Racial Reconciliation Month
Letters from the Editor — By Jordan Green on May 5, 2008 at 12:00 amEditor’s Note: Burnside will return next week with a full issue. In the meantime, make sure to check out Kim Gottschild’s and Penny Carothers’s interview with Noel Caeden, the author of this month’s series on racial reconcilation. Have a good Memorial Day.
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I was 21 when I first attended an Undoing Institutional Racism workshop. The gathering took place in a school-turned-community-center named El Centro de la Raza. Posters paying homage to Cesar Chavez lined one wall alongside pictures of agricultural laborers working in green fields and marching at protests. Upstairs, where the Young People’s Project had gathered local teens and twenty-somethings, I found myself surrounded by a room full of hip kids of color. I was one of the whitest people in the room. And there weren’t very many of us.
That day almost eight years ago has impacted my world-view profoundly. Sitting next to peers from a culture I had very little experience with, I learned that I was (simply by virtue of being white) racist – that awful word that no self-respecting liberal wants to hear used to describe them. The teaching went something like this: racism is essentially a white problem because though people of color feel prejudice towards one another they don’t have the power to act on it. Only white people benefit from the color of their skin because the reins of institutional power are in their control. If you don’t get why people of color often find it so hard to thrive here, it’s most likely because you are white and have never known what it means to be ‘other.’
That day I was angry, ashamed, dismayed, and embarrassed to be white. Much of this has changed over the years as I’ve learned more, but what has stuck with me is guilt at my privilege. This month, as we highlight racial reconciliation, we hope and pray that our white readers will read these words humbly and carefully. They are meant to provoke, yes, but also to offer life and freedom to those who accept the chance to learn from the experience of others. Above all, they are not meant to cause shame or guilt, because that is not the way of Christ. As you read and post comments, please be mindful that you don’t have to be politically correct (that invisible straight-jacket), but please do be respectful.
We hope you enjoy and are challenged by this month’s offerings on racial reconciliation in the Social Justice section of the magazine.
Sincerely,
Penny Carothers, SJ Editor
9 Comments
Hi, this is an interesting notion…I have to disagree to some extent though. Perhaps because I was brought up in northern California around a lot of different cultural expressions, or traveled to Europe and the east recently. But I don’t think I’m racist at all. Even moreso, saying that only white people can be racist because we have some sort of social superiority sounds kind off to me. What about the Black Panthers? Or the whole Croatian/Kosovo thing?
Hi Matticus (and others who are interested):
While I can’t easily and/or quickly address the individual questions you asked, I can suggest a reading which unpacks the idea of institutional racism a little more:
http://seamonkey.ed.asu.edu/~mcisaac/emc598ge/Unpacking.html
The basic gist is this:”I was taught to see racism only in individual acts of meanness, not in invisible systems conferring
dominance on my group”
Basically: if you are white and don’t see the systems it’s because they’re invisible to us.
Thanks for the question; hope you enjoy the reading!
Speaking of racism and issues around ethnicity and gender…there’s a thought provoking poem/video clip called Slip of the Tongue on TeacherTube:http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=c13b2ffa3494fe5a2dab
While I appreciate the sentiment that goes with Penny’s letter above and appreciate the very handy distillation outlining what makes white racism more insidious than brown on brown racism, people with a social conscious spend way too much time feeling guilty about these things. I appreciate someone white acknowledging racism but feel a treatment like that in Penny’s post above, is much too simplistic and objectifies me as a person of color instead of a person. We’re not aliens, we’re just not white. I don’t want to be reached out to and proffered an apology, or offered a dialogue about every insensitive prejudiced thing I’ve experienced. I want to connect with other people on issues that bring us together–mutual hatred of crickets, blue eye shadow, and rice cakes perhaps.
Hi IP (and others):
Thank you for taking the time to comment and to ask for what you want in this conversation.
I appreciate your perspective, and certainly don’t want to be thought of as an alien myself, or to objectify others. I apologize that it comes off this way. I can certainly see how it would.
I must also say, though, that I feel that white people who have been exposed to the reality of race in this country (I’m talking about myself here) must acknowledge ‘internalized race superiority’ as well as point out how easy it is to retreat into explanations of “success” or “failure” that are based on merit and/or hard work. Though we did not set up the systems that privilege us, we benefit from them everyday. And in order to stop acting as agents in this system – in order to step back and use our privilege to fight injustice rather than just enjoy it – we need first to understand it.
That said, there are others (like Thurgood Marshall) who would prefer to just sweep it under the rug and move on. I do not agree that this would deal with the problem.
However, I do hope that I can learn to treat others like the people that they are. In order to do that, though, i need to acknowledge that there are systems (media, education, housing and cultural norms) that allow me to maintain obliviousness and prejudice that I don’t want to carry (but take in along with the air I breathe).
Like you, I don’t want every conversation that I have with a non-white person to be about race, but I do want my understanding of how race works in America to inform my feelings when I am thoroughly confused, uncomfortable, or in disbelief about what a friend has told me.
I hope that makes sense, and I hope that it wouldn’t prohibit someone who feels like I do to be friends with someone who feels as you do.
In the meantime let’s agree that blue eye shadow is just a bad idea (though I don’t agree with you about crickets and rice cakes!)
Thank you, IP, for your comment. I welcome more if you’d like to continue the conversation.
Hi Penny
I really appreciate your reply and there is no need for apologies. A discussion on race is such a layered and multi-faceted conversation–never mind racism. I took no offense to your comments at all. If it wasn’t brown and white, it would be short and tall, thin or plump–some way of sorting things out so that there would be some in favor and others who were not.
My reaction to your editorial is reflective of my own baggage on the subject. Growing up one of the very few black kids everywhere I went, I felt alien and somewhat like I straddled two worlds. I didn’t really fit in with blacks or whites. I know many people of color with similar experiences (every color) who feel the same way.
What was comforting being around “my” people was not having to explain being black. In the largely white communities I grew up in, everything that was different about me felt inferior. I endured many, many questions from curious and usually well meaning people about my hair, assumptions about my taste in music, my intellect, sports I would likely be interested in playing, my singing or dancing talents, probing for my ‘i was discriminated against’ stories… Still, most of my best friends are white. So, I resist most dialogues on race because I don’t feel like talking about it really gets us there. Engineering circumstances to force interaction on more than a superficial level–that is the stuff of change to me.
But I do genuinely appreciate you and any one else who seeks to better understand and acknowledge the issues of race and racism.
It’s the guilt of privilege that I object to. It strikes me as superior and I’ll readily admit feeling similar guilt when engaging with my extended family. I think my way of life and standard of living is preferable to theirs so much so that I want to rescue my favorite cousin from it. She has an advanced degree and a house but it bugs me that she’s never lived anywhere else in the world and I assume she wouldn’t stay if she knew where she could go. The guilt in both cases (yours and mine) is a reflection of our assumed superiority/desirability, which if it isn’t a part of the problem, I don’t think is part of the solution either.
I’m glad we agree on the eye shadow. I’ll give you rice cakes but you’ve got to meet me halfway on the crickets. I’ll throw in something I love as a show of good faith; dogs, night skies, and eating undissolved Airborne tablets (lemon lime–yum!).
p.s. If you hadn’t heard of this social experiment, thought you might find it interesting. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11394595/
As an addendum to my comments last night I wanted to mention two more things.
One, rereading your post, specifically this comment “I hope that makes sense, and I hope that it wouldn’t prohibit someone who feels like I do to be friends with someone who feels as you do,” I grew concerned that my comments might have been alienating to you. To think that our opinions on this matter could preclude a friendship or that my comments might make you feel that way makes me think they could have been better put so I apologize for any sharp edges, they are not intentional.
Second, I found growing up that no matter where I went in the world, I made wonderful connections with people often based on the fuzzy kinship of belief in God. Even if I didn’t understand the liturgy of the practice of their version, having that in common proved time and time again to be something that eclipsed our differences.
The dialogue is important and I appreciate having it with you. I’m curious about your thoughts on how we as a country can expand opportunities to thrive to all. I also wonder if you think that there will ever be a shift in the racial power structure and if the current structure deliberately endeavors to keep on top or more benignly maintains what exists? There’s no agenda there–I just thought of these questions while I was typing and thought I’d toss it over the virtual fence for discussion. Perhaps not appropriate to post as the theme is reconciliation but I defer to your judgement on that.
You’ve got me thinking–thanks for a provoking discussion.
Hey IP:
I’m so glad this conversation is happening! I only have a few minutes to respond (things are crazy here), but I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your perspective. And also: by no means did you alienate me. I just wanted to be clear that we can all be in this together even if we are on a different part of the page (i don’t think we’re on different pages!).
As for the last questions: I think it’s extremely complicated. I think that people who are very privileged in one way or another may not necessarily be malicious, but they’ve got it so good (in the material sense, at least, which seems to me to be one of the hardest things to let go of) they don’t want anything to change. I know for myself, I may not be on the top of the top, but I appreciate my comfort and my ability to do almost anything. I have to be persuaded by Jesus to make moves in the direction of letting go of what I have, or of using my privilege for the benefit of others instead of just protecting myself. I can’t force myself out of guilt (which I’m really trying to let go of). I’m just trying to grow in love towards myself and towards others, and that may be a life-long battle. But in the meantime I’m just going to try to be sensitive and open to what Jesus would have me do. And right now, that’s educate more people on this issue. In a few years it might be something much more drastic. He knows I can’t handle it right now, but maybe down the line….
Anyway, that’s super convoluted, but I hope you get the gist. Thanks for the discussion!!
Penny,
Thanks for taking the time to reply even during your crazy week. Weirdly enough, I was listening to the radio today at a time I would normally be at work and a sociologist at the University of Texas? was being interviewed about her new book, Silent Racism. Anyway, I thought you might find the interview interesting.
http://www.silentracism.com/
If I could do only one thing to promote reconciliation, I think it would be to end segregation–to force us to interact and gain an appreciation for one another as individuals. Think Survivor/Big Brother, et al–I don’t watch any of these shows but it’s an example that illustrates what I’m getting at; situations engineered to force interaction between all types of people. We wouldn’t all like each other but it wouldn’t be because of race. I know, very Polly Anna-ish, but I’ve been given the opportunity to change my mind about people too many times to not believe that it’s important to have time on target in front of one another. And that was completely outside of the context of race.
I’m inclined to agree with you re: maintenance of the status-quo versus deliberate agenda of dominance. I heard once that in every interaction, humans are either trying to gain something or keep from losing something. It explains to me the perpetuity of classisim (is that even a word?), racism, sexism and all the other -isms that long after the overt trappings of those -isms are removed (Jim Crow, separate but equal, women’s suffrage), an insidious and harder to detect bias remains.
Hope you’re having a great week. It has been a pleasure talking with you.