Analysis Of Grillo's Taking Back The Center

“Taking Back the Center” by Grillo and Wildman, points out the natural advantages of white dominant society. “The white, male, heterosexual societal norm is privileged in such a way that its privilege is rendered invisible”. (Grillo 337) Since, whiteness is accepted as the norm or privileged group, problems of minority groups are ignored and push to the backburner. Those in the dominant priviledged group get to enjoy the many benefits such as having their voices heard in society. On the other hand, minority groups in U.S society are deprived of the opportunity to let their problems be known to society. Grillo and Wildman write about how the privileged dominant white groups are the “speakers” rather than the “listener”. The dominate group often times are ignorant to the issues of minority relations since their status as the privileged group makes them feel superior to the rest of the population. The widely accepted ideal of whiteness as the norm creates exclusiveness within the group, where only the issues of relevance
amongst the group are addressed. Minorities are left with very limited resources as U.S society as a whole is still a white dominated society in terms of numbers and accepted ideology of white dominance.
Grillo and Wildman writes that even when minorities are given a forum for discussion on race, the dominate majority group often will try to take back the focus of their own agendas. Grillo calls this, “stealing the center.” Grillo and Wildman give examples in the past where such events have happened. A meeting of Law Society was held, where three minority scholars were invited to speak on how to diversify universities. “Many people of color were in attendance, yet many whites choose not to attend”. (Grillo 337) Whites did not want the out-group to be perceived as a part of the privileged group, therefore they did not attend as to exercise their right as the “privileged.”
Other tactics in which the dominant group attempts to steal back the center includes using Guerilla tactics. During a talk on the integration of multicultural materials into a university core curriculum, a white man got up from the front row and walked noisily to the back of the room. He paced around the room in a distracting fashion and then returned to his seat. During the questioning session he was the first to rise up, leaping to his feet and proceeded to ask a lengthy, rambling question about how multicultural materials could be added to the university curriculum without disturbing the “canon,” – exact subject of the talk which he did not listen to. (Grillo 338) Canon means the core curriculum of dominant society.
Apparently, he became outraged with the idea of multicultural integration of university curriculum the moment the proposal was raised by the speaker.
He felt as if his right to study material that is central and relevant to his own self as a privileged individual was being infringed upon. He has adopted the thinking that the “canon” curriculum is of most importance; hence all other reading was dispensable. (Grillo 338) The instilled beliefs of dominate white culture and privilege resulted in the man’s offensive attitude towards multicultural integration of university curriculum. Thus, he became ignorant to the needs of minorities and the betterment of overall social society. It’s hard to fault him for the way he feels since American society has always placed white people at the top of the social ladder. To the man, and many of the dominant group members, it would seem like an expected right for them to be at the forefront of social
society.
The dominant privileged group tends to avoid or suppress the discussion of race relations since they are not affected by it. Rather, their status as the privileged has benefited them in numerous way as seen throughout U.S history. There was another gathering of law professors discussing the issues of racism, sexism and homophobia. Presentations were given by an African American woman, a Hispanic man, and a gay white man. Again, the numbers of white males were few. Grillo and Wildman give an example of how a privileged individual avoids the topic of racism by changing the issue to something of more personal relevance during the question and dialogue period. (Grillo 338) Grillo and Wildman suggest this is because of analogical thinking. Analogies are developed to divert the real issue at hand into a personal concern of the person.
I agree with Grillo and Wildman, where he writes that “the problem of taking back the center will be with us long as any group expects, and is led to expect, to be constantly the center of attention”. (Grillo 338) I believe this problem will exist inevitably throughout the future as the past has done its damage in promoting dominance and privilege of the majority over everyone else. Minorities have made strides in gaining some focus of attention, but will only gain acceptance to a certain point. I don’t see the dominant privileged group to entirely give up their preconceived advantaged status in society.