SOMETHING ABOUT THE SUBJECT MAKES IT HARD TO NAME
The Pervasive Nature of Racism
Difficulty in Confrontation: Racism is simple in structure but difficult to eliminate. It is deeply embedded and pervasive in U.S. culture, influencing local populations and negatively affecting people globally.
Normalization: Many manifestations of racism are taken for granted, leading people to believe "that's life."
Misconception of Quick Fixes: There's a common, erroneous belief that racism, a deeply rooted "monster" that has evolved over centuries, can be solved by a single workshop, a heated discussion, or merely wished away.
Analogy to an Illness: Racism is described as a "mind-funk" that distorts thought and action, likening it to a habit or disease that cannot be cured in an instant. It mutates like a virus, becoming resistant to simple solutions and requiring a multi-pronged attack.
Defining Oppression and Internalized Oppression
Oppression Defined: This refers to the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment of one group of people by another.
Perceived Abilities: Oppressors are believed to have innate access to economic resources, information, and respect, while the oppressed are viewed as having corresponding negative innate abilities.
Internalized Oppression: This is the flip side of oppression, where members of the target group are emotionally, physically, and spiritually battered to the point of believing their oppression is deserved, their natural "lot in life," or doesn't even exist.
Self-inflicted Harm: The oppressed may internalize the oppression so deeply that they perpetrate harm against themselves and each other, even when external pressures lessen.
Four Forms of Racism
1. Aware/Blatant Racism: This form is direct and unapologetic. Racists openly state their dislike or prejudice based on race.
Perceived "Preferability": It is sometimes considered preferable because of its clear nature, allowing targets to recognize and attempt to avoid the overt threat.
2. Aware/Covert Racism: This form involves hidden discrimination.
Historical Context: Many elders who moved "up north" to escape overt racism in the "down south" encountered this form. Examples include apartments suddenly becoming unavailable or rents becoming prohibitively high for people of color, or job vacancies being filled unexpectedly or terminations occurring for vague reasons.
Covering Tracks: Perpetrators take care to hide their discriminatory actions to avoid legal repercussions from "toothless laws" designed to protect against such inequities.
3. Unaware/Unintentional Racism: This is practiced by individuals with good intentions, education, and generosity, who act in racist ways due to misinformation and lack of awareness of their privilege.
Impact on White Liberals: When confronted, it can drive tranquil white liberals to distress, confirming suspicions of people of color.
Examples of Behavior: Includes asking to touch a person's hair and exclaiming over its softness, or speaking in high-pitched, condescending tones, believing it compensates for past injustices.
The "Nice" Trap: Well-intentioned whites can perpetuate racism by being "nice" in ways that are ignorant of privilege, leading to a "niceness" that harms through naiveté and lack of awareness.
Guilt-Induced Immobilization: Guilt over racism can paralyze individuals, leading them to ponder their guilt rather than actively working to end racism, allowing racism to continue unchecked.
4. Unaware/Self-Righteous Racism: This form is characterized by the "good white" racist who appoints themselves as an authority on issues affecting people of color.
Paternalistic Behavior: They may attempt to shame Blacks into being "blacker," scorn Japanese-Americans for not speaking Japanese, or claim more knowledge about the Chicano/a community than its members.
Avoidance of Internal Issues: These "good whites" are often too busy dictating issues for communities of color to address problems within their own white communities, leaving people of color to deal with racism.
Internalized Racism (Further Explanation)
Personal Impact: The author, as a Black woman, experiences internalized racism influencing self-perception, limiting expectations, and leading to an acceptance of mistreatment.
Misattribution of Hardship: It fosters the belief that hardship is a consequence of one's race (e.g., "Because I am (you fill in the color), life is going to be hard").
Rebuttal: While life can be hard, skin color is not the cause of hardship, but rather an excuse for mistreatment by a "greedy system" that deliberately beats people down until they internalize this misinformation.
Reinforced Definition: Racism is redefined as the systematic, institutionalized mistreatment based on racial heritage, and like all oppressions, it can be internalized, leading people of color to believe justifications for their mistreatment.
The "Ism Family" and Interconnected Oppressions
Systematic and Interdependent Nature: "The Ism Family" (racism, classism, ageism, adultism, elitism, sexism, heterosexism, physicalism, etc.) are all systematic. They are parasites that feed off lives and are dependent on one another for their foundation and reinforcement.
Chain of Support: For example, racism is supported by classism, which is boosted by adultism, which feeds sexism, validated by heterosexism, and so on.
Internalized Precursor: No "ism" can function effectively without first installing its internalized version within the population, acting like twins where the growth of one leads to a corresponding increase in the other.
Initial Resistance: Before oppression solidifies into an "ism," there is usually significant resistance, such as war, as people fight attempts to enslave them or subvert their will, or to take their territory or dignity.
The Crucial Role of Power and Privilege
Limited Damage Without Power: While individual acts of racism are repugnant, they cause limited damage unless backed by the crucial element of power/privilege.
Societal Stratification: Society is stratified into classes with varying degrees of privilege.
Controlling Class: The "owning class" possesses enough power and privilege to disregard the concerns of others.
Buffer Class: This class uses its power to co-opt a segment of the working class (creating the "middle class") by offering just enough privilege to make them complicit in oppressing other working-class and disenfranchised individuals, thereby managing explosive inequities.
Power to Intimidate: The ultimate form of power is the ability to inflict the most harm and take lives fastest, backed by legal and "divine" sanction. This determines who holds the "racism end of the stick" and who experiences oppression or perpetrates internalized racism.
Imbalance of Power: People of color can be prejudiced, but they lack the systemic power to create laws that would, for example, send white people to relocation camps. This imbalance is often overlooked or denied, leading to blame being placed on people of color.
Victim Blaming: Racism is perpetuated by blaming the victim, who often internalizes this blame out of habit.
Strategies for Action: What Can We Do?
1. Acknowledge Racism: Recognize its pervasive nature, even when personal efforts are made to be kind and fair. It describes and permeates our lives, making acknowledgment difficult but necessary.
2. Dual-Level Attack: Racism must be addressed simultaneously on personal and societal, and emotional and institutional levels, for maximum effectiveness.
3. Reclaim Heritage: Re-embrace and delight in one's ethnic heritage(s), resisting the "melting pot" narrative that turns diverse groups into "generics" (e.g., specific European ethnicities becoming "generic white folks," or African groups becoming "black folks").
4. Create Safe Spaces: Establish environments where repressed emotions related to experiences as a victim, witness, or perpetrator of racism can be safely felt and processed. This helps break cycles of enacting past traumas in the present and future.
5. Challenge Oppression: Take a stand, interrupt oppressive situations, and call out racist acts, even if not immediately life-threatening, to combat desensitization.
Addressing Racism: Guidance for White Allies
Educate Yourselves: Learn through research and observation. Do not rely solely on interrogating people of color to teach you.
Take Responsibility for Learning: Do not expect people of color to teach you how to behave non-oppressively.
Avoid Laziness: Engage in difficult, critical thinking.
Manage Your Frustration: Do not blame people of color for your frustrations about racism. Instead, appreciate their role in helping you connect with that frustration.
Do Not Expect Gratitude: Assume your efforts as a friend are appreciated, but do not expect or demand gratitude from people of color.
Self-Motivated Work: Work on racism for your own sake, not out of a sense of doing "them" a favor.
Assume Competence: Believe in your ability to be a good ally.
Commit to Correction: Acknowledge that you will make mistakes and commit to correcting them, continuing your role as an ally regardless.
Persevere: Do not give up.
Addressing Racism: Guidance for People of Color
Affirm Self-Worth: Always remember your complete worthiness of respect and your capability to achieve any goal.
Recognize Diversity: Understand that "people of color" encompasses a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, each oppressed in unique ways.
Self-Education: Educate yourselves about how different groups have been oppressed and how they have resisted.
Demand Accountability: Expect and insist that whites are capable of being good allies against racism.
Persevere: Do not give up.
Resist "Seal of Approval": Do not give aspiring white allies a "people of color seal of approval." While a moment of appreciation is fine, more than that tends to be unhelpful.
Self-Celebration: Celebrate your identity, your heritage, and the inevitable end of racism.