Clairton: Here and Now

      As I write I am sitting in a well-lit heated room located on a Pittsburgh graduate school campus. It’s frigid outside. There was a snowstorm earlier and tonight the temperature is supposed to drop to 16 degrees, but the sudden drop in temperature won’t really. Affect me. Why? Because I have privilege. Privilege, defined as securing unearned benefits due to membership of a dominant class or group, breaks down on multiple levels including white privilege, straight privilege, able-bodied privilege and so on. Once again referring to Patricia Hill Collins’ Matrix of Domination  we can begin to see how multi-layered oppression can become. It can be segmented and analyzed from multiple frameworks, but inevitably most analyses come to the same point that oppression harms people.

     Self-disclosure I am a graduate student aspiring to become a part of the professional class. My concerns the concerns of those who live in Clairton are literally worlds apart. Through employing empathic listening I can hope to accrue knowledge of their problems and perspectives, but I can never hope to truly understand. I have mentioned before that I spent my childhood years in the neighborhood of Homewood. Homewood too has a negative reputation but Homewood, unlike Clairton, is overwhelmingly racially homogenous. Do not misunderstand me. I am not implying that there are not racial issues in Homewood, but to use my experiences in Homewood as a frame of reference for Clairton would be misguided. They are two neighborhoods with two separate histories.

     So I wrestle. I love organization and forming boards and committees. I love formally drafting reports and scheduling planning meetings. Until recently I was ambivalent about functionalist versus grassroots approaches. Now I wonder, could incorporating professional and corporate style approaches to the non-profit world actually be silencing the voices of residents? I ask this question rhetorically, because I know the answer is yes. Once again using the paradigm of intersectional feminism I am reminded of hegemonic femininity’s rejection of a race and class based analysis. This corporatization of non-profit movements effectively bars women who do not have professional backgrounds (class privilege) from participating in

Photo by Richard Rector

raising issues and planning actions. So with this knowledge in mind I step back and ask that the voices of Clairton’s citizens be raised above those of the local government. I ask that their concerns and needs be addressed rather than having dictated to them. I argue that when forming a development committee that the planners seek out the desires of residents. Ask what the people want. They are experts in their needs. Professional attainments are tools to be used to uplift rather than further silence those who are already vulnerable. I see this now and I leave you with this assignment. Whomever you may be whether you are a social worker, community organizer, or facilities manager before planning an action look at who is sitting at the table. Whose literally represented in the room and whose needs and concerns are taking up the most amount of space in the conversation. Consider this information, consider it carefully because you mean well, but well intended actions and words can still cause calamity. For solidarity, listen to Clairton.