What is Anti-Racism? (Part 2 of 2) Moving From Neutrality to Action
Note: These posts focus on racism against people in the U.S. who are Black; future pieces will look at the impact of racism on indigenous peoples and other people of color.
My last post, which you can click to read here, explored two of the four points that cut across the work of racial justice educators:
· Racism is not just about individual attitudes and actions; it is systemic and institutional.
· Racism thrives due to current policies and the lasting impact of historical policies and practices.
Today I’ll dig in to two additional themes I hear from racial justice educators:
· It is folly for us to believe there is such a thing as being neutral about racism.
· Fortunately there are many ways each of us can play a role in interrupting and dismantling racism.
So why is it folly to believe one can remain neutral about racism? RACIAL JUSTICE EDUCATORS URGE US TO CONSIDER HOW “NEUTRALITY” ENABLES RACISM TO ENDURE. This is a central point of the work of Ibram X. Kendi, head of the new Boston University Center for Antiracist Research, as he explains that the opposite of racism isn’t non-racism, it’s something active: anti-racism. Silence (the idea of being non-racist) emboldens those who are openly racist. And because racism is systemic, he points out that neutrality (an absence of naming and action) enables the continuation of racist policies and practices.
Natasha Cloud of the WNBA confronts the concept of neutrality in a personal way in her blog:
“Right now, if we’re being really real? As a Black person in America, there’s only one thing that could possibly BE on my mind. And that’s fearing for my life… In 2020, George Floyd can have a knee forced on his neck by a white police officer, by someone whose job it was to serve and protect him, for almost nine minutes in broad daylight — nine minutes in broad daylight — even after he had become unresponsive…. You know what crushes me most of all? It’s how the systems of power in this country are built so strong, and with such prejudice, that in order for white supremacy to flourish, people don’t even have to actively be about white supremacy… All they have to do is be silent.”
One thing I learned so much about in studying these racial justice educators is the interaction between the concept of neutrality and defensiveness. One of the ways that racism thrives is for people who are white to devote more energy to being defensive than to making change. “But I’m not racist,” is a common response that is worth exploring. Racial justice educators explain that racism is not furthered solely by intentional acts or by bad people. We were all reared and steeped in a racist culture, so it is in all of us; in that sense, we are all racist. Thinking of it that way can free us to make change rather than to be paralyzed by guilt, defensiveness, or denial.
A concern thus expressed by many of these educators is that when people say “I am not racist because I don’t see race,” we are not being attuned to the reality that we all have internal/implicit biases based on the world in which we are raised. And, they ask us, “if you don’t see race, how can you see the racism I am facing?”
In her TED Talk, educator Verna Myers makes a powerful suggestion about addressing implicit bias, which is one step towards becoming actively anti-racist. When we find ourselves having a fleeting thought or reaction that seems racist (or sexist or homophobic, etc.), don’t shove it down, she says. Name it. Face it head on to take the power out of the idea. Remind yourself you don’t want to carry that forward. Myers gives a hilarious example of how she stumbled into and confronted her own biases. I’m tempted to share the anecdote, but you’ve really got to watch the short talk for yourself, as Myers has so much to offer about justice.
When I took part in his four-part zoom series on racial justice, educator and musician Benjamin Mertz phrased it that we must learn to “observe without judgment or blame,” to put aside both our defensiveness and the notion that we can remain neutral. Mertz says: we did not choose our conditioning, but we must identify it to begin to move on from it.
So racism is systemic, it is thriving, and remaining neutral (and/or defensive) helps to keep the current systems in place. What can be done? The fourth point that consistently emerges across the works of racial justice leaders is …
FORTUNATELY, THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO INTERRUPT AND BEGIN TO DISMANTLE RACISM, WITH STEPS THAT EACH OF US CAN TAKE. Given the systemic nature of racism, there will be significant national, state and local work to change laws and policies; we must follow the coverage, talk to our legislators, and determine how to participate. On a more personal level, all of us who want to ensure racial justice are urged to:
Look continuously at policies and practices in our workplaces and neighborhoods, making anti-racism an ongoing practice, not a one-time event.
Reach out to people around us who are different from us (race, culture, faith, …) to start to build connections.
Support Black-owned businesses, in person and online. (One good site is www.BuyFromABlackWoman.org)
Continue to educate ourselves — read, talk, listen.
The “21-Day Racial Equity Challenge” from educator Debby Irving is one excellent tool for raising awareness and beginning to take action. Upon signing up here, you get an email with a daily activity for three weeks — something to read, view, discuss — that usually lasts 10 to 30 minutes. It aims to build the habit of thinking continuously about racism, privilege, supremacy, and equity. While it can be done on one’s own, it’s ideal to participate along with others from a friend group or workplace.
There is much more to say about anti-racism, so I’ll end with a point put forward by many racial justice educators that is both obvious and mind-blowing: Race doesn’t even exist, except as a social construct with a troubling history. Genetic research has proven that there are no biological characteristics, genes, or chromosomes that are universal to one skin color and universally different from those with a different skin color. The things we see on the outside of a human — skin color, eye color, hair texture — emerged as adaptations to geography. When we look at skeletons and brains of various humans, there is no way to distinguish “race.”
That may help us to understand why many racial justice leaders are optimistic, even given the travesty and complexity of racism. Kendi states that because race is a construct, and racism is system that was created, it can be undone. If we remember how young our country is as a civilization, he says, racism “is a cancer we have caught early.” It is recognizable, curable, mortal. As a survivor of racism and a survivor of cancer, Kendi describes dismantling racist policies as similar to removing a tumor.
Humility is the most important concept that has stayed with me, after reading, viewing, and conversing with racial justice leaders. Listen. Put down the armor of defensiveness. Remember that we don’t have to intend to do harm in order to have a negative impact on those we interact with; we don’t have to intend to do harm in order to enable racist policies.
Educator Sue Naimark shared this with me about humility:
“White people who want to engage need to do our own work too — of understanding history, our own biases and defensiveness, the ways that we often unconsciously dominate in groups and impose our ideas or enter with a savior mentality. We must honor that those closest to the pain generally have the best understanding of the problems and solutions.”
As congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis wrote in an op-ed right before he died this summer, “When historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say that this was the generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate.” In order to foster a country that lays down the burden of hate, and lives up to its ideals of equal opportunity, we must continue to find out what we didn’t even know we didn’t know.
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Black educators/activists/leaders from whom I drew for this series, with a special thanks to those who are starred, for reviewing my drafts:
White racial justice allies from whom I drew:
· Sue Naimark*