Week 1: Race and Racism
Before embarking on our journey toward becoming Fearlessly Anti-Racist, we first need to establish a set of shared understandings. These include both a common vocabulary and a common base of knowledge about race and racism. In this lesson we’ll learn how race and racism came to exist in the colonies that would become the U.S. (hint: they didn’t always!) as well as how racism has shaped, and continues to shape, nearly every aspect of our American society. In addition, we’ll tackle what racism is not by dispelling the misplaced notion of reverse racism. And you’ll have an opportunity to put what we’re learning into action with your very first homework challenge.
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Learning Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
Understand the social construction of race and racism in the U.S.
Recognize the ongoing, contemporary reverberations of the historical legacy of racism in the U.S.
Distinguish between individual, organizational, institutional, and systemic racism.
Refute the concept of “reverse racism.”
Reflect on your own implicit racial bias.
Glossary
These terms will help give us a common vocabulary for the course. It is important, for example, that we all have a shared definition of what we mean by “white supremacy,” so that when we say something like “We, as white people, are complicit in white supremacy” you don’t take that to mean that we think you are in league with fanatics like Neo-Nazis or members of the Klu Klux Klan, merely by virtue of your shared skin color. Rather we mean that, by virtue of our skin color, we white folks benefit from systemic racism in the U.S., whether we want to or not, and that by benefitting from that system, we are necessarily (and unfortunately) complicit in that system’s ongoing existence.
Race: A social construct, distinct from the biological concept of race (i.e., species), and having no foundation in genetics, which is used to stratify groups of people in society, primarily on the basis of skin color.
Ethnicity: Collective belonging of social groups that have a common cultural, religious and/or national tradition. Distinct from race (see above).
POC: An acronym for people of color, the commonly used term for non-white people. Note that people of color is the preferred term because it both places the person first and avoids the Jim-Crow era connotations of “colored people.”
BIPOC: An acronym for Black, Indigenous and people of color. This acronym is sometimes used in lieu of POC as it calls out and centers the distinct forms of oppression (e.g., slavery and genocide) that black folks and indigenous folks have experienced, that sets their experiences apart from other groups of color, while also emphasizing their solidarity with other people of color.
Life Chances: What is likely to happen to a person over the course of their life, even if it’s not what actually happens to each individual member of that racial group. Often used as a generalized comparison, such as “White folks have better life chances than black folks.”
Stereotype: A harmful generalization about a racial or ethnic group.
Prejudice: Negative thoughts and beliefs about a racial or ethnic group.
Discrimination: Treating members of another racial or ethnic group worse than members of one’s own group.
Racism: Discriminatory behavior of whites, toward BIPOC, backed by white supremacy (see below).
Systemic Racism: A form of racism that is embedded in the culture, laws and regulations of a society (in our context, the US and its institutions).
White Supremacy*: An historically-rooted system of exploitation and oppression of people of color, for the social and economic benefit of white folks. This term is sometimes used in lieu of the more generic “systemic racism” to call out that white folks are the ones actually benefiting from, and perpetuating, the system.
*Note that white supremacy, as used in this context of this lesson and this course, is very different from the hateful ideology of white supremacist groups like Neo-Nazis or the Klu Klux Klan. When we talk about white folks’ complicity in white supremacy, we are talking about our complicity in the system of white supremacy, not suggesting that all white folks hold the same hateful beliefs as these radical groups.
Race is a Social Construction
Often when we hear (or even talk) about race, we do so as though it were a real, biological concept. We hear things like, “Black people are good athletes” or “Asian folks are great musicians” as though there was some genetic connection between skin color and deeper traits like athletic ability or musical talent. But the concept of race is entirely fictional, so far as it corresponds to any set of common genetic attributes. You can quickly confirm this by checking in any introductory biology textbook published after the 1800s. Yes, human beings have variation in skin color, eye shape, and hair texture, but they also vary in height, shoe size, and double-jointedness. There is nothing biologically special about the set of physical characteristics that we collectively think of as “race.”
Reflection: Where and when were you taught that race is biological? How did you come to learn that it is not? What feelings of resistance do or did you have to this new knowledge?
Indeed, race is what sociologists term a “social construction.” It is not real in terms of having any inherent significance, but we as a society have invested it with meaning nonetheless. (We do the same with ethnicity, though we less frequently connect it to biology.) Race was constructed (created) by society (or rather, as we will see, a very small, wealthy, white, and male subset of society) and now we all accept it as a real thing. Likewise, racism (the idea that white folks are better than other races, and the negative stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination toward people of color, and particularly black folks, that come with that idea) was “made up” alongside the idea of race. We now accept (as a society, even if you may not personally) that people come in different races, and that those races exist in a rough hierarchy, with the lightest-skinned people at the top, and the darkest-skinned people at the bottom. (We’ll get to the evidence that we as a society still accept this hierarchy shortly.)
Just because race is a social construction, however, does not mean that it is not real in its consequences. We can shout until we are blue in the face that race is made-up, but that will not change the fact that black folks are still facing 5% higher unemployment rates than white folks, for example. Or attending, on average, schools with far less funding. Or getting arrested, charged, and sentenced at higher rates than white folks. Race is “real” not because it is biologically real, but because we as a society have made it real, in terms of how our society is organized around race.
So What Does This Mean for Me?
It’s all well and good to understand intellectually that race is a social construction, but what does this mean for us as white people looking to become fearlessly anti-racist?
Understanding that race is a social construction is critical to our journey for two reasons.
First, understanding that race is a lie, biologically speaking, is a vital first step to recognizing the existence of systemic racism (aka the system of White Supremacy), which you absolutely must acknowledge if you are to continue your journey. Put simply, since race isn’t real, biologically speaking (e.g., all Asian folks aren’t inherently, genetically smarter than all other folks), then the racial inequalities we see in society must be the result of something other than biology — they must be the result of the way society is organized (i.e., systemic racism).
Second, understanding that, ‘just because race is socially constructed does not mean that it is not real in its consequences’ helps us avoid a costly detour in our white racial identity development: Racial Colorblindness. While it’s tempting for us white folks, when we learn that race is not real (biologically speaking), to go around shouting “Race is a lie! If we just don’t treat people any differently on the basis of race, we’ll all be better off!” that is actually a huge mistake. It’s a well-intentioned mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. And the reason is because, while it’s true that race is a biological lie, it’s still very real in its consequences in our society.
If we don’t acknowledge the role of race in determining a person’s life chances, and then proceed to judge a white person and a person of color on the same criteria, the POC, especially if they are black or indigenous, will likely fall short of the white person. This is because the BIPOC likely went to a poorly-funded school, had to deal with the psychological trauma of repeated racial slurs and insults, endured discrimination in hiring and promotion, etc.
When we say, “I don’t see your race,” we’re really saying, “I don’t acknowledge any of the additional obstacles you have had to overcome, merely by virtue of your skin color, in order to be here today.” And this is to say nothing of the way that saying “I don’t see your race” disregards the shared culture and heritage that come from the common experiences of people living as members of the black “race” (for example) in our society. Again, we have to acknowledge that race is a biological lie while understanding that it is still a sociological truth. Until we dismantle racism, we cannot disregard race.
This short clip from the film “Race - The Power of an Illusion” explores the truth that race is just an idea, not biology.
Time Wise outlines the historical creation of “race” in the U.S. (Watch until about the 3:00 mark.)
How Did We Get Here?
We’ve briefly covered the social construction of race, and how and why race was created (in Tim Wise’s video, above), but that was a long time ago. And since then slavery and Jim Crow laws have ended, the Civil Rights movement has enshrined legal protections for BIPOC, and we’ve had our first black President. Isn’t systemic racism over? Well, not quite.
Detailing the full extent of the historical exploitation and oppression of BIPOC in this country is beyond the scope of this lesson, but we do want to provide you with the resources to learn about that legacy on your own, if you are interested. To that extent, we’ve provided a curated selection of films, videos, articles, books, and podcasts on our Resources page.
What we do want to accomplish in this lesson is to explain, albeit briefly, how the legacy of historical oppression of BIPOC in this country continues to reverberate through our society even today. To that end, here are a couple examples of how the history of racism in this country is still having profound effects on BIPOC living today.
Perhaps one of the clearest examples is the effect of slavery, which ended over 150 years ago, on black wealth today. While 150 years may seem like a long time, we have to remember that slavery was central to the makeup of the U.S. (and the colonies before it) for almost 250 years before finally being abolished (and replaced by Jim Crow segregation). In those two-and-an-half centuries, white families were accumulating wealth and property, while black folks were legally forbidden from doing the same. And as we all know, it takes money to make money. This is part of the reason why today, white families still have eight times (8x) the wealth of black families.
Also connected to this lack of wealth is the legacy of housing discrimination against black Americans. While we still see discrimination in housing loans even today, less than a century ago we saw actual redlining — the practice of segregating communities by race and thereby preserving (and increasing) white home values while denying black folks the opportunity to buy into prosperous white neighborhoods. Similarly, we saw black GIs denied the federal housing subsidies given to their white peers, after returning from WWII. These are all examples of “historical” racism, but the effects of these policies are ongoing, resulting even today in a wide gap in homeownership between whites (73%) and blacks (42%).
We could go on providing examples of how the past influences the present, in our criminal justice system, our education system, our government. But instead, we provide below a few resources to get you started on your own exploration of the ongoing legacy of historical racism in our present-day society.
Education: Savage Inequalities (book by Jonathan Kozol; excerpt linked)
Crime: 13th (documentary film directed by Ava DuVernay)
Housing: The Case for Reparations (long-form article by Tah-Nehessi Coates)
Economy, Government, Health Care: 1619 (podcast hosted by Nikole Hannah Jones)
In addition, the two videos below provide a quick (< 20 minutes) and quicker (< 5 minutes) overview of what we mean when we say that, despite all the progress we have made, we are STILL living in a society that is systemically racist, because it was designed that way.
In this 18-minute video, the Zinned Project explains how segregation in the U.S. was not accidental, but intentional.
In this 4-and-half-minute video, act.tv explains how the U.S. became, and remains, systemically racist.
Why bother with all this history? Primarily to make that point that it’s not just history. To become effective, fearless anti-racists, we have to let go of the idea that government-sanctioned, systemic racism is somehow a thing of the past. Not only was racism foundational to the design of the U.S. right from the start (when slavery was baked into the constitution), it has continued to be a defining feature of our country, all the way up until the present day.
Racism Exists on Multiple Levels
As part of our exploration of race and racism, we thought it vital to address the idea that racism is not just a matter of individual meanness. Yes, individuals can be racist, but presumably most of you here in this cohort are not actively, intentionally racist. But that doesn’t mean that we’re off the hook. We’re all part of organizations and institutions that are racist in one way or another, and we all live in a society that was built on racism. Part of becoming fearlessly anti-racist is acknowledging that, just because we’re not actively, individually racist, that doesn’t mean we don’t still have a responsibility to do something about organizational, institutional, and systemic racism. (And, let’s face it, we all still probably have some work to do on our own individual racism, internalized and unconscious though it may be — see below!)
Galen explains the importance of recognizing that racism exists on multiple levels.
HOMEWORK CHALLENGE
This week, drop the term “white supremacy (or “white supremacist”) into a conversation. A low-risk way of doing this might be to say something like, “I heard somewhere that we live in a white supremacist society. What do you think about that?” This also gives you a great opening to explain what you mean by white supremacy when they ask about, or misinterpret, your use of the term.
Reflection: How did you feel before you did the challenge? During? After? Why do you think you felt that way? How did the other person respond? Why do you think they responded in that way? What, if anything, would you have changed about that interaction?
The Myth of Reverse Racism
While we may be getting a little ahead of ourselves, we felt it important to nip the myth of “reverse racism” in the bud before it has the chance to bloom in your hearts. For many of us white folks, the idea of reverse racism is like a healing balm — a soothing ointment that takes some of the sting out of our own complicity in white supremacy. After all, if people of color can be racist too, then we white folks don’t have any special responsibility to deal with our own investment in white supremacy. We’re off the hook!
The problem is that reverse racism is, as we’ve stated, only a myth. A powerful myth, and one that often gets deployed in defense of a white person’s own racist actions, but a myth nonetheless.
Why is reverse racism a myth (or more pointedly, a lie)? Because racism requires the support of a system of domination to function as racism and not just personal discrimination. Clearly we do not live in a society in which people of color have enslaved, dominated, and exploited white folks for centuries, resulting in an unfair system that perpetually disadvantages whites, to the benefit of people of color. So there is very obviously no such thing as “reverse systemic racism.” But what about about reverse individual racism? Is it possible for a person of color to have stereotypes about white people? Sure. Prejudices? You bet. Individually discriminate? Yes again. But individual discrimination is not the same thing as racism. And that is because racism is not just discriminatory behavior based on race (we’d just call that racial discrimination). Racism gets its power from white supremacy. Racial slurs and epithets, for example, only carry power because of the history of shame, abuse, and outright violence associated with them. A BIPOC could call a white person a Cracker, but because that word has not been used to justify widespread, institutional violence against white folks, nor to deny them their ability to self-actuate, it’s really no different in its effect than calling that white person an a**hole.
As a brief and final aside, you may be asking, “What about affirmative action? Isn’t that a form of reverse racism?” The short answer is “No.” The slightly longer answer is that affirmative action is one of these least understood (or most willfully misunderstood) policies of our time. We don’t have time for a full lesson on affirmative action, but suffice it to say that affirmative action does not give people of color (and women) advantages; it instead acknowledges and mitigates their many disadvantages. Remember our section about racial colorblindness? Affirmative action is the policy version of NOT being colorblind. It acknowledges the additional obstacles that women and people of color likely have faced, instead of ‘treating everyone the same’ and thus actually advantaging men and white folks, who have likely faced far fewer obstacles.
If you’re looking for a humorous take on the myth of reverse racism, look no further than this brilliant bit by comedian Aamer Rahman.
How Does Living in a Systemically Racist Society Affect White Folks?
It may seem like this whole lesson has been about setting up how systemic racism contributes to the ongoing oppression of people of color in the U.S. (and, yes, that’s certainly true). But this course is not just about identifying what’s wrong in our society; it’s also about identifying what’s wrong with each of us, as individuals. Because without doing the hard work of looking inward, we can never become fearlessly anti-racist.
For those of us who grew up here in the U.S., we have been consistently, relentlessly subjected to the ideology, cultural traditions, and social conditioning of white supremacy. Simply put, you can’t grow up in a white supremacist society and not internalize the values of white supremacy. We know, we know, we all want to think we’re immune to outside influence. But the simple, unfortunate truth is, we’re not. Just as most of us want to believe that advertising doesn’t affect us personally (even though corporations find it effective enough to spend $150 billion per year), so most of us want to believe that we alone are immune to the insidious effects of growing up in a racist society.
We’ll return to this concept again in Week 4, when we talk about our complicity in White Supremacy. For now, however, we wanted to offer you one small piece of evidence that you (along with every other white person, ourselves included!) may have internalized racist attitudes and beliefs, simply by growing up in our white supremacist society. We all have a lot of unlearning of these attitudes and beliefs to do, but we can’t do that without first acknowledging that we have, in fact, internalized these attitudes and beliefs, no matter how deeply embedded they may be in our subconscious.
Of course, you don’t have to take our word for it. Psychologists over at Harvard University have developed a test for implicit racial bias, that gives you some indication of that embedded racial bias we’re talking about (and scientists have written a lot of articles about it). Go ahead and take the test now (it takes about 10 minutes) by clicking here:
Implicit Association Test for Race
When you’re done, keep reading.
So what is the takeaway? The point here is not to condemn or shame you for your slight, moderate, or strong “automatic preference for European Americans,” but rather to illustrate how vitally important it is that we acknowledge our implicit bias so that we can address it. If we don’t know (or don’t believe) that we have been conditioned by living in a white supremacist society, we will not be looking for the ways in which our subconscious racism manifests in our lives. We won’t stop to pause and examine our thoughts when we see a black man walking toward us on the street at night. And we won’t be able to catch that initial, conditioned reaction of fear, and adjust our behavior accordingly.
As we’ll return to later, the ability to say “I am racist” is a vital step on our journey to becoming fearlessly anti-racist. (If you need an immediate confirmation of this truth, just trying telling a person of color “I’m not racist!”) It’s a painful (and scary) thing to admit, even to ourselves, but we MUST recognize our own racism, or we will remain stuck in a place of well-intentioned, but unexamined, whiteness. And that’s where we’ll pick up next week.