Why It's So Hard to Talk to White People About Racism

[KamaAina]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/good-men-project/why-its-so-hard-to-talk-to-white-people-about-racism_b_7183710.html

I am white. I have spent years studying what it means to be white in a society that proclaims race meaningless, yet is deeply divided by race. This is what I have learned: Any white person living in the United States will develop opinions about race simply by swimming in the water of our culture. But mainstream sources -- schools, textbooks, media -- don't provide us with the multiple perspectives we need. Yes, we will develop strong emotionally laden opinions, but they will not be informed opinions. Our socialization renders us racially illiterate. When you add a lack of humility to that illiteracy (because we don't know what we don't know), you get the break-down we so often see when trying to engage white people in meaningful conversations about race.

Mainstream dictionary definitions reduce racism to individual racial prejudice and the intentional actions that result. The people that commit these intentional acts are deemed bad, and those that don't are good. If we are against racism and unaware of committing racist acts, we can't be racist; racism and being a good person have become mutually exclusive. But this definition does little to explain how racial hierarchies are consistently reproduced.

Social scientists understand racism as a multidimensional and highly adaptive system -- a system that ensures an unequal distribution of resources between racial groups. Because whites built and dominate all significant institutions, (often at the expense of and on the uncompensated labor of other groups), their interests are embedded in the foundation of U.S. society. While individual whites may be against racism, they still benefit from the distribution of resources controlled by their group.

Yes, an individual person of color can sit at the tables of power, but the overwhelming majority of decision-makers will be white. Yes, white people can have problems and face barriers, but systematic racism won't be one of them. This distinction -- between individual prejudice and a system of unequal institutionalized racial power -- is fundamental. One cannot understand how racism functions in the U.S. today if one ignores group power relations.

[hfojvt]

1. "add a lack of humility"

Where is that being added?

It seems to me that a person who approaches other people with the attitude of "you are illiterate and I am not" has a distinct lack of humility themselves.

Maybe the problem is as much with the speaker as it it is with the listener.

[MADem]

2. America is a land where functional apartheid still exists.

It's not strictly racial, it's also cultural, and can be ethnic as well. People who belong to a cultural group that is different from those around them feel uncomfortable - out-of-place - a poor fit when they are thrown into a situation that highlights their differences.

Yes, we all gather at certain "watering holes," both literally and figuratively, but the truth of the matter is that many of us retreat to our own cultural touchstones because they're "safer." I don't mean PHYSICALLY safer, I mean psychically so.

For those of us of mixed heritage, that can sometimes make one feel that they don't quite fit in anywhere at times. And yes, in some venues, there most definitely IS a "pecking order." Make no mistake. It can be racial, it can be cultural, and it can be gender or orientation based. People will discriminate.

On the bright side, familiarity doesn't breed contempt, it breeds acceptance-tolerance-eventual friendship. Mixing it up is a good thing.

[gordianot]

3. What racism? Denial to me is the is hallmark of racism based on how differences are perceived.

Racism is present to varying degrees in all humans particularly virulent in so called "White America". The best I can do is recognize "racism" exists and consciously counter act it in my life.

[angstlessk]

4. I was flaberghasted when I saw

a TV show about a black chef in England (on BBC?) and he spoke 'the queens English'

and have found out that blacks (in England) sound exactly like those they grow up with...

[Number23]

6. ??

???????

[one_voice]

7. Err...What?

[Number23]

5. This is an an excellent article. So much truth although this bit was kind of strange

Psychic freedom: Because race is constructed as residing in people of color, whites don't bear the social burden of race. We move easily through our society without a sense of ourselves as racialized. Race is for people of color to think about -- it is what happens to "them" -- they can bring it up if it is an issue for them (although if they do, we can dismiss it as a personal problem, the race card, or the reason for their problems). This allows whites much more psychological energy to devote to other issues and prevents us from developing the stamina to sustain attention on an issue as charged and uncomfortable as race.

I'm not quite sure I understand what the author is saying there.

Everything else was crystal clear and I agreed whole-heartedly, but this bit:

Entitlement to racial comfort: In the dominant position, whites are almost always racially comfortable and thus have developed unchallenged expectations to remain so. We have not had to build tolerance for racial discomfort and thus when racial discomfort arises, whites typically respond as if something is "wrong," and blame the person or event that triggered the discomfort (usually a person of color).

and

Racial Arrogance: Most whites have a very limited understanding of racism because we have not been trained to think in complex ways about it and because it benefits white dominance not to do so. Yet, we have no compunction about debating the knowledge of people who have thought complexly about race.

is the God's own truth. Thanks for posting this.

[kelliekat44]

8. Because most of them are "colorist" The race of a person matters little. It's a person's color

that brings out the worst in them. They don't like brown people of any race. They will embrace a brown person if he or she is viewed as against other people of color...think Clarence Thomas, Allen West, Ben Carson. It all about color of a person's skin.