It should
be no surprise to those who follow my scribblings that I am going to talk about
current events and how those events are affecting me. I have watched videos of
people being hurt and abused by police, I have watched people protesting peaceably
and called evil by those who are “offended” by what they have to say. I have
watched protesters link arms to protect a lone police officer. I have seen police officers lay down their
riot gear to take a knee with the protesters as they exist as one united human
race. So I have seen the total gambit of what is going on. I have watched
others who claim, “I’m not racist because I have black friends, …” and then in
the next breath say “… but …” and spew something that seems so very racist that
I am embarrassed for them. I, myself, have made the claim numerous times that “I’m
not racist” until I began confronting my own internal racism and realized I am
very much racist. And so that brings me to today. In reading an excellent
article and seeking out the book by Ibram X. Kendi who wrote How to be an
Antiracist I have come to terms with what I need to do. First off, a side
note, the article that I will be quoting from is “6 ways to be antiracist,
because being 'not racist' isn't enough.” (https://mashable.com/article/how-to-be-antiracist/)
I will not quote the whole article to you, and in fact, if you want to ignore
this blog post and go read the article I wouldn’t fault you one bit. I will
just note here what I need to do to actively become antiracist.
But it
doesn’t start with the article and the book, it starts with the countless
people who I have watched who say “I am ANTIRACIST!” One recent Instagram and
Youtube Celebrity going by the name of Max Emmerson (https://www.youtube.com/user/TheMaxVicious)
made a profound plea on one of his videos to be antiracist. That was a
proverbial first step of a million miles and so I started my journey.
I do
strongly urge you to read the article for yourself (and maybe even the book) so
I will simply sum up what I need to do and if there is anything that I am
doing. The first note is to be clear about what racism is. Merriam-Webster
states, “Racism is a belief that race is the primary determinant of human
traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent
superiority of a particular race” (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism)
Ok. Easy enough right? Nope! Because racism is continually being defined and
redefined based on whoever is speaking.
Hence,
why we need to stop claiming that we are not racists! Because even the racists
are claiming that. This point number two! Realize that we all take part in
racism and so we need to be continually learning to be antiracist!
So that
leads to point number three. Racism is systemic. This means racism is
ingrained in the various systems of life whether that be financial, housing, or
even education. This is going to take some learning on my part because I didn’t
realize all of the systems that racism is woven through. But I am going to make
a strong effort to learn.
Leading to
point number four. I need to confront the racist ideas that I have held for so
long. Some of those include even the
ones that I have held about myself and I am white. Those ideas may range from
certain people who don’t work hard enough, to certain others that just stole to get
ahead.
Point five
deals with understanding, “… how your antiracism needs to be intersectional.”
What this means is that there are all sorts of subgroups that also are faced with bigotry within the various main groups that face racism. For instance, If
I am bigoted toward women, then my racism against one ethnicity will also be
colored by my bigotry.
And the sixth
point is to actively champion antiracist ideas and policies! This means exactly
what it sounds like. Work to get rid of the systems that are supporting
systemic racism! See point number 3 for clues on where to go for this.
And a
bonus point that I forgot to mention at the beginning. Becoming antiracist is a
process. It means that I need to continue to work and work and work! Now, this
blog post is already too long so I will end with this. I am going to work on
this process and I would hope that others will guide me in the needed actions
to better myself and become antiracist.
With that I say, blessings always!
n David L.
