Amanda Palmer posted this quote this morning and I found it thought provoking. I know people who have a distinct intolerance for conversations about racism, like it feels to them it's already discussed ad nauseaum and they get agitated if it's happening in earshot. It's one thing to not feel interested and simply tune it out, it's another to get agitated or angry - and I can't help but suspect the latter belies implicit racism that a person can't bear owning; either because it's runs contrary to their self-image or because the task of removing it is so daunting (or both, and/or other reasons as well - there's a weird reaction in general that privileged folks have when their privilege is pointed out, there's often a distinct intolerance to hearing about it and dogged unwillingness to accept there's any truth in it). But anyway, I like the way this quote gives weight to how daunting the task is and how well it clarifies that it isn't about concious judgement.
The problem is that white people see racism as conscious hate, when racism is bigger than that. Racism is a complex system of social and political levers and pulleys set up generations ago to continue working on the behalf of whites at other people’s expense, whether whites know/like it or not. Racism is an insidious cultural disease. It is so insidious that it doesn’t care if you are a white person who likes black people; it’s still going to find a way to infect how you deal with people who don’t look like you. Yes, racism looks like hate, but hate is just one manifestation. Privilege is another. Access is another. Ignorance is another. Apathy is another. And so on. So while I agree with people who say no one is born racist, it remains a powerful system that we’re immediately born into. It’s like being born into air: you take it in as soon as you breathe. It’s not a cold that you can get over. There is no anti-racist certification class. It’s a set of socioeconomic traps and cultural values that are fired up every time we interact with the world. It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but it’s the price you pay for owning everything.
- Scott Woods
Years ago I was in a multicultural counseling class and we discussed the issue of racism. It was really helpful for me to understand this deeper dynamic. Holding a personal value to reject racism is the beginning, the first step, but not the end of the process. It takes more to not make racist choices and behaviors. It is painful to have to look at oneself and see that ones own assumptions can be distorted, flawed, unfair, and at times unjust.
One big issue with privilege is that a lot of the times it has happened, we aren't even aware of it because it flows along with the assumptions. I have benefitted from racial privilege, but likely most of the time, I wasn't even conscious of it happening. Applications, committees, certificates, decisions, etc. that looked like normal process to me could have been different if I had belonged to a different demographic. Also, the reality is that I have had emotionally connected relationship with people who had racist attitudes. This also happened during my developmental years and so it would be naive and idealistic to think none of my assumptions are shaped by that.
I've been trying to think about the defensiveness when these unconscious expressions of racism are pointed out. I have the capacity to feel defensive, and I've seen friends who are good people feel defensive. I think it helps to understand this is a process and that racism is like a disease. Having racist influences is not the same as making deliberate racist choices, being "racist". I've been trying to think of ways to help bridge these gaps.
People are also resistant to the idea of privilege, especially if they have had a lot of pain in their lives. I think there is a way that culture in general, perhaps even connected with Caucasian ethnicities, can already be dismissive of pain. Pain is vulnerability, so there can be a way that a dominant culture in power rejects all vulnerability, including when it happens among those included in its demographic. It is easy to get defensive with the word 'privilege' when a person already feels that the suffering of their lives goes unacknowledged. I'd like to find more ways to approach this dialog in a way that prevents assumptions of dismissal for everyone involved. For example, I know people struggling with feeling defensive about some of these issues who are currently being triggered by the violence because they had a family member murdered. That's a serious level of personal pain that also needs to be acknowledged in the discussion. People with very serious health issues and chronic pain often start with a foundation of dismissal, and so that pain needs to be acknowledged. Starting with the feeling of dismissal can cause a defensive response to the idea of privilege, even if both processes are indeed present in a person's life. The pain of being on the disenfranchised end of racism is a serious level of pain that has long been too easy for those with privilege to dismiss.
For those of us who have experienced at least one form of societal privilege, but still have experienced dismissal, I'd like to find a way to tap into that feeling of dismissal to create empathy for the racially marginalized demographics instead of experiencing that word 'privilege' as a sort of complete dismissal of personal pain.
