The Costs of Racism to White People

[T.Ruth2power]

http://paulkivel.com/articles/thecostsofracism.pdf.

The Costs of Racism to White People

by P a u l K i v e l

We tend to think of racism as a problem for people of color
and something we should be concerned about for their sake. It is
true that racism is devastating to them, and if we believe in justice,
equality, and equal opportunity for all, then we should be trying to
end it. As we saw in the last sections, racism does produce material
benefits for white people. However, the costs of racism to white
people are devastating, especially to those of us without the money
and power to buffer their effects. They are not the same costs as
the day-to-day violence, discrimination, and harassment that
people of color have to deal with. Nevertheless, they are significant
costs that we have been trained to ignore, deny, or rationalize
away. They are costs that other white people, particularly those
with wealth, make us pay in our daily lives. It is sobering for us as
white people to talk together about what it really costs to maintain
such a system of division and exploitation in our society. We may
even find it difficult to recognize some of the core costs of being
white in our society.

For example, one of the costs of assimilating into white
mainstream culture is that we are asked to leave behind the
languages, foods, music, games, rituals, and expressions that our
parents and/or grandparents used. We lose our own “white”
cultures and histories. Sometimes this loss leads us to romanticize
the richness of other cultures.

We have been given a distorted and inaccurate picture of history
and politics because the truth about racism has been excluded, the
contributions of people of color left out, and the role of white
people cleaned up and modified. We also lose the presence and
contributions of people of color to our neighborhoods, schools, and
relationships. We are given a false sense of superiority, a belief
that we should be in control and in authority, and that people of
color should be maids, servants, and gardeners and do the less
valued work of our society. Our experiences are distorted, limited,
and less rich the more they are exclusively or predominantly white.

<snip>

Racism distorts our sense of danger and safety. We are taught to
live in fear of people of color. We are exploited economically by
the upper class and unable to fight or even see this exploitation
because we are taught to scapegoat people of color. On a more
personal level, many of us are brutalized by family violence and
sexual assault, unable to resist it effectively because we have been
taught that people of color are the real danger, never the white men
we live with.

<snip>

But racism is caused by white people, by our attitudes,
behaviors, practices, and institutions. How is it that white people in
general can justify retaining the benefits of being white without
taking responsibility for perpetuating racism?

[elleng]

1. Is

HUGE!

[MadMaddie]

2. Wow...an honest look at racism for what it is....but it seems

to point to Classicism as a big culprit in energizing racism.

Interesting read..

[T.Ruth2power]

3. I've come to see

classism and racism as interconnected though with some distinct features.

It seems impossible to discuss one without discussing the other.

[TahitiNut]

5. All ways of objectifying human beings.

When we treat each other (or ourselves) as objects, a mere means to an end rather than an end in ourselves, we tend to sort and categorize each perso according to 'type' - commodities. We immorally treate human labor, for instance, as a commodity - to be imported and exported - exploited for another's ends. Racism, sexism, classism, ageism, jingoism, homophobia, xenophobia, antisemitism, sectarianism ... all merely categories for sorting and filing. The objectification of a human being is itself the fundamental immorality.

[T.Ruth2power]

7. Yes

[MadMaddie]

8. Robert F. Kennedy and Martin L. King held strong postions about

classicism and poverty.

[MedleyMisty]

10. Classism and racism are very intertwined

Racism was created and is fomented to divide the exploited so that they won't join and rise against their exploiters.

I highly recommend My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass - he explains it quite well. As does Howard Zinn in A People's History of the United States.

[Carnea]

4. It's not a bad bit but it does suffer from some 1950's lines.

"and that people of color should be maids, servants, and gardeners and do the less
valued work of our society."

Where I grew up nobody would ever hire a black person for those jobs. For one thing they wouldn't want to be considered racist. It was Irish or eastern European only. (Little Jeremy is going to learn French from our new au-pair.) I don't think anyone has hired an American black to do those jobs in decades.

Plus I've heard in certain neighborhoods some of the white families don't even have servants.

That and some other anachronisms aside it is an interesting read.


And yes it is funny that whites won't hire blacks for certain jobs because they don't want to appear racist.

[my2sense]

6. K & R

[readmoreoften]

9. This article (or the snips) seems to leave out the biggest cost to white people

If you don't stand in solidarity with people of color in this country and the outsourced slaves in Asia, Africa, and Latin America don't be surprised to discover that you're making $10 an hour in a non-union job, in debt from student loans, with inadequate or no health insurance. You can't fight for yourself in ignorance.