*I feel like I should add all sorts of caveats on this post, including the fact that I'm white, most of my readers are probably white, and so it seems a bit weird to write about race. I just want to share how my opinion has transformed over time. I'm certainly not trying to talk for people of color or "whitesplain" anything. This post turned into a big ramble of ideas. Try as I might, I'm having a hard time distilling it into a coherent whole. I'm still a work in progress.*
I used to think that racism wasn't a big deal anymore.
Sure, back in the Civil Rights era, people had problems, but I figured we had moved past all that in the 21st century. I thought that because I embraced diversity, and because I personally held no animosity towards people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds, I had fulfilled my responsibility to society. Basically, I perceived racism as an individual problem that happened when a racist person treated another person unfairly because of the color of their skin.
What I was overlooking was the much larger and harder-to-eradicate issue of systemic and institutionalized discrimination.
Now I think that racial discrimination is still a problem in this country, and I have a responsibility to work towards overcoming it on both the individual and societal level.
Why did my beliefs change? I can't pinpoint any specific event that "opened my eyes," so to speak. More likely, it's the compounding effect of living in different places, meeting different people, and listening to stories of those I might not normally encounter.
Moving to the South definitely had something to do with it. You can't really live in the city where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated without it affecting your way of thinking. When DF and I were on our drive to relocate to Memphis, we listened to an audio book about the sanitation workers' strike and MLK's death. It was really eye-opening (of course now I can't recall the name of the book...). The National Civil Rights Museum here in town also gives a solid overview of those events. It's a powerful museum that I definitely recommend visiting if you're ever in the Bluff City.
Last year, I joined a multiracial discussion group through Common Ground Memphis. We met weekly for two months and worked through a curriculum to discuss race relations, both historic and current, in our city and region. As a newcomer to the area, it was an informative and useful experience for me. For example, during the time we were meeting, there was an incident at Ole Miss where a statue of James Meredith was found with a noose around his neck and a confederate flag over his head. I learned from my new friends, who were dismayed over this act of racist vandalism, that Meredith was the first African-American to attempt to enroll at Ole Miss in the 60s, and his presence on campus had been met with violence. Had I not been part of this group, I don't think I would've understood the significance as much.
I have to acknowledge how I personally have benefited from institutionalized discrimination. In fact, I probably wouldn't even exist otherwise, since my ancestors never would've wound up in this country! Three sets of my great grandparents came to the US from Germany in the early 1900s. Because they were white, they were allowed to choose to immigrate here without a problem. Had they been of a different race, they would have been excluded under US immigration law at the time. My other great grandparents lived in Canada, from whence my grandmother also emigrated unencumbered.
Recent events in the news have shown us that race-related tensions still run high in the US. This is not an issue that's confined to history - discrimination still happens today. I am worried about raising two white boys in today's world. How can I teach them to be kind to everyone? I don't want them to become unwitting accomplices in oppression; doing justly and loving mercy is our goal. I want them to start off by having diverse friends, but then I look at my own circles of friendship and have to admit they are pretty...pale. When it's time for the boys to start school, if we're still in Memphis, should we send them to local public schools where they'll be the minority? Will we be tempted to move to the suburbs for better (and whiter) schools?
In closing, I must say thanks to Jon Stewart for encapsulating it thusly, "Do you not understand that life in this country is inherently different for white people and black people?"
For further reading:
- The 7 Stage of White Identity (I'm probably vacillating between stages 4 & 5 currently)
- White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack - a classic piece to help you check your privilege
File under: NaBloPoMo Day 5
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