The myth of a post-racial America
I just came across a pretty fascinating article excerpt from The Sun Magazine today. It includes an interview with Tim Wise, a white anti-racist activist and writer who often uses his own experiences as “a priveleged white male” to highlight racism in the U.S. If you have a minute, take a look at the excerpt […]
I just came across a pretty fascinating article excerpt from The Sun Magazine today. It includes an interview with Tim Wise, a white anti-racist activist and writer who often uses his own experiences as “a priveleged white male” to highlight racism in the U.S.
If you have a minute, take a look at the excerpt – the full article is only published in their print magazine, but what you can read on the site raises some interesting questions.
Here are a few examples of what Wise has to say…
One what it means to be racist:
There are two different types of racists. First there are the overt racists: the neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and white supremacists. Then there are the ones we might consider “passive” racists. In a society like ours, where racism is so prevalent, the vast majority of us — maybe all of us — silently collaborate with systemic racism. We don’t consciously believe in racial superiority or inferiority, but we’ve become so used to the existing policies, practices, and procedures that we don’t question them. To the extent that we don’t challenge this system of racism, we are collaborating with it.
I think the second type of racist is actually more dangerous. The first type we can easily recognize, and it doesn’t take much courage to condemn them. The second type is like an invisible gas: you don’t know it’s there until you’ve been lulled unconscious by it.
On examples of white privilege:
White privilege is any advantage, head start, or protection the system grants whites but not people of color. It’s the flip side of discrimination. If people of color are victims of housing discrimination 3 million times a year — and that’s a safe estimate — then that’s 3 million more opportunities for housing that whites have. If people of color are discriminated against in employment, then that’s more employment opportunities for whites. The flip side of disadvantage is advantage. You can’t have a down without an up.
On white Americans denying existence of privilege:
What is so disturbing to me about white denial is that we are denying the reality of other people’s experiences. We are saying to people of color that what they think they experience is not what they actually experience. It’s true that not every allegation of racism is well-founded. People can make mistakes of interpretation, and none of us is a perfect chronicler of his or her life. But white deniers are saying that people of color are hypersensitive, that they overreact and “play the race card.”
Read more here. Discuss below. I think this is a conversation to which most Richmonders can contribute.
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Valerie Catrow
Valerie Catrow is editor of RVAFamily, mother to a mop-topped first grader, and always really excited to go to bed.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.
*Can* contribute but *won’t* because it’s a taboo subject and no one wants to be misinterpreted and labeled a racist.
/crickets
Maybe for some people it’s taboo, but I would imagine that for most people, it’s simply too large and diffuse a problem to deal with directly. Neighborhood segregation, for example, is a huge problem in most American cities. Has been for decades, thanks to white flight and redlining and inner-city violence and good old fashioned bigotry. But what are you going to do about it? It doesn’t help that you can’t have a discussion about neighborhood segregation in America without wading into a veritable swamp of class resentment, and then you end up talking about things like gentrification and affordability when what you really should be talking about is the remarkable ability of human beings to be afraid of one another, all in the name of living next door to other human beings who look and act and spend money just like them.
I think skin color is not the basis of the discrimination or privilege any more. What people discriminate for and against are cultural identifications. Skin color is just one of many factors that informs that determination, along with hair, clothes, and speech patterns, among others. Humans categorize things to deal with them on a level that is manageable – you can’t know each individual you may run into, but you can compare traits with individuals you do know, or have learned about in some other way, to make the instantaneous judgements life demands. The most important development to reach a post-racial society, has been the change in those other sources of information we compare to – the stereotypes and such on tv or in conversation that are no longer held up as valid or exclusive. Those that persist seem to be inline with those of other races.
To be honest, I think the constant assertion that racism remains a major problem is kind of an insult to those who fought against real, systemic, institutionalized, and government enforced racial discrimination and bigotry. The extent to which we have racism today seems to be inline simply with the human condition. If anything, it is suppressed as a result of our awareness. Show me another society that is less racist.