Social Media and Anti-Racism 101 (For White People)

Lolauren, that is a great question. I wrote this response to a friends post on facebook and I thought I might repost it here. I’ll try and condense it so that it is a little more concise, and Brady you are on the right track (Skip to last paragraph for a proactive way to talk to a white person about race).

I think this article is totally right on in the underlying problems with the race discussions. Many times white privilege isn’t addressed, and the structural violence and long standing cultural constructs are not addressed. Where I have a bit of push back is that I feel the author hasn’t gone far enough (which you are starting to in the comments above). Many discussions about discrimination and prejudice in various forms fall short in that they make race and the ‘other’ the main focus. Racism is not the root of the problem. The root of the problem is Oppression. Racism was constructed by power to justify oppressing the other. I find it difficult to discuss race with many people in the US because the US has this strange semi-binary view of race, either you are white and in power, or you are a minority and out of power. This is just as dangerous as not recognizing privilege and the historical context of racism. Neocolonialism, structural racism, and the privilege of light skin color are global problems, not just a US phenomenon. Skin color is a spectrum and while people may look different all over the world, racism perpetuates itself in the same way everywhere. Colonial powers have used it to maintain their power for centuries, and neo-colonial polices create structures that re-inforce it all the time. Racism is a tool of oppression, if those in power can keep people of different skin colors concentrated on fighting about pigment and keeping the “other” out, then they are free to continue oppressing (Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire has a great discourse on this)

The concept of a ‘unified white America’ in the US is relatively new (60 to 70 years). john a. powell from Berkeley gave a great talk at the beginning of the an exhibit on race, talking about the genesis of unified whiteness in the states. Pre 1940’s in the US, when you asked someone with light skin what their race or ethnicity was, you would get a range of answers. Irish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Dutch, Jewish etc. There were German, Norwegian, and Italian News papers. There was massive discrimination against Irish immigrants from the genesis of the US, (Irish immigrants were forced to enlist and used primarily as canon fodder by the Union army during the Civil war). Immigrants that came later didn’t have access to the seats of power because of structural barriers against them and so they created their own in the form of organized crime, like the Italian Mafia or the Russian Mob. The KKK and white supremacy existed before this, but it is important to note that they discriminated against most foreigners light skinned or dark. WWII was the catalyst for a unified white America, while Southern plantation owners and slavery had created massive structural barriers based on race, those things were re-inforced and cemented when legislation like the GI bill sent returning soldiers (95% white) to college, without also offering scholarships to minorities to join them. The government also decided that the only work it would recognize as formal (meaning tax breaks and subsidies) were places where white people already held power. Leaving manual labor in the agricultural sector, domestic help, and other ‘informal professions’ (primarily held by minorities) unsupported by grants and opportunities to get an education. Other formal legislation helped white families buy affordable homes in the suburbs and led to continuing segregation and a middle class dominated by a white majority. We don’t live in a post racial America, we live in an America where a man of African and caucasian descent has taken the most powerful seat in the US government and in-advertantly challenged white power and white identity (and massive racial anxiety, hence the most obstructionist congress in history).

The social construct of Race is the labeling of other based on skin color (there is no scientific basis for race, ie there is no genetic difference between people of different skin color other than differing expression of a phenotype) This is primarily done on a subconscious level and re-inforced by existing structures. Oppressive power takes advantage of this difference to capitalize and create an unequal environment where it can pit one people group against another, essentially destabilizing both in order to maintain it’s power. Both of the groups have power (every individual has power) focused on each other, and as long as they do, they do not realize that those pulling the strings are actually the real oppressors.

Don’t get me wrong discrimination based on race is a horrible thing, and it should be eradicated, I’m not justifying it or excusing white people for being ignorant of their privilege. But no one people group has a monopoly on power, or a monopoly on racism. It is akin to the commonly mis-used equation racism=power+prejudice. Many people take an extremely narrow interpretation of how power plays into racism, a red herring, perpetuating disempowerment and a single interpretation of racism that re-inforces the notion of “otherness.” It suggests that there is only one kind of power (political). In reality there are many different forms of power. Someone with a gun to someone else’s head has power regardless of his race. An angry group of twenty people have power over a group of two scared people. A voting group of 20,000 minorities has power over a voting group of 10,000 of the national majority. There may be structures that prevent them from utilizing the full potential of their power, but they still have power, and if they utilize it effectively they can change those structures. (ie. if everyone had that narrow view of power, the civil rights movement would never have happened) Nelson Mandela knew this, and used the power of social justice and the righteousness of his cause to persevere and change the world while fighting against structures and oppressors with what must have seemed to have infinite power. He made it a global issue, and global pressure helped to tip the balance to overturn apartheid.

My main point is that prejudice, like Racism, Sexism, Ageism, etc., is a tool of oppression. A tool that divides, a tool that media outlets like Fox News will have you and white people focused on until the bankers and international elite pad their wallets with dollars generated by the blood, sweat, and sacrifice of the common man. It is important to fight prejudice of all kinds, but if we really want to erase racism, we have to challenge the structures that oppress and perpetuate it. That promote inequality and the de-humanization of every people group. Not argue about who can or can’t be racist. When a white person tries to engage someone in a talk about racism or reverse-racism, realize that at least they are trying, and that is an invitation to go deeper, to discuss the root causes of racism and oppression. Give them a little grace, and you can create a valuable ally. If you trivialize their experience or say that it isn’t valid because of their skin color and legacy of power, then you have missed a golden opportunity, cause them to go on the defensive and stop the conversation. Share with them a perspective that they may never have heard or experienced before. And their moments of perceived reverse-racism might be the window into opening up their understanding of white-privelege and the structural violence that minorities face everyday, all over the world.