
124 Chapter 8
In this sense, being on the hook is one of those things that dis- tinguish adults from children—adults are and children aren't. W11en I'm on the hook, I feel called on to use my power and authority as an adult to take responsibility, to act, to make things happen. Being "involved" makes me part of something larger, and I can't stand alone as an isolated individual. Being "obliged" means more than just being burdened, because it also connects me to people and makes me aware of how I affect them. And being. "committed" to something focuses my potential to make a difference and bonds me to those who feel the same way.
Off the hook, I'm like a piece of wood floating with the current. On the hook, I have forward motion and a rudder to steer by. Off the hook, I live in illusion and denial, as if I can choose whether to be involved in the life of our society and the consequences it produces. But involvement is something that comes with being alive in the world as a human being. On the hook is where I can live fully in the world as it really is.
Trying to live off the hook puts members of .privileged groups inside a tight little circle that cuts them off from much of what it means to be alive. They have to work to distance themselves from most of humanity, because they can't get close to other people without touching the trouble that surrounds privilege and oppression. Men liv ing off the hook distance and insulate themselves from women, whites from people of color, heterosexuals from lesbians and gay men, the nondisabled from those with disabilities, the middle and upper classes from the working and lower classes. And the more diverse and inter- connected the world becomes, the harder it is to sustain the illusion and the denial day after day, the more it takes to maintain the dis- tance and deny the connection. The result of illusion and denial is to become like the person who loses the ability to feel pain and risks bleed- ing to death from a thousand tiny cuts that go unnoticed, untreated, and unhealed.
Sooner or later, dominant groups must embrace this hook they're on, not as some terrible affliction or occasion for guilt and shame but as a challenge and an opportunity. It's where they've been, where they are, and where they're going.
~~
~~
CHAPTER 9
What Can We Do ?
The challenge we face is to change patterns of exclusion, rejection,
privilege, harassment, discrimination, and violence that are every-
where in this society and have existed for hundreds (or, in the case of
gender, thousands) of years. We have to begin by thinking about the
trouble and the challenge in new and more productive ways as out-
lined in the preceding chapters. Here is a summary of the tools we've
identified so far.
Large numbers of people have sat on the sidelines and seen them-
selves as part of neither the problem nor the solution. Beyond this,
however, they are far from homogeneous. Everyone is aware of peo-
ple who intentionally act out in oppressive ways. But there is less atten-
tion given to the millions of people who know inequities exist and
want to be part of the solution. Their silence and invisibility allow priv-
ilege and oppression to continue. Removing what silences them and
stands in their way can tap an enormous potential of energy for
change. The problem of privilege and oppression is deep
and wide, and
to work with it we have to be able to see it clearly so that we can talk
about it in useful ways. To do that, we have to reclaim some difficult
language that names what's going on, language that has been so
125
126 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 127
misused and maligned that it generates more heat than light. We can't just stop using words like racism, sexism, ableism, and privilege, however, because these are tools that focus our awareness on the problem and all the forms it takes. Once we can see and talk about what's going on, we can analyze how it works as a system. We can identify points of leverage where change can begin.
Reclaiming the language takes us directly to the core reality that the problem is privilege and the power that maintains it. Privilege exists when one group has something that is systematically denied to others not because of who they are or what they've done or not done but because of the social category they belong to. Privilege is a fea- ture of social systems, not individuals. People have or d'on't have prix ilege depending on the system they're in and the social categories other people put them in.
In dealing with the problem of privilege, we have to get used to being surrounded by paradox, such as those having privilege not knowing it. Also paradoxical is the fact that privilege doesn't neces- sarily lead to a "good life," which can prompt people in privileged groups to deny resentfully that they even have it.
For several centuries, capitalism has provided the economic context for privilege and oppression. As such, it has been and continues to be a powerful force, especially in relation to class, gender, and race. Its effects are both direct and indirect. Historically, it was the engine that drove the development of modern racism. In a less direct way, it creates conditions of scarcity that set the stage for competition, fear, and antag- onism directed across differences of race, ethnicity, and gender. Through the class differences that it creates, it also shapes people's experience of privilege and the lack of it. This is an example of the matr~ of domination (or matr~ of privilege) through which the vari- ous forms of difference and privilege interact and shape one another.
Difference takes many forms, but the most important are those characteristics that are difficult or impossible to change and that other people think they can identify just by looking at someone. Oppression also takes many forms, most notably avoidance, exclusion, rejection, unequal access to resources and rewards, and violence. Just as privi- leged groups tend not to be aware of privilege, they also tend not to be aware of how it happens from one moment to the next.
Although disadvantaged groups take the brunt of the trouble, priv-
ileged groups are also affected by it, partly because misery visited on
others comes back to haunt those who benefit from it, especially in
the form of defensiveness and fear. But trouble also affects privileged
groups directly by limiting and shaping .the lives of people who have
privilege. The trouble also affects entire social systems, from families
to corporations and schools to communities, societies, and global
political and economic systems.
The greatest barrier to change is that dominant groups, as we've
discussed, don't see the trouble as their trouble, which means they
don't feel obliged to do something about it. This happens fora vari-
ety of reasons—because they don't know the trouble exists in the first
place, because they don't have to see it as their trouble, because they
see it as a personal rather than a systemic problem, because they're
reluctant to give up privilege, because they feel angry and deprived
and closed to the idea that they have privilege, because they're blinded
by prejudice, because they're afraid of what will happen if they
acknowledge the reality of privilege and oppression.
The two main approaches to change in organizations do little
about these barriers. The "tin cup" approach and "business case" argu-
ment aren't powerful enough to engage members of dominant groups
over the long haul required for change. Those choices are the horns
of the diversity dilemma on which most organizations find themselves
today.
A third choice is to think about the trouble as everyone's
responsibility—everybody's "hook"—and nobody's fault. This is espe-
cially useful for members of privileged groups who have a hard time
seeing themselves in relation to privilege without feeling guilty. It's
easy to fall into this trap because people tend to use an individualis-
tic model of the world that reduces everything to individual intentions
and goodness or badness. A powerful and liberating alternative comes
from the fact that we're always participating in something larger than
ourselves, social systems. To understand privilege and oppression, we
have to look at what we're participating in and how we participate in
relation to paths of least resistance. This means we can be involved in
a society's or organization's troubles without doing anything wrong
and without being bad people.
~,
128 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 129
Privilege is created and maintained through social systems that are dominated by, centered on, and identified with privileged groups. A racist society, for example, is white-dominated, white-centered, and white-identified. Since privilege is rooted primarily in systems—such as families, schools, and workplaces—change isn't simply a matter of changing people. The solution also has to include entire systems whose paths of least resistance shape how people feel, think, and behave as individuals, how they see themselves and one another.
As they work for change, it's easy for members of privileged groups to lose sight of the reality of privilege and its consequences and the truth that the trouble surrounding privilege is their trouble as much as anyone else's. This happens in large part because systems of privi- lege provide endless ways of seeing and thinking about the world that make privilege invisible. As we have seen, these include denying and minimizing the trouble, blaming the victim, calling the trouble some- thing else, assuming everyone prefers things the way they are, mistak- ing intentions with consequences, attributing the trouble to others and not their own participation in social systems that produce it, and bal- ancing the trouble with troubles of their own. The more aware peo- ple can be of how all of this limits their effectiveness, the more they can contribute to change both in themselves and in the systems where they work and live.
With this approach, we can begin to think about how to make our- selves part of the solution to the problem of privilege and oppression. To do that, we first have to deal with some powerful myths about how change happens and how people contribute to it.
MYrH l: "IT'S ALWAYS BEEN THIS WAY, AND IT ALWAYS WILL"
f you don't make a point of studying history, it's easy to slide - into the belief that things have always been the way we've known them
to be. But if you look back, you find that white privilege has been a feature of human life for only a matter of centuries, and there is abundant evidence that male privilege has been around for only seven thousand years or so, which isn't very long when you consider that
t~tlman beings have been on the earth for hundreds of thousands of
years.l So when it comes to human social life, the smart money should
t~~ on the idea that nothing has always been this way or any other.
This idea should suggest that nothing zoill always be this way or
ally other, contrary to the notion that privilege and oppression are
here to stay. If the only thing we can count on is change, then it's
hard to see why we should believe for a minute that any kind of social
system is ,permanent. Reality is always in motion. Things may appear
to stand still, but that's only because humans have a short attention
span, dictated perhaps by the relative shortness of our lives. If we take
the long view—the- really long view—we can see that everything is in
process all the time.
Some would argue that everything is process, the space between
one point and another, the movement from one thing toward another.
What we may see as permanent end points—world capitalism, West
ern civilization, advanced technology, and so on—are actually tempo-
rary states on the way to other temporary states. Even ecologists, who
used to talk, about ecological balance, now speak of ecosystems as
inherently unstable. Instead of always returning to some steady state
after a period of disruption, ecosystems are, by nature, a continuing
process of change from one arrangement to another. They never go
back to just where they were.
Social systems are also fluid. A society isn't some hulking thing
that sits there forever as it is. Because a system happens only as peo-
ple participate in it, it can't help being a dynamic process of creation
and re-creation from one moment to the next. In something as sim-
ple as a man following the path of least resistance toward control-
ling conversations (and a woman letting him do it), the reality of
male privilege in that moment comes into being. This is how we do
male privilege, bit by bit, moment by moment. This is also how indi-
viduals can contribute to change: by choosing paths of greater resis-
tance, as when men don't take control and women refuse their own
subordination.
Since people can always choose paths of greater resistance or
create new ones entirely, systems can only be as stable as the flow
of human choice and creativity, which certainly isn't a recipe for
130 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 131
permanence. In the short run, systems of privilege may look unchange- able. But the relentless process of social life never produces the exact same result twice in a row, because it's impossible for everyone to par_ ticipate in any system in an unvarying and uniform way. Added to this are the dynamic interactions that go on among systems—between cap- italism and the state, for example, or between families and the economy—that also produce powerful and unavoidable tensions, con- tradictions, and other currents of change. Ultimately, systems change because they can't help it.
An oppressive system often seems stable because it limits people's lives and imaginations so much that they can't see beyond the limita- tions. This is especially true when a social system has existed for so long that its past extends beyond collective memory of anything dif- ferent. As a result, it lays down terms of social life—including various forms of privilege—that can easily be mistaken for some kind of nor- mal and inevitable human condition.
But this situation masks a fundamental long-term instability caused by the dynamics of oppression itself Any system organized around one group's efforts to control and exploit another is ultimately a losing proposition, because it contradicts the essentially uncontrollable nature of reality and does violence to basic human needs and values. For example, as the last two centuries of feminist thought and action have begun to challenge the violence and break down the denial, patriarchy has become increasingly vulnerable. This is one reason male resistance, backlash, and defensiveness are now so intense. Many men complain about their lot, especially their inability to realize ideals of control in relation to their own lives,2 women, and other men. Fear of and resentment toward women are pervasive, from worrying about being accused of sexual harassment to railing against affirmative action.
No social system lasts forever, and this fact holds especially for oppressive systems of privilege. We can't know what will replace exist- ing social systems, but we can be confident that they will go, that they are going at every moment. It's only a matter of how quickly, by what means, and toward what alternatives, and whether each of us will do our part to make change happen sooner rather than later and with less rather than more human suffering in the process.
MYTH 2: GANDHPS PARADOX AND THE 1VIYTH OF NO EFFECT
hether we help change systems of privilege depends on how we
handle the belief that nothing we do can make a difference,
that the system is too big and powerful for us to affect. The complaint
is valid if we look at society as a whole, because we aren't going to
change it in our lifetime. But if changing the entire system through
our own efforts is the standard against which we measure the ability
to do something, then we've set ourselves up to feel powerless. It's not
unreasonable to want to make a difference, but if we have to see the
final result of what we do, then we can't be part of change that's too
gradual and long term to allow that. We also can't be part of change
that's so complex that we can't sort out our contribution from count-
less others that combine in ways we can never grasp. The problem of
privilege and oppression requires complex and long-term change cou-
pledwith short term work to soften some of its worst consequences. This
means that if we're going to be part of the solution, we have to let go
of the idea that change doesn't happen unless we're around to see it.
To shake off the paralyzing myth that we cannot, individually, be
effective, we have to alter how we see ourselves in relation to a long-
term, complex process of change. This begins by altering how we
relate to time. Many changes can come about quickly enough for us
to see them happen. When I was in college, for example, there was
little talk about gender inequality as a social problem, whereas now
there are more than five hundred women's studies programs in the
United States. But a goal such as ending privilege takes more than this
and far more time than our short lives can encompass. If we're going
to see ourselves as part of that kind of change, we can't use the human
life span as a significant standard against which to measure progress.
To see our choices in relation to long-term change, we have to
develop what might be called "time constancy," analogous to what psy-
chologists call "object constancy." If you hold a cookie in front of very
young children and then put it behind your back while they watch,
they can't find the cookie because they apparently can't hold on to
the image of it and where it went. They lack object constancy. In other
words, if they can't see it, it might as well not even exist. After a while,
132 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 133 I
children develop the mental ability to know that objects or people exist even when they're out of sight. In thinking about change and our relation to it, we need to develop a similar ability in relation to time that enables us to carry within us the knowledge, the faith, that
,significant change happens even though we aren't around to see it. Along with time constancy, we need to clarify for ourselves how
our choices matter and how they don't. Gandhi once said that noth- ing we do as individuals matters but that it's vitally important to do it anyway. This touches on a powerful paradox in the relationship between society and individuals. Imagine, for example, that social sys- tems are trees and we are the leaves. No individual leaf on the tree matters; whether it lives or dies has no effect on much of anything. But collectively, the leaves are essential to the whole tree because they photosynthesize the sugar that feeds it. Without leaves, the tree dies.
So leaves matter and they don't, just as we matter and we don't. What each of us does may not seem like much, because in important ways, it isn't much. But when many people do this work together they can form a critical mass that is anything but insignificant, especially in the long run. If we're going to be part of a larger change process, we have to learn to live with this sometimes uncomfortable paradox.
A related paradox is that we have to be willing to travel without knowing where we're going. We need faith to do what seems right without necessarily being sure of the effect that will have. We have to think like pioneers who may know the direction they want to move in or what they would like to find, without knowing where they will wind up. Because they are going where they've never been before, they can't know whether they will ever arrive at anything they might consider a destination, much less the kind of place they had in mind when they first set out. If pioneers had to know their destination from the begin- ning, they might never go anywhere or discover anything.
In similar ways, to seek out alternatives to systems of privilege, we have to move away from social life organized around privilege and oppression and move toward the certainty that alternatives are possi- ble, even though we may not have a clear idea of what those are or ever experience them. It has to be enough to question how we see ourselves as people of a certain race, gender, sexual orientation, dis- ability status, and class, or examine how we see capitalism and the
scarcity and competition it produces in relation to our personal striv-
~ xlg to better our own lives, or look at how privilege and oppression
work and how we participate. Then we can open ourselves to experi-
ence what happens next.
When we dare ask core questions about who we are and how the
world works, things happen that we can't foresee. But they don't hap-
pen unless we move, if only in our minds. As pioneers, we discover what's
possible only by first putting ourselves in motion, because we have to
move in order to change our position—and hence our perspective—on
where we are, where we've been, and where we might go. This is how
alternatives begin to appear.
The myth of no effect obscures the role we can play in the long-
term transformation of society. But the myth also blinds us to our own
power in relation to other people. We may cling to the belief that
there is nothing we can do precisely because we subconsciously know
how much power we do have and are afraid to use it because people
may not like it. If we deny our power to affect people, then we don't
have to worry about taking responsibility for how we use it or, more
significant, how we don't.
This reluctance to acknowledge and use power comes up in the
simplest everyday situations, as when a group of friends starts laugh-
ing at a racist or sexist joke and you have to decide whether to go
along. It's just a moment among countless such moments that consti-
tute the fabric of all kinds of oppressive systems. But it's a crucial
moment, because the group's seamless response to the joke affirms
the normalcy and unproblematic nature of it in a system of privilege.
It takes only one person to tear the fabric of collusion and apparent
consensus. On some level, each of us knows that we have this poten-
tial, and this knowledge can empower us or scare us into silence. We
can change the course of the moment with something as simple as vis-
ibly not joining in the laughter, or saying "I don't think that's funny."
We know how uncomfortable this can make the group feel and how
they may ward off their discomfort by dismissing, excluding, or even
attacking us as bearers of bad news. Our silence, then, isn't because
nothing we do will matter. Our silence is our not daring to matter.
Our power to affect other people isn't simply the power to make
them feel uncomfortable. Systems shape the choices people make
134 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 135
primarily by providing paths of least resistance. Whenever we openly choose a different path, however, we make it possible for others to see both the path of least resistance they're following and the possibility of choosing something else.
If we choose different paths, we usually won't know if we're affect- ing other people, but it's safe to assume that we are. When people know that alternatives exist and witness other people choosing them, things become possible that weren't before. When we openly pass up a path of least resistance, we increase resistance for other people around that path, because now they must reconcile their choice with what they've seen us do, something they didn't have to deal with before. There's no way to predict how this will play oizt in the long run, but there's certainly no good reason to think it won't make a difference.
The simple fact is that we affect one another all the time without knowing it. When my family moved to our house in northwestern Connecticut, one of my first pleasures was blazing walking trails through the woods. Some time later I noticed deer scat and hoofprints along the trails, and it pleased me to think they had adopted the trail I'd laid down. But then I wondered if perhaps I had followed a trail laid down by others when I cleared "my" trail. I realized there is no way to know that anything begins or ends with me and the choices I make. It's more likely that the paths others have chosen influence the paths I choose.
This suggests that the simplest way to help others make different choices is to make them myself, and to do it openly. As I shift the pat- terns of my own participation in systems of privilege, I make it easier for others to do so as well, and harder for them not to. Simply by set- ting an example—rather than trying to change them—I create the possibility of their participating in change in their own time and in their own way. In this way I can widen the circle of change without provoking the kind of defensiveness that perpetuates paths of least resistance and the oppressive systems they serve.
It's important to see that in doing this kind of work, we don't have to go after people to change their minds. In fact, changing people's minds may play a relatively small part in changing systems. We won't succeed in turning diehard misogynists into practicing feminists, for
example, or racists into civil rights activists. At most, we can shift the
odds in favor of new paths that contradict the core values that systems
of privilege depend on. We can introduce so many exceptions to the
paths that support privilege that the children or grandchildren of
diehard racists and misogynists will start to change their perception of
which paths offer the least resistance. Research on men's changing atti-
tudes toward the male provider role, for example, shows that most of
the shift occurs between generations, not within them.3 This suggests
that rather than trying to change people, the most important thing we
can do is contribute to shifting entire cultures so that forms and val-
ues that support privilege begin to lose their "obvious" legitimacy and
normalcy, and new forms emerge to challenge their privileged place in
social life. And when this happens, the structures of privilege—
segregation and the unequal and oppressive distribution of wealth,
power, resources, and opportunities—become harder to maintain.
In science, this is how one paradigm replaces another.4 For hun-
dreds of years, for example, Europeans believed that stars, planets, and
the sun revolved around Earth. But Copernicus and Galileo found that
too many of their astronomical observations were anomalies that didn't
fit the prevailing paradigm: if the sun and planets revolved around
Earth, then they wouldn't move as they did. As such observations accu-
mulated, they made it increasingly difficult to hang on to an Earth-
centered paradigm. Eventually the anomalies became so numerous
that Copernicus offered a new paradigm, which he declined to pub-
lish for fear of persecution as a heretic, a fate that eventually befell
Galileo when he took up the cause a century later. Eventually, how-
ever, the evidence was so overwhelming that a new paradigm replaced
the old one.
In similar ways, we can see how systems of privilege are based on
paradigms that shape how we think about difference and how we
organize social life in relation to it. We can openly challenge those
paradigms with evidence that they don't work and produce unaccept
able consequences for everyone. We can help weaken them by openly
choosing alternative paths in our everyday lives and thereby provide
living anomalies that don't fit the prevailing paradigm. By our exam-
ple, we can contradict basic assumptions and their legitimacy over and
over again. We can add our choices and our lives to tip the scales
136 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 137
toward new paradigms that don't revolve around privilege and oppres- sion. We can't tip the scales overnight or by ourselves, and in that sense we don't amount to much. But, as Gandhi noted, it is crucial where we choose to place what poet Bonaro Overstreet called "the stubborn ounces of my weight":
STUBBORN OUNCES (To One Who Doubts the Worth of Doing Anything
If You Can't Do Everything
You say the little efforts that I make will do no good; they will never prevail to tip the hovering scale
where Justice hangs in balance.
I don't think I ever thought they would. But I am prejudiced beyond debate In favor of my right to choose which side shall feel the stubborn ounces of my weight.5
It is in small and humble choices that privilege, oppression, and the movement toward something better actually happen.
STUBBORN OUNCES: Wf-IAT CAN WE DO?
There are no easy answers to the question of what can we do about the problem of privilege. There is no twelve-step program, no neat set of instructions. Most important, there is no way around or over it: the only way out is through it. We won't end oppression by pretending it isn't there or that we don't have to deal with it.
Some people complain that those who work for social change are being "divisive" when they draw attention to oppressive systems orga- nized around one form of privilege or another. But when members of dominant groups mark differences by excluding or discriminating against subordinate groups and treating them as "other," they aren't accused of being divisive. Usually it's only when someone calls atten- tion to how differences are used as a basis for privilege that the charge of divisiveness comes up.
~ In a sense, it is divisive to say that privilege exists, but only insofar as it points to divisions that already exist and to the perception that the status quo is normal and unremarkable. Privilege promotes the worst kind of divisiveness because it cuts us off from one another and, by silencing us about the truth, cuts us off from ourselves as well. Not only must we participate in privilege and oppression by living in this
society, we also must act as though they don't exist, denying the real-
ity of our own experience and its consequences for people's lives,
including our own.
What does it mean to go out by going through? What can we do
that will make a difference?
Acknowledge That Privilege and Oppression Exists
A key to the continued existence of every system of privilege is unaware-
ness, because privilege contradicts so many basic human values that it
invariably arouses opposition when people know about it. The Soviet
Union and its East European satellites, for example, were riddled with
contradictions so widely known among their people that the oppressive
regimes fell apart with an ease and speed that astonished the world. An
awareness of privilege and oppression compels people to speak out, to
break the silence that any system depends on to continue.
This is why most cultures of privilege mask the reality of oppres-
sion by denying its existence, trivializing it, calling it something else,
blaming it on those most victimized by it, or diverting attention from
it. Instead of treating oppression as a serious problem, we go to war
or get embroiled in controversial "issues" such as capital gains tax cuts
or "family values" or immigrant workers. There would be far more
active opposition to white privilege, for example, if white people lived
with an ongoing awareness of how it actually affects the everyday lives
of those it oppresses as "not white." As we have seen, however, the vast
majority of white people don't do this.
It's one thing to become aware and quite another to stay that way.
The greatest challenge when we first become aware of a critical per-
spective on the world is simply to hang on to it. Every system's paths
of least resistance invariably lead away from critical awareness of how
the system works. In some ways, it's harder and more important to pay
138 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 139
attention to systems of privilege than it is to people's behavior and the paths of least resistance that .shape it. As we saw earlier, for example, the structure of capitalism creates large social patterns of inequality, scarcity, and exploitation that have played and continue to play a major role in the perpetuation of various forms of privilege and oppression. It is probably wishful thinking to suppose we can end priv- ilege without also changing a capitalist system of political economy that allows an elite to control the vast majority of wealth and income and leaves the rest of the population to fight over what's left. But such wishful thinking is, in fact, what we're encouraged to engage in most of the time—to cling to the idea that racism, for example, is just a problem with a few bad whites, rather than seeing how'it is connected to a much larger matrix of privilege and oppression.
By not looking at the institutions through which humans organize economic and social life, we also engage in the fantasy that solving the problem of privilege is only a matter of changing how individual peo- ple think. I have, of course, spent most of this book talking about the importance of changing how we think about these issues, and I haven't suddenly changed my mind. We have for a long time been stuck in our ability to deal with these issues, and changing how we think is a key to getting unstuck.
By itself, however, changing how we think won't be enough to solve the problem. Privilege will not simply go away as the result of a change in individual consciousness. Ultimately, we'll have to apply our understanding of how systems work to the job of changing systems themselves—economic, political, religious, educational, and familial. To return to my earlier discussion of the game of Monopoly: we have two choices if we don't like the consequences that result from playing it. One is to do what I did and stop. But since we don't have the option of not participating in our society, we're left with the second choice, which is to change the game.
Since there is a lot of resistance to following such paths, the easi- est thing to do after reading a book like this is to forget about it. Main- taining acritical consciousness takes commitment and work. Aware- ness is something that either we maintain in the moment or we don't. And the only way to hang on to an awareness of privilege is to make that awareness an ongoing part of our lives.
Pay Attention
Understanding how privilege and oppression operate and how you
participate is where working for change begins. It's easy to have opin-
ions, but it takes work to know what you're talking about. The sim-
plest way to begin is to make reading about privilege part of your life.
Unless you have the luxury of a personal teacher, you can't under-
stand this issue without reading. Many people assume they already
know what they need to know because it's part of everyday life. But
they're usually wrong, because just as the last thing a fish would dis-
cover is water, the last thing people discover is society itself and some-
thing as pervasive as privilege.
We also have to be open to the idea that what we think we know
is, if not wrong, so deeply shaped by systems of privilege that it misses
most of the truth. This is why activists talk with one another and spend
time reading one another's writing, because seeing things clearly is
tricky. This is also why people who are critical of the status quo are so
often self-critical as .well—they know how complex and elusive the
truth really is and what a challenge it is to work toward it. People work-
ing for change are often accused of being orthodox and rigid, but in
practice they are typically among the most self-critical people around.
There is a huge literature on issues of privilege available through
any decent library system, although you'd never know it to judge from
its invisibility in the mass media and mainstream bookstores. For that
reason, it's a good idea not to rely on the media for a meaningful
analysis. As large capitalist enterprises, the media have a vested inter-
est in ignoring most of what is known about privilege, especially any-
thing that seriously questions the status quo. Instead, they routinely
focus on issues that have the least to do with privilege and oppression,
that reflect the flawed individualistic models of social life, and that set
subordinate groups against one another.
The media would rather discuss whether women and men have
different brains, for example, than examine the reality of male privi-
lege. And they are only too happy to give front-page coverage to any
woman willing to criticize feminism, or any person of color willing to
attack affirmative action or blame other people of color for their dis-
advantaged position in society. At the same time, the media ignore
140 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 141
most of what is known .about privilege. Most feminist work, for exam- ple, is virtually invisible to book reviewers, journalists, editorial writers, columnists, and the audience for trade books. So, if you want to know what's going on, it may take an interlibrary loan request or a special order at the bookstore. But you can do more. You can also tell librar- ians and bookstore managers how surprised and disappointed you are that they don't stock such essential reading for understanding the world.
As you educate yourself, avoid reinventing the wheel. Many peo- ple have already done a lot of work that you can learn from. There's no way to get through it all, but you don't have to in order to develop a clear enough sense of how to act in meaningful and 'informed ways. A good place to start is a basic text on race, class, and gender (these books increasingly include discussions of sexual orientation and dis- ability as well; see the Resources section of this book). Men who feel there is no place for them in women's studies might start with books about patriarchy and gender inequality that are written by men. In the same way, whites can begin with writings on race privilege written by other whites. Sooner or later, however, dominant groups will need to turn to what people in subordinate groups have written, because they are the ones who have done most of the work of figuring out how prix ilege and oppression operate.
Reading is only the beginning. At some point you have to look at yourself and the world to see if you can identify what you're reading about. Once the phrase "paths of least resistance" becomes part of your active vocabulary, for example, you start seeing them all over the place. The more aware you are of how powerful those paths are, the more easily you can decide whether to go down them each time they present themselves.
It helps to live like anthropologists, participant-observers who watch and listen to other people and themselves, who notice patterns that come up again and again in social life. You can pretend you're a stranger in a strange land who knows nothing about where you are and know that you know nothing.,. This approach keeps you open to recognizing faulty assumptions and the surprise of realizing that things aren't what they seem. Following this path is especially challenging for dominant groups, whose privilege tells them they shouldn't have to
work to figure out someone else, that it's up to "others" to figure them
out. It's easy for them to fall into the trap of being Iike impatient,
arrogant tourists who don't take the initiative to educate themselves
about where they are. But taking responsibility means not waiting for
others to tell you what to do, to point out what's going on, or to iden-
tify alternatives. If dominant groups are going to take their share of
responsibility, it's up to them to listen, watch, ask, and listen again, to
make it their business to find out for themselves. If they don't, they'll
slide down the comfortable blindered path of privilege. And then
they'll be just part of the problem and they will be blamed and they'll
have it coming.
Learn to Listen
Attentive listening is especially difficult for members of dominant
groups. If someone confronts you with your own behavior that sup-
ports privilege, step off the path of least resistance that encourages
you to defend and deny. Don't tell them they're too sensitive or need
abetter sense of humor, and don't try to explain away what you did
as something else than what they're telling you it was. Don't say you
didn't mean it or that you were only kidding. Don't tell them what a
champion of justice you are or how hurt you feel because of what
they're telling you. Don't make jokes or try to be cute or charming,
since only access to privilege can lead someone to believe these are
acceptable responses to something as serious as privilege and oppres-
sion. Listen to what's being said. Take it seriously. Assume for the time
being that it's true, because given the power of paths of least resis-
tance, it probably is. And then take responsibility to do something
about it.
A student of color in one of my classes, for example, once told me
that she noticed my cutting her off during class, something she didn't
think I did with white students. I could have weighed in with my pro-
fessorial authority and said it wasn't true, that she was imagining it,
that I treat all my students that way, that she was being too sensitive,
that I trammel all over the country speaking about issues of inequality
and injustice, so certainly I was above such things. But what I said to
her was that I was truly sorry she'd had that experience. I wasn't aware
142 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 143
of doing that, I told her, and the fact that I didn't consciously mean to was beside the point.
To respond in this way, I had to de-center myself from my posi- tion of privilege and make her experience and not mine the point of the conversation. I ended by telling her I would do everything I could to pay attention to this problem in the future to make sure it didn't happen again.
Note that my goodness or badness as a person was not the issue. The issues were the existence of pervasive racist patterns through which privilege is enacted every day, and the part all of us play in it, and my willingness to take responsibility for paying attention to my own behavior as a participant. I believe that most of the time, mem- bers of subordinate groups are not looking for dominant groups to feel ashamed or guilty, because this will do nothing in itself to improve their own lives. In my experience, their true goal is to end privilege and oppression and get dominant groups to commit themselves to doing whatever they can to make that happen.
Little Risks: Do Something
The more you pay attention to privilege and oppression, the more you'll see opportunities to do something about them. You don't have to mount an expedition to find opportunities; they're all over the place, beginning with you. As I became aware of how male privilege encourages me to control conversations, for example, I also realized how easily men dominate group meetings by controlling the agenda and interrupting, without women's objecting to it. This pattern is espe- cially striking in groups that are mostly female but in which most of the talking nonetheless comes from a few men. I would find myself sitting in meetings and suddenly the preponderance of male voices would jump out at me, an unmistakable sign of male privilege in full bloom.
As I've seen what's going on, I've had to decide what to do about this little path of least resistance and my relation to it that leads me to follow it so readily. With some effort, I've tried out new ways of lis- tening more and talking less. At times my methods have felt contrived and artificial, such as telling myself to shut up for a while or even
counting slowly to ten (or more) to give others a chance to step into the space afforded by silence. With time and practice, new paths h~ivc become easier to follow, and I spend less time monitoring myself. Bur. awareness is never automatic or permanent, because paths of least resistance will be there to choose or not as long as male privilege exists.
You might be thinking at this point that everything comes down
to changing individuals after all since doing something is a matter of
people's behavior. In a sense, of course, it's true that, for us, it all
comes down to what we do or don't do as individuals since that's what
we are. But the key is to always connect our choices to the systems we
participate in. When you openly change how you participate in a sys-
tem, you do more than change your own behavior; you also change
~ how the system happens. When you change how a system happens,
i you .change the social environment that shapes other people's behav-
ior, which, in turn, further changes how the system happens. And
when you do that, you also help to change the consequences that
i come out of the dynamic relationship between systems and individu-
als, including patterns of privilege and oppression.
Sometimes stepping off the path of least resistance is a matter of
directly calling attention to the system and how it's organized. As you'll
see below, for example, it might involve calling attention to the dis-
tribution of power and resources in an organization—why are all the
secretaries women and all the executives men? Why is the custodial
staff mostly people of color and the management staff entirely white?
Choosing to call attention to such patterns means changing your own
behavior, but it does more than that because the focus of your choice
is the system itself.
i In short, since the world happens as it does through the dynamic
relationship between individuals and social systems, changing the
world has to involve both.
As you become more aware, questions will arise about what goes
on at work, in the media, in families, in communities, in religious insti-
tutions, in government, on the street, and at school—in short, just
about everywhere. The questions don't come all at once (for which
we can be grateful), although they sometimes come in a rush that can
feel overwhelming. If you remind yourself that it isn't up to you to do
144 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 145
it all, however, you can see plenty of situations in which you can make a difference, sometimes in surprisingly simple ways. Consider the fol- lowing possibilities.
Make noise, be seen. Stand up, volunteer, speak out, write letters, sign petitions, show up. Every oppressive system feeds on silence. Don't col- lude in it. Breaking the silence is especially important for dominant groups, because it undermines the assumption of solidarity that priv- ilege depends on. If this feels too risky, practice being aware of how silence reflects your investment in solidarity with other dominant- group members. This can be a place to begin working , on how you participate in making privilege and oppression happen: "Today I said nothing, colluded in silence, and this is how I benefited from it. Tomorrow I can try something different."
Find little ways to zuithdrazu support from paths of least resistance and people's choices to follow them, starting with yourself. It can be as simple as not laughing at a racist or heterosexist joke or saying you don't think it's funny, or writing a letter to your senator or representative or the editor of your newspaper, objecting to an instance of sexism in the media. When my local newspaper ran an article whose headline referred to sexual harassment as "earthy behavior," for example, I wrote a letter pointing out that harassment has nothing to do with being "earthy."
The key to withdrawing support is to interrupt the flow of busi- ness as usual. You can subvert the assumption that everyone's going along with the status quo by simply not going along. When you do this, you stop the flow, if only for a moment, but in that moment other people can notice and start to think and question. It's a perfect time to suggest the possibility of alternatives, such as humor that isn't at someone else's expense, or of ways to think about discrimination, harassment, and violence that do justice to the reality of what's going on and how it affects people.
People often like to think of themselves as individuals—especially in the United States. But it's amazing how much of the time we com- pare ourselves to other people as a way to see how well we fit in. Any- thing that disrupts this process in even the smallest way can affect taken-for-granted assumptions that underlie social reality. It might help to think of this process as inserting grains of sand in an oyster
to irritate it into creating a pearl of insight, or as a way to make sys-
tems of privilege itch, stir, and scratch and thereby reveal themselves
for others to see. Or as planting seeds of doubt about the desirability
and inevitability of the way things are and, by example, planting seeds
of what might be.
Dare to make people feel uncomfortable, beginning with yourself. At the
next local school board meeting, for example, you can ask why prin-
cipals and other administrators are almost always white and male
(unless your system is an exception that proves the rule), while the
teachers they supervise and the lower-paid support staff are mostly
women and people of color. Or look at the names and mascots used
by local sports teams and see if they exploit the heritage and identity
of Native Americans. If that's the case, ask principals and coaches and
owners about it.7 Consider asking similar kinds of questions about priv-
ilege and difference in your place of worship, workplace, and local
government.
It may seem that such actions don't amount to much, until you
stop for a moment and feel your resistance to doing them worrying,
for example, about how easily you could make people uncomfortable,
including yourself. If you take that resistance to action as a measure
of power, then your potential to make a difference is plain to see. The
potential for people to feel uncomfortable is a measure of the power
for change inherent in such simple acts of not going along with the
status quo.
Some will say it isn't "nice" to make people uncomfortable, but
systems of privilege do a lot more than make people feel uncomfort-
able, and there isn't anything "nice" about allowing that to continue.
Besides, discomfort is an unavoidable part of any meaningful process
of change. You can't grow without being willing to challenge your
assumptions and take yourself to the edge of your competencies,
where you're bound to feel uncomfortable. If you can't tolerate ambi-
guity, uncertainty, and discomfort, then you'll never get beneath super-
ficial appearances or learn or change anything of much value, includ-
ing yourself.
And if history is any guide, discomfort—to put it mildly—is also
an unavoidable part of changing systems of privilege. As sociologist
William Gamson noted in his study of social movements, "the meek
146 Cha ter 9 P What Can We Do? 147
don't make it."8 To succeed, movements must be willing to disrupt business as usual and make those in power as uncomfortable as pos- sible. Women didn't win the right to vote, for example, by reasoning with men and showing them the merits of their position. To even get men's attention, they had to take to the streets in large numbers at considerable risk to themselves. At the very least they had to be will- ing to suffer ridicule and ostracism, but it often got worse than that. In England, for example, suffragettes were jailed and, when they went on hunger strikes, were force fed through tubes run down their throats. The modern women's movement has had to depend no less on the willingness of women to put themselves on the line in order to make men so uncomfortable that they've had to pay attention and, eventually, to act.
It has been no different with the civil rights movement. Under the leadership of people like Martin Luther King, the movement was ded- icated to the principle of nonviolence. As with the movement for women's suffrage, however, they could get white people's attention only through mass demonstrations and marches, to which whites typ- ically responded with violence and intimidation.9 As Douglas McAdam showed in his study of that period, the Federal government intervened and enacted civil rights legislation only when white violence against civil rights demonstrators became so extreme that the government was compelled to act.lo
As the African American writer, orator, and abolitionist Frederick Douglass put it, "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will."il As much as anyone, I would like to believe Douglass is wrong, that all it takes to end an oppressive system of prix ilege is to point out the reality of oppression and the moral impera- tive that it not continue, and the receivers of privilege will somehow see the light and surrender their privilege without a fight. But history provides no reason to believe that to be true.
Openly choose and model alternative Maths. As we identify paths of least resistance, we can identify alternatives and then follow them openly so that other people can see what we're doing. Paths of least resistance become more visible when people choose alternatives, just as rules become more visible when someone breaks them. Modeling new paths creates tension in a system, which moves toward resolution (like the
irritated .oyster) . We don't have to convince anyone of anything. As
Gandhi put it, the work begins with us trying to be the change we
want to see happen in the world. If you think this has no effect, watch
how people react to the slightest departures from established paths
and how much effort they expend trying to ignore or explain away or
challenge those who choose alternative paths.
Actively promote change in how systems are organized around ~irivilege.
The possibilities here are almost endless, because social life is com-
plicated and privilege is everywhere. You can, for example,
Speak out for equality in the workplace.
Promote awareness and training around issues of privilege.
Support equal pay and promotion practices for everyone.
Oppose the devaluing of women, people of color, and people with
disabilities, and the work they do, from dead-end jobs to glass
ceilings.
Support the well-being of mothers, children, and people with dis-
abilities, and defend their right to control their bodies and their
lives.
Don't support businesses that are inaccessible to people with dis-
abilities, and tell them why you don't.
Don't support businesses that engage in unfair labor practices,
including union-busting. Support the formation of unions. Although
the U.S. labor movement has a long history of racism, sexism, and
ableism, unions are currently one of the few organized efforts ded-
I icated to protecting workers from the excesses of capitalism.
Become aware of how class divisions operate in social systems, from
workplaces to schools, and how this results in the oppression of
blue- and white-collar workers. Find out, for example, if staff at
your college or university are paid a living wage, and speak up if
they aren't. There is a great silence in this country around issues
of class, in part because the dominant cultural ideology presents
the United States as a classless society. Break the silence.
Oppose the increasing concentration of wealth and power in the
United States and the global economy. The lower, working, and
148 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 149
lower-middle classes are the last to benefit from economic upturns and the first to suffer from economic downturns. Press politicians .and candidates for public office to take a stand on issues of class, starting with the acknowledgment that they exist.
Object to the punitive dismantling of welfare and attempts to limit women's access to reproductive health services.
Speak out against violence and harassment wherever they occur, whether at home, at work, or on the street.
Support government and private services for women who are vic- timized by male violence. volunteer at the local rape crisis center or battered-women's shelter. Join and support groups that inter- vene with and counsel violent men.
Call for and support clear and effective antiharassment policies in workplaces, unions, schools, professional associations, religious institutions, and political parties, as well as public spaces such as parks, sidewalks, and malls.
Object to theaters and video stores that carry violent pornography. This doesn't require a debate about censorship just the exercise of freedom of speech to articulate pornography's role in the oppres- sion of women and to express how its opponents feel about it. Ask questions about how work, education, religion, and family are shaped by core values and principles that support privilege. You might accept women's entry into combat branches of the military or the upper reaches of corporate power as "progress," for exam- ple. But you could also raise questions about what happens to peo- ple and societies when political and economic institutions are organ- ized around control, domination, "power over," and, by extension, competition and the use of violence. Is it progress to allow selected women to share control with men over oppressive systems?
Openly support people who step off the path of least resistance. When you witness someone else taking arisk—speaking out, call- ing attention to privilege and oppression—don't wait until later to tell them in private you're glad they did. Waiting until you're alone makes it safer for you but does the other person little good. Support is most needed when the risk is being taken, not later
on, so don't wait. Make your support as visible and public as the
courageous behavior that you're supporting.12
Su~i~bort the right of women and men to love whomever they choose. Raise
awareness of homophobia and heterosexism. For example, ask school
officials and teachers about what's happening to gay and lesbian stu-
dents in local schools. If they don't know, ask them to find out, since
it's a safe bet these students are being harassed; suppressed, and
oppressed by others at one of the most vulnerable stages of life. When
sexual orientation is discussed, whether in the media or among
friends, raise questions about its relation to male privilege. Remember
that it isn't necessary to have answers to questions in order to ask them.
Pay attention to horn different forms of op~iression interact with one
another. There has been a great deal of struggle within women's move-
ments, for example, about the relationship between male privilege and
privilege in other forms, especially those based on race, social class,
and sexual orientation. White middle- and upper-middle-class hetero-
sexual feminists have been criticized for pursuing their own agenda to
the detriment of women who aren't privileged by class or race or sex-
ual orientation. Raising concerns about glass ceilings that keep women
out of top corporate and professional positions, for example, does lit-
tle to help working- or lower-class women. There has also been debate
over whether some forms of oppression are more important to attack
first or produce more oppressive consequences than other forms.
One way out of this conflict is to realize that male privilege isn't
pro~alematic just because it emphasizes male dominance but because it
values and promotes dominance and control as ends in themselves. In
that sense, all forms of oppression draw support from common roots,
and whatever we do that calls attention to those roots undermines all
forms of privilege. If working against male privilege is seen simply as
enabling some women to get a bigger piece of the pie, then some
women probably will "succeed" at the expense of others who are dis-
advantaged by race, class, sexual orientation, and disability status. One
could make the same argument about movements for racial justice. If
it just means enabling well-placed people of color to get ahead, then
it won't end racial oppression for the vast majority. But if we identify
the core problem as any society organized around principles of dom-
ination and privilege, then changing that requires us to pay attention
150 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 151
to all the forms of privilege those principles promote. Whether we begin with race or gender or disability or class or the capitalist system, if we name the problem correctly we'll wind up going in the same gen- eral direction.
Work with other peo~ile. This is one of the most important principles of participating in change. From expanding consciousness to taking risks, working with people who support what you're trying to do makes all the difference in the world. For starters, you can'read and talk about books and issues and just plain .hang out with other people who want to understand and do something about privilege and oppression. The roots of the modern women's movement were in consciousness- raising groups where women did little more than try to figure out how their lives were shaped by a patriarchal society. It may not have looked like much at the time, but it laid the foundation for huge social change.
One step down this path is to share a book like this one with some- one and then talk about it. Or ask around about local groups and organizations that focus on issues of privilege. Attend a meeting and introduce yourself to the members. After reading a book or an article that you like, send an e-mail to the author or write in care of the pub- lisher. It's easy to think authors don't want to be bothered by inter- ested readers, but the truth is, they usually welcome it and respond. (I do!) Make contact. Connect to other people engaged in the same work. Do whatever reminds you that you're not alone in this.
It is especially important to form alliances across difference. What does this mean? As Paul Kivel argues, one of the keys to being a good ally is a willingness to listen for whites to listen to people of color, for example—and to give credence to what people say about their own experience.13 This isn't easy to do, of course, since members of dom- inant groups may not like what they hear about their privilege from those who are most damaged by it. It is difficult to heax anger and not take it personally, but that is what allies have to be willing to do. It's also difficult for members of privileged groups to realize how mis- trusted they are by subordinate groups and to not take that person- ally as well. Kivel offers the following to give an idea of what people of color need from white allies (the same list could apply to allies across other forms of difference)
"respect"
"find out about us"
"don't take over"
"provide information"
"resources"
"money"
"take risks"
"don't take it personally"
"understanding"
"teach your children about
racism"
"speak up"
"don't be scared of my
anger"
"support"
"listen"
"don't make assumptions"
"stand by my side"
"don't assume you know
what's best for me"
"put your body on the line"
"make mistakes"
"honesty"
"talk to other white people"
"interrupt jokes and
comments"
"don't ask me to speak for
my people"
One of the most important items on Kivel's list is for whites to talk
to other white people. In many ways, the biggest challenge for mem-
bers of privileged groups is to work with one another on issues of prix
ilege rather than trying to help members of subordinate groups. Per-
haps the biggest thing that men can do against sexism, for example,
is to educate other men about patriarchy and confront other men
about sexist behavior and the reality of male privilege. The same can
be said about nondisabled people in relation to ableism and straights
in relation to heterosexism. For members of privileged groups to
become allies, they must recall Frederick Douglas's words, that
"power concedes nothing without a demand" and add their weight to
that demand. When dominant groups work against privilege, they do
more than add their voices. They also make it more difficult for other
members of dominant groups to dismiss calls for change as simply the
actions of "special interest groups" trying to better their position.
Speaking out is, of course, a hard and risky thing to do, because
receiving privilege depends on being accepted by other members of
the privileged group. But it is not possible to both work to end privi-
lege and hang on to it at the same time.
Don't keel it to yourself. A corollary of looking for company is not
to restrict your focus to the tight little circle of your own life. It isn't
152 Chapter 9 What Can We Do? 153
enough to work out private solutions to social problems and keep them to yourself. It isn't enough to clean up your own act and then walk away, to find ways to avoid the worst consequences of privilege and oppression at home and inside you and think that's taking respon- sibility. Privilege and oppression aren't a personal problem that can be solved through personal solutions. At some point, taking responsi- bility means acting in a larger context, even if that means letting just one other person know what you're doing. It makes sense to start with yourself, but it's equally important not to end with yourself.
A good way to convert personal change into something laxger is to join an organization dedicated to changing the systems that produce privilege and oppression. Most college and university campuses, for example, have student organizations that focus on issues of gender, race, sexual orientation, and disability. There are also national organizations working for change, often through local and statewide branches. Con- sider, for example, the National Organization for Women (NOS, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Conference for Community and Justice (formerly the National Conference of Christians and Jews), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the National Organization for Men Against Sexism, the Feminist Majority, the National Abortion Rights Action League, the Southern Christian Lead- ership Conference, the National Urban League, the American Associa- tion of Disabled Persons (~A.DP), Not Dead Yet, the American Council of the Blind, the National Association for the Deaf, ADAPT (American Disabled For Attendant Programs Today), and People First.
If all this sounds overwhelming, remember again that you don't have to deal with everything. You don't have to set yourself the impos- sible task of transforming society or even yourself All you can do is what you can manage to do, secure in the knowledge that you're mak- ing it easier for other people—now and in the future—to see and do what they can do. So, rather than defeat yourself before you start, think small, humble, and doable rather than large, heroic, and impossible. Don't paralyze yourself with impossible expectations. It takes very lit- tle to make a difference. Small acts can have radical implications. As Edmund Burke said, if the_ main requirement for the perpetuation of
evil is that good people do nothing, then the choice isn't between all
or nothing, but between nothing and something.
Don't let other people set the standard for you. Start where you are and
work from there. Make lists of all the things you could actually imag-
ine doing—from reading another book about privilege to suggesting
policy changes at school or work to protesting against capitalism to
raising questions about who cleans the bathroom at home—and rank
them from the most risky to the least. Start with the least risky and set
reasonable goals ("What small risk for change will I take today ?") . As
you get more experienced at taking risks, you can move up your list.
You can commit yourself to whatever the next steps are for you, the
tolerable risks, the contributions that offer some way—however small
it might seem—to help balance the scales. As long as you do some-
thing, it counts.
In the end, taking responsibility doesn't have to involve guilt and
blame, letting someone off the hook, or being on the hook yourself.
It simply means acknowledging an obligation to make a contribution
to finding a way out of the trouble we're all in and to finding con-
structive ways to act on that obligation. You don't have to do anything
dramatic or earth-shaking to help change happen. As powerful as sys-
tems of privilege are, they cannot stand the strain of lots of people
doing something about it, beginning with the simplest act of naming
the system out loud.