Racism 101

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Racism 101
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Race ?

• Race is a fiction thats real.
• Race is a social construction rather than a
  biological fact.
• Physical anthropology research shows there is
  just as much diversity within racial groups as
  there is between racial groups
• But racial difference continues to play a huge
  role in social life -- in who has power (or
  access to resources)
• Racial categories have been created by white
  Europeans and North Americans and used to justify
  colonialism, slavery, genocide, murder, and theft
  of cultures.
• Racial categories artificially emphasize
  relatively small eternal physical differences
  among people and open up space for the creation
  of false notions of mental, emotional, and
  intellectual differences as well.

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Race Ethnicity

• Race A social construct that artificially
  divides people based on characteristics such as
  physical appearance (especially skin color),
  ancestral heritage, cultural affiliation and
  history, and the social/economic/political needs
  of the society doing the defining of race at any
  given time.
• Ethnicity A subset of Racial categories. A
  social construct that divides people into even
  smaller groups based on characteristics such as
  shared sense of group membership, behavioral
  patterns, language, political and economic
  intrests, and ancestral geographic base.
• Ex. Cape Verdean, Haitian, African American
  (Black)
• Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese (Asian)
• French, Polish, Irish (White)

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How would you define racism?
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Racism 101

• Power access to resources and participation in
  society
• Prejudice beliefs, attitudes, and actions
  based on stereotypes
• Racism Prejudice Power
• or
• Racism racial prejudice plus institutional and
  systemic power to dominate, exclude, discriminate
  against or abuse targeted groups of people based
  on race.

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Oppression

• While anyone can hold racial prejudice and any
  racial prejudice can result in mistreatment,
  racism results in a special type of mistreatment
  oppression.
• Oppression results when
• (1) racism is a part of the dominant culture's
  national consciousness
• (2) it is reinforced through its social
  institutions and
• (3) there is an imbalance of social and economic
  power in society.

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Web of Racism
Labor Market
Education
Unequal opportunities and outcomes
Media
Housing
Criminal Justice
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Who benefits from racism?Who suffers because of
it?
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• Agent / dominant group
• (in U.S. and Europe, as well as other places like
  sites of colonization) people of European
  descent
• Target / oppressed group
• people of color non-white people
• Latino, Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and
  Indigenous people

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Active vs. Passive Racism

• Active Racism -openly and explicitly state
  desire to maintain system of racism
• -advocate continued subjugation of targeted
  racial groups, and maintenance of rights of
  members of the agent group
• -belief in inferiority of targeted racial group,
  superiority of agent group
• Passive racism beliefs, attitudes, and actions
  which contribute to the maintenance of a system
  of racism, without openly advocating violence or
  oppression
• -conscious or unconscious
• -ex. laughing at racist jokes, remaining silent
  when one sees racist actions

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History of Words used for African-Americans

• N-word
• colored
• Negro
• Black
• African-American (or other hyphenated identities,
  Carribean-American, etc.)

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Finding respectful language

• People of color (not colored people) all
  non-white people, belonging targeted or oppressed
  groups
• White people/ people of European descent
• Black/African-American Asian-American Latino
  (or Hispanic)
• Or other words used by those groups and peoples
  themselves to define their identity
• Chicano is an identity that comes out of our
  people's political and militant actions that were
  born in the 1960's. We referred to ourselves as
  Chicano as a form of defiance, as a way of
  rejecting Mexican-American, as a way of embracing
  our core Nican Tlaca (Indigenous) identity.
• Mixed race, biracial, multi-racial individuals or
  persons

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Cycle of Socialization

• When were you first aware of yourself as a member
  of a particular racial group?
• When were you first aware of people from other
  races? Which races?
• When did you first witness or experience someone
  being treated differently because of his/her
  racial group?
• When was a time that you were proud of your
  racial identity?
• When was a time you realized that you would be
  treated differently because of your race?
• What are some time when you had/have friends from
  different racial groups?
• Any other significant event in your life related
  to racism?

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Individual vs. Institutional Racism

• Institutional/Structural/Systemic racism is that
  which, covertly or overtly, resides in the
  policies, procedures, operations and culture of
  public or private institutions - reinforcing
  individual prejudices and being reinforced by
  them in turn.
• Whereas individual racism is the expression of
  personal prejudice, institutional racism is the
  expression of a whole organisation's racist
  practice and culture.

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• Ethnocentrism the belief that ones own racial
  or ethnic groups beliefs, values, and practices
  are the standard by which all things are measured
  or valued
• Institutions often reflect the cultural
  assumptions of the dominant group, so that the
  practices of that group are seen as the norm to
  which other cultural practices should conform
  (Anderson and Taylor, 2006).

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Examples of Institutional Racism in U.S. History
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Wage Gape in U.S. Society

• Median annual earnings of non-male or non-white
  people as a percentage of the median annual
  earnings of white men in 2006
• White men 100
• White women 73.5
• Black men 72.1
• Black women 63.6
• Latino men 57.5
• Latino women 51.7
• Source U.S. Current Population Survey and the
  National Committee on Pay Equity.

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• In 1935, the U.S. Congress passed the Social
  Security Act, guaranteeing an income for millions
  of workers after their retirements, however, the
  Act specifically excluded domestic and
  agricultural workers many of whom were
  Mexican-American, African-American, and
  Asian-American. These workers, therefore, were
  not guaranteed an income after retirement, thus
  had less opportunity to save, accumulate, and
  pass wealth to their future generations.
• Because schools are funded mostly with the
  property taxes of the surrounding areas, a school
  in a poor black community cannot buy nice
  computers, textbooks, and other resources.
• Exclusion from unions, social organizations, and
  clubs based on race.
• Less access to loans, mortgages, credit, and
  government benefits, leading to less possibility
  to start ones own business, own ones own home,
  send ones children to college.
• 1 in 3 black men in America will spend some time
  in prison in his lifetime.
• Mandatory sentence for possessing 5 grams of
  grack 5 years in prison. For possessing 500
  grams of powder cocaine 5 years in prison.
• In each of these situations, people of color
  experience disadvantatages that flow from one
  generation to another in reference to income and
  wealth, decision making, health status, knowledge
  and skill development, quality of life, and sense
  of entitlement to resources like higher
  education, decent work, etc.

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Web of Racism

• Think up as many institutions as there are for
  members of the class, such as the Media,
  Financial institutions, etc

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Designing a non-racist Institution

• What is the underlying philosophy of this
  institution towards race?
• How does this institution acknowledge race, if it
  does at all?
• What racial groups are represented in this
  institution, and what roles do they fill?
• What are some of the norms and values of this
  institution?

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Whiteness
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History of Whiteness

• Nothing points out the constructedness of race
  better than seeing how racial classifications
  have shifted through history.
• According to Howard Zinn, this was done in
  whatever way best served the dominant powers,
  mainly white Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs)
  which often used race to put wedges between
  groups, especially of lower classes, who might
  otherwise join together in fighting for better
  living conditions.
• European immigrants to the U.S. were not always
  seen as white,
• In fact, before the 20th century, they were
  mostly seen along national lines (as Swedes,
  Germans, etc.) and also class and religious lines
  (Italians and Irish were poor and Catholic and
  hence were at the bottom of the social hierarchy)

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How the Irish became White

• Irish immigrants poured into America in the late
  1800s due to the potato famine in Ireland.
• Poor Irish and blacks in the North lived in close
  contact, in the same class competing for the same
  jobs. The Irish were often referred to as
  "Negroes turned inside out and Negroes as smoked
  Irish."
• Back in Ireland, the Irish suffered great
  oppression and abuse under the English Penal
  Laws.
• Despite their revolutionary roots as an
  oppressed group fighting for freedom and rights,
  Irish Catholics came to this country as an
  oppressed race yet quickly learned that to
  succeed they had to in turn oppress their closest
  social class competitors, free Northern blacks.
• Some Irish-Americans also supported slavery.
  Some still in Ireland protested, such as great
  Catholic emancipator Daniel O'Connell "Over the
  broad Atlantic I pour forth my voice, saying,
  come out of such a land, you Irishmen or, if you
  remain, and dare countenance the system of
  slavery that is supported there, we will
  recognize you as Irishmen no longer."

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• A Catholic priest in Philadelphia said to the
  Irish people in that city, 'You are all poor, and
  chiefly laborers, the blacks are poor laborers
  many of the native whites are laborers now, if
  you wish to succeed, you must do everything that
  they do, no matter how degrading, and do it for
  less than they can afford to do it for.'
• Thus, the Irish came to dominate menial jobs and
  kept blacks out of their unions.
• Becoming white meant losing their greenness,
  i.e., their Irish cultural heritage and the
  legacy of oppression and resistance back home
• Imagine if the Irish had remained green after
  their arrival and formed an alliance with their
  fellow oppressed co-workers, the free blacks of
  the North.
• Imagine if they had chosen to include their black
  brothers and sisters in the union movement to
  wage a class battle against the dominant white
  culture which ruthlessly pitted them against one
  another.
• -from sermon by Art McDonald, based on book How
  the Irish Became White

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• If there were no black people here in this
  country, it would have been Balkanized. The
  immigrants would have torn each other's throats
  out, as they have done everywhere else. But in
  becoming an American, from Europe, what one has
  in common with that other immigrant is contempt
  for me -- it's nothing else but color. Wherever
  they were from, they would stand together. They
  could all say, ''I am not that.'' So in that
  sense, becoming an American is based on an
  attitude an exclusion of me.
• It wasn't negative to them -- it was unifying.
  When they got off the boat, the second word they
  learned was ''nigger.'' Ask them -- I grew up
  with them. I remember in the fifth grade a smart
  little boy who had just arrived and didn't speak
  any English. He sat next to me. I read well, and
  I taught him to read just by doing it. I remember
  the moment he found out that I was black -- a
  nigger. It took him six months he was told. And
  that's the moment when he belonged, that was his
  entrance. Every immigrant knew he would not come
  as the very bottom. He had to come above at least
  one group -- and that was us.
• -Interview with Nobel Prize winning author, Toni
  Morrison

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Dealing with Whiteness

• White privilege the concrete benefits of access
  to resources and social rewards and the power to
  shape the norms and values of a society which
  whites receive, unconsciously or consciously, by
  virtue of their skin color in a racist society.
  Ex.s include the ability to be unaware of race,
  the ability to have a job hire or promotion
  attributed to their skills and not affirmative
  action
• Collusion thinking and acting in ways that
  support the system of racism, ex. telling racist
  jokes, remaining silent when observing a racist
  incident or remark.

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Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack - Peggy
McIntosh

• McIntosh makes a comparison in the opening
  paragraphs between sexism and race, and notices a
  similarity in the attitudes of men and white
  people.
• What are they (here, men and white people)
  willing to admit or accept, but what is harder
  for them to admit/accept?
• Do you agree?
• What does McIntosh say in the first page about
  meritocracy and the value of individualism?
• What is her critique of this idea?
• How does McIntosh define privilege?
• Are privileges bad?
• How can white privileges be used to break down
  racism?

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Cost/Benefit

• How do white people benefit from racism?
• What is the cost of racism for white people?

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Internalized Racism

• Horizontal racism the result of people of
  targeted racial groups believing, acting on, or
  enforcing the dominant (white) system of racial
  discrimination and oppression. Horizontal racism
  can occur between members of the same racial
  group.
• Ex. An Asian person telling another Asian wearing
  a Sari to dress American a Latino telling
  another Latino person to stop speaking Spanish
• Internalized racism the result of people of
  targeted racial groups believing, acting on, or
  enforcing the dominant system of beliefs about
  themselves and members of their own racial group.
  
• Ex. Blacks using creams to lighten their skin,
  Asians believing that racism is the result of
  People of Color not being able to raise
  themselves up by their own bootstraps, Native
  Americans feeling that they are not as
  intelligent as whites.

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Questions for People of Color Caucus

• What thoughts do I have about meeting in caucus
  groups?
• How have I been affected by internalized racism
  and horizontal racism? How do I collude with the
  system of racism?
• How can I empower myself and others to deal with
  racism in our lives, and to take action to end
  racism?
• What are the costs and benefits of actively
  confronting facism, and doing anti-racism work?

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Questions for White Caucus Group

• What thoughts or feelings do I have about meeting
  in caucus groups?
• How have I benefited from white privilege?
• How can I move from feelings of guilt and shame
  about racism to taking responsibility for my role
  as an agent of racism?
• What are the costs and benefits of becoming an
  ally to people of color, and doing anti-racist
  work?

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What next?

• Actively Participating
• -gt Denying/Ignoring
• -----gt Recognizing, No action
• --------gt Recognizing, action
• -----------gt Educating Self
• ---------------gt Educating Others
• --------------------gt Supporting/Encouraging
• -------------------------gtInitiating/Preventing

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• Ally a white person who actively works to
  eliminate racism, motivated by self-interest in
  ending racism, a sense of moral obligation, and a
  commitment to foster social justice, rather than
  a patronizing desire to help those poor people
  of color. A white ally might engage in
  anti-racism work with other whites or people of
  color.
• When was a time that someone was a good ally to
  you? What made him/her a good ally?
• Empowered Person of Color an empowered person
  of color has an understanding of racism and its
  impact on ones life without responding to events
  and circumstances as a victim. Rather, being
  empowered means having the capacity to engage
  individuals and institutions with the expectation
  of being treated well.
• When was a time you felt empowered?

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What are the costs and benefits of interrupting
racism?
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Spheres of Influence

• Self, Friends, Work, School, Organizations,
  Religious group, Roommates/Housemates
• Action Plan

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Race is a fiction thats real.

• If we go too far in emphasizing race as fiction,
  we may become color-blind.
• Colorblind can be good for example, when
  judging the merits of a novel written by a
  Japanese author, not writing As beautiful as a
  Zen garden or some other cliché, not referring
  to the author as a Japanese author and then
  referring o white authors as simply an author
• Colorblind can also be dangerous If you are
  the mayor and you are trying to give a speech in
  response to a case of police brutality by a white
  policeman against a black teenager. It might be
  dangerous to overlook the racial dynamics, since
  police brutality and racial profiling have a long
  and painful history in black and people of color
  communities.

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Race is a fiction thats real.

• But if you go too far into emphasizing the real
  side of race, you could find yourself
  essentializing racial differences as if they were
  eternal, natural, or inherent.
• essentialist vs. non-essentialist